[s-cars] How failtastic is the B7 S4 automatic? Anyone have a line on a manual avant?

[Taka Mizutani]

Try driving a W203 MBZ- automatic is worlds better than any of the Audis.

If it were my decision, I would be patient and look for an S4 Avant with a
manual rather than settle for a tiptronic.

Taka


On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 2:47 PM, Theodore Chen <tedebearp at yahoo.com> wrote:

> guess i don't have that much experience with good automatics.  my wife's
> E46 330i has an automatic that has decent shift speed/quality, but is cursed
> with stupid programming.  there's a sport mode, but i don't use it because
> it has a penchant for downshifting at relatively high speeds even with
> little or no throttle.  this produces
> little jerks from engine braking and is annoying.  i prefer to use the
> manual mode.  however, the torque converter stays active.  the torque
> converter seems to have fairly high stall speed, so it's hard to get the car
> moving quickly at a moderate pace without producing a surge.  same issue in
> cornering.
>
> the B5 S4's transmission is much smarter about gear selection, and locks up
> the torque converter in manual mode, but shifts too slowly.  i have tried
> recoding it with VAG-COM, but was not terribly impressed with the sport
> modes so i changed it back to stock.  they change gear selection strategy,
> not shift speed, which was my issue.
>
>