[s-cars] Hans & Franz ride again?

[John Farr]

I'm buying an '02 S6 Avant this week, deal is 99% done, as a 
replacement for my beloved (and soon to be semi-retired) '93 S4. I have 
major concerns about the transmission, but I figure I'll try the GIAC 
tip chip and see if it behaves better. I drove an Allroad thinking I 
would get a six speed and chip it and fix the suspension. It did a very 
bad thing in a hard corner, completely sideways to a dead stop and 
almost into a concrete wall. I haven't been that out of shape on a dry 
road since I was a teenager. I don't think the suspension is fixable.
My question to all you Audimiesters out there is this: The one I drove 
today had the three spoke sport wheel. The one I'm buying has a four 
spoke wheel with more buttons. Once I saw this, I looked at the 
pictures of every S6 for sale on autotrader.com and cars.com. About 80% 
had the sport wheel, 20% had the four spoke. This was independent of 
year ('03 or '02) or if it had the comfort or sport seats. There were 
some of each with each wheel. Audi's list of available equipment and 
options shows the three spoke only. Local service manager didn't know 
what I was talking about.
I know back in the '90s, Hans and Franz grabbed whatever parts were 
handy from the bin
on the day they were building the car, but does this still happen?
Any thoughts would greatly appreciated.
John
'93 S4
'02 S6 Avant (soon)