2018 4S first impressions
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4th Gear
Joined: Oct 2017
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From: Bay Area
2018 4S first impressions
Thought I would post first impressions of the stuff that is obviously different without looking for it before get used to the new car. As a point of reference, coming from a 2014 4S, 20" wheels, Sport Chrono with air suspension, PDCC, Burmester driven for 42 months. New car is similar 2018 4S, 21" wheels, Sport Chrono with air suspension, PDCC, Burmester, and rear axle steering/power steering plus. There are other options, but these are the important ones, both were custom orders.
1. Quieter interior; The 2014 had more road noise (traffic, tires on grooved roads, engine, etc.) in the cabin. 2018 has more sound damping, much easier to hold a conversation.
2. Low end torque; 2014 has some turbo lag so I usually drove in Sport or Sport Plus to keep revs higher for less lag. I'm not doing that at all in the 2018, it has nice torque at low RPM so I find that I have think about putting it into Sport/Sport plus. I find I'm enjoying driving around in Normal (new name for Comfort) more often where in the 2014, first thing I would do getting in the car was to switch to Sport.
3. Nimble; I would never describe the 2014 as nimble, but would use that term to describe the 2018. It's not a 911, but its much closer than the 2014. I think a lot has to do with the rear wheel drive, possibly in combination with PDCC. I had rear wheel steering in a 2011 BMW 5 series (Integral Active Steering) and missed it when I upgraded to the 2014 P4. It might be hard to find a car on a dealer lot with Sport, PDCC, and rear wheel steering for a test drive, but if you are curious I think its worth trying it. The car definitely feels shorter in length, changes lanes faster, and is really sweet making fast 90 degree turns.
4. Suspension dampening; The 2014 would transmit a lot of information about the road surface through the tires, and steering wheel sometimes too much on bad roads. The 2018 seems to filter out some of this without feeling numb or disconnected. I think this is due to the new 3 chamber suspension that was introduced in 2017. Also, it seems to handle speed bumps and especially speed humps much better, I don't even need to slow down much to drive over these. In the Comfort mode on the 2014 - sometimes you would hit a stretch of road that has a wave in it and the car would oscillate up and down with the wave enough that you would need to switch to Sport setting on the suspension to dampen it - Does not happen in Normal in the 2018.
1. Quieter interior; The 2014 had more road noise (traffic, tires on grooved roads, engine, etc.) in the cabin. 2018 has more sound damping, much easier to hold a conversation.
2. Low end torque; 2014 has some turbo lag so I usually drove in Sport or Sport Plus to keep revs higher for less lag. I'm not doing that at all in the 2018, it has nice torque at low RPM so I find that I have think about putting it into Sport/Sport plus. I find I'm enjoying driving around in Normal (new name for Comfort) more often where in the 2014, first thing I would do getting in the car was to switch to Sport.
3. Nimble; I would never describe the 2014 as nimble, but would use that term to describe the 2018. It's not a 911, but its much closer than the 2014. I think a lot has to do with the rear wheel drive, possibly in combination with PDCC. I had rear wheel steering in a 2011 BMW 5 series (Integral Active Steering) and missed it when I upgraded to the 2014 P4. It might be hard to find a car on a dealer lot with Sport, PDCC, and rear wheel steering for a test drive, but if you are curious I think its worth trying it. The car definitely feels shorter in length, changes lanes faster, and is really sweet making fast 90 degree turns.
4. Suspension dampening; The 2014 would transmit a lot of information about the road surface through the tires, and steering wheel sometimes too much on bad roads. The 2018 seems to filter out some of this without feeling numb or disconnected. I think this is due to the new 3 chamber suspension that was introduced in 2017. Also, it seems to handle speed bumps and especially speed humps much better, I don't even need to slow down much to drive over these. In the Comfort mode on the 2014 - sometimes you would hit a stretch of road that has a wave in it and the car would oscillate up and down with the wave enough that you would need to switch to Sport setting on the suspension to dampen it - Does not happen in Normal in the 2018.
