2bcarsmart

I am new to this Forum. On President's day weekend I picked up a Glacier white / black interior S4 from desert Audi in Las Vegas. I drove from Salt Lake City to get more options/choices. The Stasis upgrade comes with chipped 410 HP version of the supercharged 3.0 engine, stainless steel exhaust system, Eibach coils, shocks tuned suspension and big 20 inch wheel package. The dealer added tint and i added a clear bra.I chose Audi over BMW this time and instead of M3 or M5 I went for S4 Stasis. Audi has come a long way, they are making enormous improvements, especially for me and where it counts, driver experience. This car sits real low, the stance is perfectly balanced, and surprisingly has a remarkably refined ride. Steering is tight, connected to the road, but is slightly nose heavy but that's just AWD. The larger interior allows decent leg room - I'm 5'-8" and I recall being cobbled up in the back seat of previous A4/S4 body styles. I am impressed with this car and now with the added security of AWD I can feel rest assured snow and ice won't hold me back. This car comes loaded with the Prestige Package, but I do miss the heated steering wheel. I have a request for information, does anyone know if I can upgrade into a heated steering without loosing the existing controls/features? The car has all season Yokohama tires but in Las Vegas all season just means rain, I am looking for good cold weather tires, shall I stick with Yokos? I will post pictures soon. Any advice is highly appreciated.

ZCD2.7T

Congrats!!

My car also has the STaSIS Touring setup, though the wheels and exhaust were no longer on the car when I bought it. I agree about the stance and the ride - it's just about perfect for a daily driver. I also added an AWE S-flo intake which picked me up about a tenth or so in the 1/4 mile, plus allows just a bit more supercharger whine to enter the cabin under hard acceleration. I like it. I also added stainless steel brake lines and Motul 600 brake fluid for my occasional track days.

A heated steering wheel isn't available on S4s in the US as far as I'm aware, so you'd have to get a European or possibly Canadian wheel to get that feature. I'm betting that it would be darn expensive, but might be possible.

As far as winter tires, I have Dunlop WinterSport D3s mounted on 18" B7 RS4 replica wheels, and that setup has been awesome in the cold and snow.

Enjoy your new car!

zulujams

Congrats on the car and welcome to the forum. I haven't heard of a heated steering wheel option either for the US. It would be a nice option in the winter for sure.

As for tires, you're in Salt Lake City so you certainly see some weather and need to be ready to deal with snow, rain, and overall cold temps which aren't good for summer only tires. You can definitely run your all season tires I'd think as one option. I've seen some post that they are very happy with Continental all-seasons but I haven't heard much on Yokahamas specifically. Another option would be to get dedicated summer and winter tires which is what a number of us here and other drivers in general do. I went with 245/40R-18 MICHELIN PILOT ALPIN PA3 XL based on reviews here and on Tire Rack. They look close to normal tires versus the Blizzaks I had on a previous car, and they are quiet. We haven't really had snow this year to test them out (first winter with the S4 and PA3s). Ideally, to get the best performance of your car, get dedicated summer and winter tires mounted on dedicated rims. Expensive at first, but then you can swap your own wheels each season or bring them to a local shop for swapping. Enjoy the new car!

petrashevsky

Canadians are also out of luck when it comes to heated steering wheels. Would have been really nice to have one. Its a $250 option on a 3 series as far as I know, but heated wheel wasn't enough to sway my decision to go with Audi ))

2bcarsmart

Thanks for the insight. Last week we have had some cold weather and I realized for the first time that most of the trim of beautifully styled interior is metal, because it was bloody cold 16degrees, in my garage. The metal speaks to the quality and craftsmanship of these new designs, Audi won me over too. However, it was cold enough to bother my hands, and I immediately recalled that even A3 had heated steering wheels. Is there a way to mount one of those other Audi models' steering wheel into S4?

2bcarsmart

Thanks for the tip. I went to Tire Rack and found heaps more choices. Holy crap now what do I do... I did find some Blizzaks special winter tires for the 20's I have now, but its going to be too spendy, especially since we have on a couple of cold weather months left, so I agree, going to a taller tire and winter wheels set-up is the best way to go.

2bcarsmart

Thanks for the tips on intake mods. I researched the AWE S-flo and I liked that it really is an easy DIY install. Also, I am amazed that 25000 miles is quite a lomg time between air cleaner filters, has that been your experience? The gains that are advertised on the web site are tested using 93 octane. 91 is common in SLC but 93 is not so common but and extra 15 HP seems attractive. Have you seen 15 HP increase in daily street driving. BTW I'm in Salt Lake City and about 4800 ft above sea level, and I'm debating if I will realize real gains?

ZCD2.7T

I don't feel any difference at all in every day driving. I do hear a difference, though, and I like what I hear - just enough whine to remind you that the car is indeed supercharged, but not so much as to be annoying.

My mention of the tenth improvement in the 1/4 mile was based on visting the strip before and after, and the average as well as best times I saw.

A tenth is perhaps a car length over that distance, so it's not much, but it's something!