CanyonBlaster

V70R - nice interior, nice solid car, pretty fast, but NO real connected feeling to the road. Definitely NOT a true driving enthusiasts car.

S4 - all the above plus great low-end pull from the V8,and pretty good road feel (for a 3800 lb car).

The surprise? A4 2.0 FSI sport pkg - really nice and tosable handling and pretty good pull. I am actually thinking about going 2.0, saving $20K, and chipping it right away. Not mention GAS $$$.

Check the MTM claims for stage 1 !! 250 HP/260 lb ft.!<ul><li><a href="http://www.hoppenmotorsport.com/">http://www.hoppenmotorsport.com/</a</li></ul>

CSBM5

My two cents are that they really aren't in the same class in a couple of ways. The V70R is much bigger than the S4 Avant in rear seat room and loading area room (big difference back there), so if you have a family and want to travel with a ton of stuff plus have rear seat room for two adult-sized kids, then the V70R is a better choice in that regard. With the incentives currently from Volvo, you can get a loaded R for up to maybe $5-6000 or so off sticker, so the price difference can be substantial considering significant discounts on the S4 are hard to come by.

Only consider the 6-speed manual version of the R since the auto version is severely power and rpm limited and is MUCH slower. MUCH -- I know since my wife's 05 V70R 6MT replaced an 04 V70R automatic which was a DOG (i.e. 0-60 in 7.4 seconds versus 5.7 for the 6MT)

The V70R is definitely not a "German car" in that it is much less communicative to the driver, even in 4C Advanced mode. However, its ultimate limits are actually very high once you get used to it. I've had the 05 R at VIR Full, Grand and South course events this year, and with just a switch to PFC97 pads in the Brembo's along with Corsa r-compounds, it performed very well. However, the electrically controlled Haldex differential is prone to overheating and shutting down under heavy track use -- when this happens the car instantly becomes FWD until the unit cools off which is not exactly "safe" if you're on track out under power in a 90mph corner. This is never a concern in street driving. The unit can give a substantial reward bias, but the whole system is tuned to provide more FWD bias on track out from corners unfortunately.

We cross-shopped the S4 Avant, and my wife did not like the pedal position (brake too high in relation to throttle to her), the small loading area, the buzzes in the dash of the two different brand new cars we drove; we both liked the handling/ride compromise (similar to my M5 but a bit more "choppy"), the smooth and sonorous V8 (mini-M5 sound), the turning radius and the overall quality of the car which I would rate above the Volvo.

In the end we settled on the 05 R since Volvo bought us out of our 04 R since it ended up in the shop for over 4 weeks with problems they couldn't fix. So far, the 05 R has gone 7k miles without any major issue at all.

If the decision had been for a car for me, it would have definitely been the S4 Avant since it is much more of a "driver's car" than the R imo.