drove an s4 avant

[Samir Shah]

Gang, This afternoon, my wife and I test drove a bunch of wagons: BMW 
528it, BMW 540it, Audi A6 Avant and S4 Avant, in that order. The short list 
is the 540it and the S4 Avant. The power of the 540 is awesome, after which 
the A6 felt terrible. I had flogged a new A6 2.7T @ Texas Motor speedway 
last December (open session, got 200+ track miles that day) and was very 
thus familiar with the awesome engine, and the A6, and was expecting the S4 
to exhibit the same type of understeer and steering numbness. However, I 
was really surprised with the steering feel and nimblenesss of the S4! Also 
very happy that it comes with 'summer' tires. Both my wife and I believe 
this will be a worthy successor to the Lotus Elan, and in all likelihood, 
we will be purchasing one after the Elan sells. Hopefully it is as reliable 
and bulletproof as the Lotus. My wife wishes it were larger, however, and 
we may wait for the S6.

Does anyone know what the invoice on the S4 Avant car is? Excite suggests 
mid 36s + $575 delivery charges making it approx $37k. The dealers are 
trying to tell me that its over 39k and that they would sell the car around 
41k. Does anyone on this list provide a buying service ala some of the BMW 
CCA members?

Another question: has anyone in Europe tried out both the S4 and S6 Avants? 
We are wondering if the larger size and weight will destroy the feel of the 
car. The fact that the S6 Avant will not be available in manual may be a 
deal killer, in any case. Would appeciate any feedback, however.

Thanks, Samir.