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Been looking for a trouble free B7 RS4 with low miles for a while and have decided to look at a newer S4 instead for the same budget.

The RS4's have obviously all been manuals, so that has been my focus, but is the sequential box easy to live with?

It's pretty much definite, I will be having a stage one or two mod done, so can the box cope. How much extra will a box remap cost?

auto s-tronic all the way !!! iv just got a auto s4 and love it

Had the stronic for over a year now with MRC stage-2. Freakin awesome as our American cousins would say. Had it round Bedford and the Ring. Have to say, it's great on track, provided you use the paddles. However, for regular driving, I do miss the feel of the manual to the point I've been looking to change to a manual S4. Waiting for the right one though.

"Never", I hear you guys say. But it's horses for courses I suppose, and I do miss the stick. I thought I could live with an auto-stick which had "no position". I.e. The stronic in manual mode has a fixed position - you just nudge it. But I didn't reckon with the fact that you do a lot more with the stick. You feel the car through it. You know which gear you are in and so on. I know it's controversial - but there you are.

Manual will get you more power on a remap as the rev limit is higher (according to MRC) stage manual 2 cars are pushing over 500 frickin' HP !

6MT all the way for me, I have to say. Have had auto RS6's for years and took a big risk downsizing to the B8 S4, but stuck to my gut feeling and haven't looked back. There is nothing more rewarding that a proper, progressive x-country drive with perfectly executed Heel & Toe, Double De-Clutch and rev-matching gear changes - and all without the assistance of any electronics. Sure traffic jams are a chore, but little loss for me as I'm not very PlayStation generation.....

I was fortunate enough to go to the Audi RS Showcase event at Brands this week and had a 25 min session on track (very wet and slippery) in the RS4. All very nice, but that gearbox is just too easy and offers so little feedback and reward, in my opinion. What was interesting was how much more grip and control the car displayed when in COMFORT mode, not Dynamic. It was wet and slippy and the softer settings allowed more roll, weight transfer and more predictable grip - switch to Dynamic and it was a twitchy, slower and less pleasant experience all round. All well understood theory of course, but great to feel the impact so vividly.

RS4 felt very similar to my S4 overall (just less torquey...), given the circumstances and still reckon my car would have been just as quick and loads more manual fun. But I am a bit old-school - complete with alloy throttle pedal extension to aid H & T