The latest issue of Car and Driver has a nice comparison of t
he Audi S4 against the BMW 335i. No surprise the Audi S4 wins!
It's no secret that Car & Driver loves the BMW 3 series
. The smaller BMW has been on the magazine's ten best list for as long as we can remember and very rarely has a version of the 3er lost a comparo in those pages (once to the B6 S4 BTW). So it was with great interest that we read this month's comparo between the repositioned S4 and the turbocharged 335i.The article starts out by identifying a sweet spot in the performance sedan market. The elder V8 S4 had gone above the threshold of the sweet spot to a price greater than $50K though the elder E46 BMW M3
was still within reach of those willing to borrow. It would seem though that Audi
is astute at model positioning gamesmanship and its all-conquering RS 4 called out BMW, helping Munich make the decision to take their M-car up market and well beyond $50K.In comes the new S4, with all of the added kit befitting an S-car. With a new 3.0T supercharged six and aggressive pricing, the car now squares off against the less performance letter named 335i, which is the scene as Car & Driver raises the curtain.Spoiler alert. The Audi wins. We're not surprisingly ecstatic. Read the whole article on pp. 72-81 of the Nov 2009 issue of Car & Driver or on
he Audi S4 against the BMW 335i. No surprise the Audi S4 wins!It's no secret that Car & Driver loves the BMW 3 series
. The smaller BMW has been on the magazine's ten best list for as long as we can remember and very rarely has a version of the 3er lost a comparo in those pages (once to the B6 S4 BTW). So it was with great interest that we read this month's comparo between the repositioned S4 and the turbocharged 335i.The article starts out by identifying a sweet spot in the performance sedan market. The elder V8 S4 had gone above the threshold of the sweet spot to a price greater than $50K though the elder E46 BMW M3
was still within reach of those willing to borrow. It would seem though that Audi
is astute at model positioning gamesmanship and its all-conquering RS 4 called out BMW, helping Munich make the decision to take their M-car up market and well beyond $50K.In comes the new S4, with all of the added kit befitting an S-car. With a new 3.0T supercharged six and aggressive pricing, the car now squares off against the less performance letter named 335i, which is the scene as Car & Driver raises the curtain.Spoiler alert. The Audi wins. We're not surprisingly ecstatic. Read the whole article on pp. 72-81 of the Nov 2009 issue of Car & Driver or on