Keep or Sell?!

[pvo_dave]

After some opinions here please....

I have a 2000 S4, and I love it, it looks fantastic, goes fantastic and has all the right extras but.... I drive 80+ miles a day for the working week then whatever miles at the weekend, so possibly up to 1600 miles a month, and at £1.06 a litre and the best of about 23mpg it's starting to make me question if it's the right car to have for the millage I'm doing.

I really havent made my mind up yet, my head says it's time for a diesel but my heart says keep the garage guy wealthy! lol

It is only a car, but one I'm very fond of, but is it daft to spend that much on fuel when I'm sitting in a hell of a lot of traffic only getting to use the power for very short overtaking bursts and the one duel carridgeway I get to use each day?

I know the price of diesel has gone up to about the same as super now, but I get 22/23 mpg with a decent big diesel I could get 40+

Arrrghghhhg non bias opinions welcomed!

Ta,
Dave.

[lemond]

Sell it
You know you want a crappy diesel! Unless you are looking at a BMW335d, but I guess you are talking economy and a £35k outlay is not what I would call economic

With the Audi though, you could drive it steady (?) in the week and get 30+ mpg, but thrash its borrix off at the weekends?.... hang on you drive 80 miles a day AND sit in traffic!!!! Hmmm get an automatic diesel!

[pvo_dave]

Sell it
You know you want a crappy diesel! Unless you are looking at a BMW335d, but I guess you are talking economy and a £35k outlay is not what I would call economic

With the Audi though, you could drive it steady (?) in the week and get 30+ mpg, but thrash its borrix off at the weekends?.... hang on you drive 80 miles a day AND sit in traffic!!!! Hmmm get an automatic diesel!

30mpg in an S4?! Tell me how other than to tow it

[SJS]

Sell it
You know you want a crappy diesel! Unless you are looking at a BMW335d, but I guess you are talking economy and a £35k outlay is not what I would call economic

With the Audi though, you could drive it steady (?) in the week and get 30+ mpg, but thrash its borrix off at the weekends?.... hang on you drive 80 miles a day AND sit in traffic!!!! Hmmm get an automatic diesel!

30mpg in an S4?! Tell me how other than to tow it

Agree....i hd a 200 mile round trip today and even though i drove 'fairly' sensibly...mainly due to being held up in traffic, it just about returned 25mpg. I have seen 27mpg on a good steady cruise, but that is driving like a granny with a following wind ....anymore than that theres something badly wrong...

ps. How about a 2.5 tdi A4? 180bhp with quattro and economic plus can be remapped quite easily. Or a 330d.

[GrahamS4]

You missed the answer. Keep it AND get something for your commute.

Get a used Golf/Bora/Leon/Skoda TDI (in order of wallet size) for the commute. Belting TDI engines in relative comfort.

[clubsport]

I hope this doesn't sound ridiculous,,,,
but would it be posssible to get a "fuel economy" map on the S4???...whereby you may regularly achieve say 27mpg on run.......most of the maps I see quote high bhp/torque figs,,,for the motoring you are doing this is not neccesarily required.

maybe most of the remaps improve engine efficiency which also improves mpg as a bonus,,,,specifically targeting mpg is my question?

[tartan_rob]

Look at it another way. You spend approx 1600miles a month sat in something, why shouldn't it be nice? Would you buy a cheap sofa to sit on?

I do about 1800 a month in my RS4. I have the same dilemma but in order for your argument to carry water you need to go for a cheap Diesel, then you are looking at a french car (just been sick...), or a fiesta Diesel etc. Do you really want to spend that kind of Mileage sat in one of those? If you buy expensive then your wasting your time, its false economy due to the depreciation.

One other thing, I would work out exactly how much extra you would spend on fuel across the year...:

(assume £4.9gallon, and 27mpg average)
1600 x 12 = 20k approx x lets say 27mpg x £4.9 = £3629

Or the diesel:
(assume my wifes 2.5 TDi A4 @36mpg average, diesel more expensive slightly £5.1)
1600 x 12 - 20k approx x 36mpg x £5.1 = £2833

So in essence you are paying £800 (+ or -) a year more to drive the car, with power, looks, performance, 4wd, comfort, ability, safety.......

