A Tale of Two B7s: My Last Shoot with the S4

After a little less than a month on the market, my S4 has officially sold. The new owner is an Audi enthusiast that lives in Rhode Island and decided to buy the car as-is, so I am happy she will be in good hands and appreciated. I’ve had her almost five years, so it’s a bit of an emotional goodbye for me. The car ships out on Tuesday, so I took a few hours to detail her and then do one last photoshoot before she changes hands.

The fresh detail really made the Brilliant Red pop – more info on products & process to detail coming soon in my detailing section. It’s amazing how great the paint looks for a 10 year old car, proper maintenance & care really makes a difference. This has to be my favorite photoshoot to-date between how good the car looks fully detailed, the S5 rotor wheels, and a new camera lens too (Canon 50mm prime). The overcast morning also made it for perfect lighting, as if the universe conspired to give me one last great photoshoot.

I can’t think of enough good things to say about this car, and part of me worries if I’m making a mistake. There is a meme going around Facebook where people list out their car history, and one of the questions is “What car do you regret selling most?” and I worry this might be the one for me. It’s time to move on, but hard to let go of such an amazing machine. I will always be a B7 enthusiast at heart. As longtime readers of this blog may know, this is actually my second B7 – I had a pretty tricked out B7 A4 back in the day but decided to sell her as I worried the CVT transmission was a ticking time bomb with all of the track abuse I was doing (plus a V8 and 6 speed manual was calling my name). All in all I have nearly 8 years of B7 ownership between the A4 and S4.

To anyone thinking about buying a B6/B7 S4, I say go for it. While there is a lot of bad PR out there about timing chians, generally the danger zone is in the mid to high 100k mile range and if you’re buying one with that high of mileage, it’s probably dirt cheap anyway…and to put things in perspective, most high mileage German cars have some kind of “fatal flaw” to watch out for; the E60 BMW M5 is known for destroying transmissions every 80k miles at $20k a pop, 996 & 997 Carrera have an issue with the IMS bearing that goes bad and can destroy the engine, the B7 RS4 needs carbon cleaned every 10k miles, etc. Unfortunately no engine is perfect, especially when said engine is designed to push the limits of performance. The used car market responds via greater depreciation for cars that are known to have predictable reliability issues by lowering the resale value. I truly believe that B6/B7 S4s would be worth 20% more if Audi had just been a little smarter about the timing chain guides, but instead they are a performance bargain especially if you’re someone not afraid of doing some maintenance down the road.

I’ll certainly miss the V8 sound, the thumbs up from fellow enthusiasts, the surprisingly good track performance (given its size/weight), and the reliability this car has given me. I haven’t had a single major repair on this car since buying it – I had actually purchased an aftermarket warranty worrying it might be necessary, and never made a single claim. I guess it goes to show if you take care of your car, it takes care of you.

I’m not 100% sure what is next now. My plan is to just share my wife’s car through the holidays, then buckle down in January for something new. Top contenders are still the 997 Carrera 2, a Cayman S, Audi TTRS, Audi S3, or maybe even a muscle car(!?!). I’m actually looking forward to trying a bunch of cars out and seeing what I like. I would love to get another Audi again if I could, but am not necessarily going to limit myself yet.

Stay tuned for more updates, I’ve got a number of posts on the backlog that I’m going to get out before the end of the year. Just because I won’t have a car doesn’t mean I won’t have cars to blog about. I’m also continuing to help out at my friend’s dealership Bright Motorcars, and get to help photograph and occasionally drive some of his inventory – he has a V10 BMW M5 coming in stock I am excited to check out just for kicks, so at this point anything is possible with regards to my next car.

It’s been a lot of fun modifying this car, but I think I ended on a high note. The S5 rotor wheels are definitely my favorites, and the whole car works together really well. I hope she enjoys her new home on the East Coast, and maybe even uses that quattro + JHM LSD for some snow donuts. The new owners also have a modified B8 S4, so I think she will enjoy having a nice stablemate too.

Perhaps I sound like a crazy person for being so emotionally bonded with a car, but I think a lot of people will get it. Driving her today it really started to hit me that I might not ever drive her again in my life. This car has been a big part of my life, I’ve met a lot of people through a shared passion for cars (many of which are still some of my best friends), and I’ve learned a lot working on her. It’s a sad feeling knowing that I won’t ever see her again.

Goodbye old friend, I will miss you.