Audi B7 RS4, E46 M3, E90 335 or BMW 135i

The_One

The_One

The_One

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Im considering changing my Evo for something else.

It still has to be quick but id like it to be more comfortably and "luxurious" as the evo is just raw for a quick drive to friends/shopping etc :p

Audi RS4 would have to be the avant as i dont like the saloon.

Anyone have experience with the above or been stuck making a similar decision?

Which would people go for.....or something else??

If i had an RS4 id probably just get a milltek on it and leave it at that, if it was a 335i or 135i it would get a remap
 
I'd go for the 335i simply because I don't personally feel I could justify the massive additional running costs involved with an RS4. If you've got the BMW warranty at a reasonable 40ish quid a month the 335i is a shockingly reasonable to run car given its performance.
 
Housey will give you a break down. It's in another league in terms of everything - brakes, suspension, repair costs (The warranty is enormously expensive whereas its cheap as chips on a 335i), fuel consumption etc etc.

To be fair it's a more 'sorted' car than a 335i, too - but it comes at a price.
 
Buy any RS4 with caution as there are quite a few dogs out there with broken expensive bits that will need replacing. You are looking at £2K plus for new dampers/shocks and many will need these. Also the downside of going KW or similar, good though they are, is you lose much of the RS4 cleverness, being that it's so well sorted on bumpy roads on the Audi set up and personally I think removing that actually takes something away from the car. Tyres are not too bad at around £260 a tyre for a decent make but wheels can buckle and though they might look good might be out of true and create wheel vibrations that balancing wont shift. You wont get a new wheel for less than £650 EACH and again the replicas are heavier. Brakes a very expensive, disk and pads for the font using OEM bits are going to sting you over £1K, the rears over £600 even via indi's. Fuel is around 22mpg on a run, lots less if you use it hard and drive it around town. Then you have the bits that go wrong such as AC sensors £200, induction flaps £200, rear boxes (4 figures), engine management fixes, coking fixes.....I could go on. Warranty on an over 70K miles car with over 20K per annum? £2.6K!

However, get a sorted one, check it out and you wont find a better A to B road car that simply destroys anything for all round ability. E46 M3 is more fun and if you are looking for one of those and spending say £20Kish then it MUST be a CSL for they are without question one of the greatest cars on the planet with one of the greatest engines ever to grace a road car.

335i might be close in performances as would the 135i but neither are as special.
 
Housey said:
Also the downside of going KW or similar, good though they are, is you lose much of the RS4 cleverness, being that it's so well sorted on bumpy roads on the Audi set up and personally I think removing that actually takes something away from the car.
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The_One said:
I'd heard about the suspension problems and had envisaged just fitting KW Variant 3's if the suspension played up as they are TUV approved.
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Hopefully though having read that you'll not consider such a thing :p

This representative of the sorta RS4 you can get for circa 20k? - http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...i/page/4/radius/200/postcode/b634ap?logcode=p
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You realise thats an insurance write-off, yes? If thats representative of the £20k RS4 market then, well, I think it says 'buy something else' :p
 
Just noticed the V car bit :)

I'm used to coilovers id probably fit some even if the DRC system wasnt playing up. Audisrs forums seem to rate the kw variant3's

The evo replacement wouldnt be a posers car it would get used on track and for euro trips

Is the 135i engine better than the older one found in the 335i? Isnt one twin turbo and the other single?
 
If you plan to track it then forget the RS4 and get a CSL, it will **** over an RS4 on track no matter what many RS4 owners might wish to tell you. KW's are excellent no question but they dont ride as well as the standard settings but then they are better for track work.
 
The_One said:
Just noticed the V car bit :)

I'm used to coilovers id probably fit some even if the DRC system wasnt playing up. Audisrs forums seem to rate the kw variant3's
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I dont see the point in paying the considerable extra costs for a 'well sorted as standard' car if you want to fiddle. If you want to start chucking money at suspension etc then perhaps a 335i or similar would be better.

Is the 135i engine better than the older one found in the 335i? Isnt one twin turbo and the other single?
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They have the same engine - so pre 2010 cars have the N54 twin turbo and post 2010 cars have the N55 single turbo.

The N54 is better - especially for tuning. BMW kept it in production - its the same engine as you will find in 1 Series M Coupe and the current higher power Z4 SDrive35iS, which tells you a lot about the N55 ;)
 
The only reason for suspension was because i had heard about the DRC problems which most people ditch for coilovers instead of paying silly money to get a repair.

Will the new M135i use the same engine also?
 
The_One said:
The only reason for suspension was because i had heard about the DRC problems which most people ditch for coilovers instead of paying silly money to get a repair.

Will the new M135i use the same engine also?
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No, it's an N55. Think of the M135i is a 135i M Sport really. It isn't an M car.
 
How much is a V8 M3? I guess they are still around £25k?

From your list I'd get the M3 unless you want something newer then one of the other beemers depending on how much room etc you need.
 
The 335i has cost me next to nothing to run, 40 quid per month for the warranty which covers most things (not that its ever gone wrong anyway). Servicing is a couple of hundred quit, it does around 20 mpg in town and 30 something on the motorway. The only expensive part is tax and tyres.

Having said that I have taking a massing hit on depreciation, I paid 27k for it and would be lucky to get 16 to 17 for it now (I have not checked prices).

I put an evolve map on it which has really transformed the car. I think it cost about 500 quid but its well worth it. It puts out about 375 bhp but with a few mods it would push 400.

I would be happy to sell it as its not used anymore if your interested but its a E93:D

Personally I would get a 135i over a 335i but thats because I like small cars. I would even consider a 1M but they are just too expensive.
 
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