Or you can sell the car, take a hit financially, spend more on a newer diesel and save £800 a year...?

When you do the maths and take into account what your heart wants, its a no-brainer. If the S4 was ready for changing, that is different. But to sell for the sake of does not make sense.

[tartan_rob]

Just re-read this. If you guys are not getting more than 25mpg on a normal run, you need to alter your driving style I do not drive like a granny I can assure you, I get 27/28 in the RS4 and have seen 32/33 on a sensible run.

My monster B5 S4 was doing over 30mpg most days.

I am talking about motorway driving, into 6th ASAP and using the torque.

[tartan_rob]

MRC will lean out the mixture for you if you ask them nicely I'm sure, they can do it on part throttle, failing that use fuel adaptation channel and do it yourself (not to the same effect granted).

[clubsport]

Tartan Rob, My standard car is Vagcom clear and in mixed driving I normally get around 23mpg on a run I may get something like 25.2mpg for example and rarely take the car over 3500rpm,,,,,these figures are normal to even slightly high for a standard car I am led to believe,,,your example of costing with 27mpg is not in the running for a standard car, hence the original posters dilemma.

[gavsteryoung]

I disagree a little... my car is standard and I find I can easily get 27mpg cruising at 80mph, and that would include the odd urgent accelaration...

Even better, and this proves how good french roads are... I can get 30mpg most of the time going to the house in France which is around 430miles...

Where my car falls down is my 15 mile trip to work. The car will be running in en-rich mode for half that distance and barely upto temprature when I arrive... hence this weeks average is 22.5mpg. And thats all twisties...

Maybe the onboard computer is out for me, maybe its out for you! I have managed to backup my findings by doing the calculations manually.

BTW - 0 degrees this morning and damn did the car feel quick. I'm all Smiles

[pvo_dave]

Thanks for the replies so far!

There's no way on the stop / start journey on the way to work I can get great MPG, if it was a clear motorway route I'd probably do a lot better, but it's all country lanes on the way to work, so I'm either driving sedately or having to use any opportunitys to over take Mr/Mrs 40 mph (who does the same speed through the 30mpg villages too!!!)

I can't afford to buy another car and have a weekend toy, if I'd have had that much spare I'd have gone for an RS4 in the first place! lol

A full tank with the recent price increases is now approx £55, for that I can get roughly 250/260 miles if I drive until I get the petrol warning

I do love the car which I why I posted really, if it wasn't so good it would be a no brainer, but it's comfy (mmm heated leather recaros) fast and looks great, and paying out for petrol wouldn't bother me as much if it didn't keep going up, I'm sure only about a month back super was just over £1 a litre, now the average is £1.06!

The only diesels I have looked at on the web so far are the 2.5 tdi Audi and 525d BMW's I have no idea what either are like to drive, but the MPG on the BMW according to parkers (could be well out) is 42mpg

[MarkB]

I used to get 37mpg urban out of my 330D. Nice car to drive as well. 50mpg possible on a long run.

[tartan_rob]

Tartan Rob, My standard car is Vagcom clear and in mixed driving I normally get around 23mpg on a run I may get something like 25.2mpg for example and rarely take the car over 3500rpm,,,,,these figures are normal to even slightly high for a standard car I am led to believe,,,your example of costing with 27mpg is not in the running for a standard car, hence the original posters dilemma.

Can I refer you to my previous post please? Either you have something wrong with your car that does not throw a fault code (shot Maf, boost leak etc etc) or your driving style needs to adjust to use the car efficiently. I am not the only one that gets "reasonable" fuel consumption figures with the Audi's. I suggest if you are only doing "normal non-spirited" driving, get the mixture leaned right out and find whatever the fault is.

Or perhaps you are unlucky with a car that will always return poor consumption....

[JohnRet.]

A friend of mine had a Volvo S60 D5.

Awesome car when remapped. Comfortable, just a bit wallowy round corners. Get that sorted with some springs and braces though.