Audi S4 & BMW e46 M3's

Princey

Princey

Princey

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Joined
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West Midlands
I've noticed that these have seem to be fairly cheap now, the age and mileage I'm looking at, they seem to be around £13-15,000. Now I know these cars were like £40,000 new and will still have the running costs to match. But how bad are they really, I can't imagen that fuel and tyres won't be biblically larger than my VXR (24mpg and 235/35/R19). So I guess its servicing and repairs where it'll sting.
Insurnace is around £1200 on both for me so not too bad really. I was thinking about budgeting around £3000 to cover repairs and servicing, does this sound reasonable. Of Course all this depends on if I end up selling my VXR which will be most likley as it's a fair few problems now plus I'd want something larger.
 
do a search, loads of threads with running costs from fox, rotty, housey and a few others im sure.
 
I have but the search doesnt allow M3 or S4 and just seaches for BMW and Audi in which there are 1000's of threads.
 
S4 is no M3 rival. Its just a fast cruiser. M3 servicing costs can be very expensive - Inspection 2 is circa 950 quid I think.
 
e46 m3:

servicing is quite steep. should be easy to find prices online for that. needs a service every 15k approx. (variable intervals)

tyres from memory are 235/40 19 and 255/35 19, 18's will obviously be cheaper but look rubbish!

depends how you drive it, but i got 14-15mpg out of my CSL around town, cant remember on a run, but would guess about 25mpg on motorways, maybe 30mpg if sitting with cruise on at 70mph.

consumables and parts will be no doubt quite a bit more than vauxhall prices and the car will be older and higher miles, so liable to need more of these too.
 
[TW]Fox;15641189 said:
S4 is no M3 rival. Its just a fast cruiser. M3 servicing costs can be very expensive - Inspection 2 is circa 950 quid I think.
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600-650 if you shop around.
 
No I'm sure its not but there is something very appealing about a 4.2 V8. I'd be doing very little mileagle <7,000p/a so inpsection 2 will probably happen once in my time of owning the car. If it was every year then I'd advoid cars like this but as it is that isn't too bad at all. I'm guessing the S4 is slightly less?
 
[TW]Fox;15641238 said:
S4 is closer to a 330i than an M3, the RS4 is the credible M3 rival.
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Hows that so? The S4 has 340bhp and 0-60 of 5.4 seconds, thats a second quicker than the 330i.

Anyway are there any other cars to consider in this class, as I'm not clued up at all in this segment.
 
I'm sure it is but saying the S4 is closer to 330i when its a second quicker and 100bhp up seems a bit over the top.
 
The M3 is a proper drivers tool. The S4 is more Audi doing what Audi do best. Posh looking but bland saloon cars. Take a read of some of the S4 owners posts on Pistonheads.

There is a reason why they are so much cheaper than M3.s these days :)

I presume you want fun not pub kudos so comparing 0-60 isnt that useful.
 
The thing that puts me off att with the M3 is the cost of consumables. I have been looking closely at cars between 10 - 15k and you have to be so careful when chosing a once £40k performance car :D
 
Thats what I wanted to know, so there is more to it then brute power and speed. I guess I need to have a drive in both. At least I know that the runnings costs are within budget though. I'm going to have a read around and find costs of brakes, tyres and common issues on both cars.
 
In the last couple of years at least, surely S4s can be more readily compared against a 335i - itself a suitable stepping stone from a 330i to an M3 (I know this doesn't apply so much to the OP).
 
The M3 is a much better sports saloon than the S4. Don't let any dealer try and kid you the S4 is a softer version of the RS4 as it simply isn't and even though they all say this then engines are very different. Seen so many forums and dealers who promote the S4 as pretty much the same as the RS4 when in reality its cut from a very different cloth.

M3 all the way between these two.
 
Ah I just realised that the M3 only comes in a coupe, ideally I'd need 4 doors because of the dog. Its not crucial though and if the M3 really is that good then I'd certainly overlook it.
 
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