rxtrom

First off if you are happy with the S4 performance and quattro don't move to a BMW. I just recently sold my B9 S4 and went to a 2015 335i x drive lease for work and I hate it. I am not looking to get out and move to a SQ5 or another S4, I wish I just kept mine.

I went from a RS4 to a B9 S4 to a Bmw 335i so that is that...

I have tried Teslas and for me it is too much car for my needs as a daily and competes with the GTS on a performance level and price level for that matter.

Good luck.

hinckley

Thanks for this. The 3 series xdrive just isn't doing for me, but could you tell me a little more about your S4 experience vs the BMW?

pitt911

s4 is a great car, i'll take that over a 335 xi any time. The cabin feels much more luxurious than BMW and that engine is a gem. Being supercharged , it feels like a small v8 engine that is NA , as compared to turbo charged engine.Also S4 has DCT as compared to 3 AT, though the ZF transmission in the BMW is the best on the market. overall, the S4 feels more of a car than the 3 . The only thing that is in favor of 3 is the cost of lease. Assume 58 k msrp on a 3 and S4 , the monthly difference is around 150-200 dollars in payment, and this drive more people into the 3 and add on top of that free maintenance.

rxtrom

I think it is a lot of small things to be honest..

1. NAV in the Audi is more intuitive being that it is google maps.

2. Quattro is 4 wheels at all times with the BMW it feels 2 wheel rear biased, I have not researched this.

3. Driving position in the BMW is awkward for me. I find my left foot "hanging in the wind" even though there is a rest pedal available. - The arm rest, center console are very uncomfortable, you almost have to turn around to see what is inside the limited storage of the center console.

4. I did not get the "advanced key" on BMW whatever their lingo is for that feature and it is annoying to lock and unlock the doors with the key fob instead of touching the door handle like I had on my Audi.

5. The base seats in the Audi S4 are alcantara and the upgrade is leather. In the BMW the base interior is Sensa-Tec (Read: Fake Leather) and the upgrade is Leather. I have Sensa-Tec and while it feels very similar to leather, there is just something about it that feels bare bones. Hard to describe.

6. Hard braking - when someone on the highway slams on their brakes due to traffic, you have to brake from 80mph >40mph, or sudden stop due to a light change etc.. The car pulls to the right, this car has 9k miles on it so while it could be a brake issue, its a con either way. I have not looked into this yet, it just made the list after my last work trip. I have the track package with the larger brakes too.

With regards to the leasing, BMW offers much better lease deals as well as including the maintenance in their cars. It is very attractive indeed. Sucked me right in.

Overall I just do not feel connected to the BMW like I did with the Audi, it is purely personal I am sure, but I wish I took the car on a longer test ride prior to pulling the trigger. I even drove a M3 about 1 week from bringing home the 335 thinking it was performance based. It wasn't.

MJBird993

I found the Audi Nav to be counter-intuitive, gave bad directions and the voice recognition was poor.
I think you should, because I believe that they use the same basic system.You shouldn't fault the manufacturer for your poor choice in options.

I think the leatherette doesn't breathe like real dead cow skin does, and so you get kind of a clammy "what is this crap?" kind of feeling after sitting on it for a while. I don't care for it either (the wife's car has it).
But it's unfair to brand them all as inferior just because your own particular car has something wrong with it - get it fixed!Gawd, if I had a nickle for every time I thought that.

I test drove the Tesla a year or two ago, and I too was quite taken with it. I disagree with you on one point - I found it to not be as luxurious (think Mercedes S class or BMW 7) as I felt it should be at that price point. The killer for me, personally, is that the trips that I typically take (from here to the coast or the mountains or to upstate SC to visit mom) have no superchargers along the way. So sure, I could make it to my destination, almost, but then how do I charge it to get home? And the idea of buying a $100K car for commuting but having to rent something for trips is not appealing to me. Too, the idea of having to stop for 20-30 minutes every 200 miles to "fill up" is not making good time.

But it was a blast to drive!

Apex430

Can I point you towards an ML63? its not MT but it will take care of your winterneeds and still haul@ss.

hinckley

Tesla has a new-ish upgraded interior package (leather dash, doors, etc) that gets me there, but it is certainly not as luxurious as the new S or 7. But I'd gladly give up those cars' interior opulence for the Model S's performance.

That's precisely why these are not, and can not be, mass-market cars at this point. I'm giving this a tremendous amount of thought. I've thought back over the past five years or so and only came up with one trip that I could not have taken the Tesla. But to be absolutely sure, it's a different kind of commitment buying this car. The price of early-adoption . . .


Oh ya . . .

hinckley

It's a very nice vehicle, but I think if I went SUV, I'd go in the direction of the Macan. btw, to me, one of the downers of all the MB products is the Command system. It feels very old compared to iDrive, MMI or the new PCM. And compared to the Tesla, MB Command is a 1990's Macintosh.

CSK 911 C4S

Get a nice pre-owned stripper C4/C4S w/winter tires.

eddieb4

I drive an M3 year round ... snows in the winter. Quite frankly it's like driving at the limits on the track so it keeps me tuned up. I save the 911 for weekend pursuits