RS246.com Forum :: The World's #1 Audi R, S and RS Enthusiast Community

Put off by possible sub 20mpg result!

Would appreciate owners here to post what mpg they get from their S4. Have looked at Audi's figures but any advertised figures are well - rubbish in my experience. Looking at 2003-04 S4.

Searched here over the weekend and there are plenty of accounts of owners driving their S4's like it was stolen and getting sub 9mpg but I'm curious to know if anyone has driven it like Miss Daisy in a Nissan Micra around town just to see if it's possible to get above 28mpg. I would imagine 28Mpg is possible on a motorway doing 70mph in 6th but most of my driving is stop start in town.

Had a 4.2 V8 2003 A8 and that thing was scary on juice. Much heavier car though (I hope).

Motorway - 70mph in 6th, driving for an hour, should easily get 26mpg

Gentle town driving - in the region 15 - 18mpg

Please excuse my abruptness, but what MPG did you think you were going to get from a 4.2 V8?

You may like to have a look at http://www.vcacarfueldata.org.uk/index.asp
According to this site your A8 would be 10% cheaper to fuel when compared to the S4....!

What did I expect from a 4.2 V8 - Certainly not 15mpg of gentle driving anyway.

And why an S4 should be worse than an A8, I would'nt expect that to be obvious either.

Mine has averaged about 21 mpg over the 2 years I have owned it, with highs of 28 or 29 when driven gently on motorway (due to speedlimits), and lows of around 14, usually in city traffic. Hope that helps you decide!

I get between 20-21 MPG average and that's based upon 70/30 motorway/city usage. I have done 83K miles and the MPG figures have been consistent over that time. I also agree with Pete.S figures .
My A3 3.2 Quattro DSG returns, based on the same driving usage, between 26-28 MPG.
With regard to your A8, it's about 200+ Kgs heaver than the S4 but returns better MPG according to the . The S4 and A8 use a very similar lump and therefore the obvious reason would be that the S4 is tuned to obtain more power etc. The A8 is optimised with a bias for comfort rather than performance
If you're going to be spending most of your time in 'London' style traffic then 15-18 MPG seems about right.

The VCA MPG figures are calculated on the following guidelines:


Urban cycle
The urban test cycle is carried out in a laboratory at an ambient temperature of 20°C to 30°C on a rolling road from a cold start, i.e. the engine has not run for several hours. The cycle consists of a series of accelerations, steady speeds, decelerations and idling. Maximum speed is 31 mph (50 km/h), average speed 12 mph (19 km/h) and the distance covered is 2.5 miles (4 km). The cycle is shown as Part One in the diagram below.

Extra-urban cycle
This cycle is conducted immediately following the urban cycle and consists of roughly half steady-speed driving and the remainder accelerations, decelerations, and some idling. Maximum speed is 75 mph (120 km/h), average speed is 39 mph (63 km/h) and the distance covered is 4.3 miles (7 km). The cycle is shown as Part Two in the diagram below.

Combined Fuel Consumption Figure
The combined figure presented is for the urban and the extra-urban cycle together. It is therefore an average of the two parts of the test, weighted by the distances covered in each part.

My current average S4 MPG from the DIS = 22.9 (over 3 months+)

Hope this help

Had my S4 about 3 months now - mainly used by the wife for short runs during the week and me - hard right foot - at weekends.

Currently returning around 16 mpg.

On a 50 mile motorway run it returned 22 mpg.

The way i have always looked at it is that if i can afford to pay £26 for a 2 year old second hand car, i shoul dbe able to afford an MPG of 16

That's one hell of a bargin or do you mean £26K....?

Perhaps he means £26 an hour

oops my bad - yes i meant £26,000

It always amazes me when people ask with regards to the mpg of a performance car, if you have to ask then you probably should be looking at a nice diesel car perhaps.

Actually, I'm quite astounded by the generous mpg that the S4 has compared to the previous car I had.

Actually, I'm quite astounded by the generous mpg that the S4 has compared to the previous car I had.

(Loaded statement)

Which was Razor?

It was a 2.0l Japmobile that was pretty much stretched at the limit at approx 410+bhp/430lb torque. The downside was that I got approx 150 miles from a 55litre tank and if I really gunned it approx 80-100.

So in comparison the S4 is a god send in terms of relative fuel economy.

21mpg roughly from a manual. Auto will give the same as an A8 as the weight difference is minimal (approx 80kg).

Sounds like you really want a 3.0Tdi. Mind you they will only give 26-28mpg if you use the performance.