One point about the V8 S4 from a good friend of mine who had one: really bad urban gas mileage and a very short range on its small tank. Bad enough to be a factor in leading him to sell. Also, not so fun to drive fast b/c of excessive understeer. The handling is addressed by the RS4, but is the short range? Mileage may be even worse with the higher output of the RS. Impressively, the C63 gets even worse gas mileage, it was really atrocious for C/D in the 3-car comparo IIRC.

 

Amazingly, the RS4 gets MUCH better gas mileage than my S4 did. I'd attribute it to the more efficient FSI engine. When Porsche puts DFI in the 911, there will be some believers here, too. I'd put my "real world" mileage (stop and go to work and back, flowing highways, surface streets on my off time) at about 15mpg (work commute) and 20 mpg (everywhere else). On the highway, I get about 24 mpg. Considering the same situations with my 997S I got 14/20/26, I'd guess close to 30 mpg on the highway in an FSI 911 wouldn't be out of the question.

 

Chris, that is indeed much better mileage than my friend reported with the plain S4. I am hoping that direct injection gives the 911 - and 987 cars - a good boost in mileage along with some added hp. Seems to me that lighter weight and technological improvements like that are the way forward for fun-to-drive cars in the future, given the increasingly carbon-centric outlook of MSM and the public at large.

 

In the city, I'm getting around 13mpg in the S4.

 

Sounds about right. When I drove my S4 cross-country, I experimented with different ways of driving (light throttle, no A/C, windows up, etc.) and the best I could get was 21 mpg. Similar situation in my RS4 and I hit 26 mpg on level sections.

 

Yep, that mileage sounds about right for my S4 also. Great exhaust note, good torque, nice interior and fun around town or on the highway, but awful gas mileage and a real pig on the track.

 

Bad mileage is a bit unusual for German cars. I know it's lame to generalize but I always seem to get decent mileage in German cars...except the Q7 I'm driving at the moment. Just brutal...even on the highway it's hard to do better than 16 mpg. 550i on the other hand and 650i I had were great.

 

What kind of mileage did you get with those? I can't imagine a 5.0L V8 getting great mileage short of space-warp gearing...

That's why the S4 gets poor mileage - it's geared for performance, not economy. The FX45 I had for a short time was a beast on gas - 10/14 was about right.

 

I've always figured that it is pretty directly related to vehicle weight (Q7 is heavy) and power. My C55 has 20 more HP from the same engine as my older CLK55, and gets about 3 mpg less for cars of comparable weight.