[s-cars] 2003 S6 or 2004/05 S4??

[JC]

> Shortly here I am going the same route.  My wife still loves
> her "aged" 95 S6 Avant.  I am looking to get myself a 2004 or

> out.  However, I am thinking a 02-03 S6 Avant would be the

James - Test that carefully, it's not the one-for-one it might seem like to
go newer on a C-series car. C5+ cars feel very different than C4 or Type 44
cars. When I had both the 'nice' C5 and 'beater' Type 44 in the drive at the
same time I ended up preferring the driving experience of the old
weather-worn 200TQA 9 times out of 10.  C3/C4 are just more "mechanical" or
"solid" feeling and driver-feedback oriented. C5 and on the cars became more
soft/insulated/generic. Some might say "more of a luxury drive" but for me
it was more of a generic-modern-car feel - OK better than driving a Camry,
but not exactly dissimilar either.  For some reason the didn't lose the feel
in the B-series cars so much, but the C-platform got soft and uninteresting
IMO (even with Servotronic unplugged...).  The S6 is better than the
base-line car but IMO it's still not like the old cars and needs a lot more
'feel in the wheel'.  I mean, later S6 is a great car for some folks I'm
sure - just be sure to do fair bit of driving back-to-back with current car
and alternatives...

Also to the comments about re-programming those trannies - I had a matched
"Tip-chip" to go with the PES G2 blower I put on the C5 and that did help
firm it up a bit.  But not dramatically - not like you can make it a
"Ferrari paddle-shifter" just with a chip...


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