I nearly bought an 3.0tdi quattro avant, originally I was looking for an S4 but the sub 18mpg would really hurt, so I looked at the A6, but it was just too slow, ok so that is not very fair, what I should say is I was expecting it to be alot quicker than my REVO'd 1.9tdi A6 avant, and to be honest I was a little dissapointed.
So I turned my attention to the A4 avant, lighter car and all that, again though it was quite quick and very smooth but it wasn't what I was hoping for, it felt a little numb and wasn't as exciting as my A3 TDi S-Line, and I really didnt like the tip compared to the DSG at all.
Then I got some finance figures and to be honest they were not that good, residual after 2 years was terrible (although not as bad as my old man was given last week on a 3.0TDi A6 avant!). But on a car that was £39k new and down to £33k 6 months old, they would only give a residual of £18k after 2 years.
Then one day whilst my daughter was in her dancing lesson we popped into the local BMW dealership, and looked at the new 330d, and while there had a quick look at the 535d M-Sport Touring, was really surprised at how it looked and the fact I lked the styling, and the interior was actually nicer than the Audi, far more up to date and felt better quality, which really surprised me. The one I was looking at with all the toys was just over £50,000 so I took a brochure and that was it, thought it was too expensive for me being realistic.
But then I looked at 3-6 month old ones and found you could get them with all the toys for between £35-38k.
Also the residual was alot better than the A4 so it worked out £100 a month cheaper.
Anyway took one out and was blown away, the A4 3.0TDi takes just under 20 seconds to get to 100mph, the 535d does it in 15seconds, and after a reamap from DMS it does it in 13 seconds and get to 60 in around 5 seconds! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
S4 performance with 30mpg!
I was struggling to get over 25mpg on the 3.0TDi Q btw!
Don't compromise, if you really want an S4 then go for it, the 3.0TDi is neither very quick or feels nimble (heavy lump up front) and won't save you much on fuel anyway. So don't mess around, get that V8 and enjoy, or dare I say it on here, tae the BMW out as it's well worth a try, and you never know, you may just like it? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif