Conker

but what are RE040's? I can't find them of TireRack.com. I guess they are all-season. .83g skidpad sounds not too good to me, and I wonder how much improvement with better tires. Where do RE's fall?
TIA
Conker 98 1.8TS-tip (parting is such sweet sorrow)

Conker

I noticed that on the S4, the trim is there, but it was painted with dark, shiny paint. Almost like shiny, black chrome. (if that makes sense) Can anyone comment on if this trim is the same no matter what color the car is. It was not painted like the B-pillar on the outside, which changed on the '99 to be shiny black from the flat black on my '98. Anyone care, or notice? The S4 I was was yellow.

Jim De Arras

Glad to hear it, I hated the chrome around the windows!

Dennis

I found these tires on the net somewhere, might have been the Bridgestone site. There was no pic yet but they are listed as "Ultra high performance" so I suspect they are not all season.

Adam T

<center><img src="http://131.107.68.28/a4org//RE040.jpg"></center><p>

Matthew F.

It may be no big deal, but I know the new BMW 5 series sports wagons also have a black trim, rather than the chrome. Seems they think it is more sporty, and I would tend to agree. It is a european thing I'm assuming.

AvramD

I totally care. I personally really like the chrome trim on A4 2.8s. My dream car is an S4 that looks like an A4 2.8, including front bumper, black skirts, chrome trim, and oh yes, ecru leather.

I put a significant amount of work into trying to figure out a way to orde a car like this, but my requests fell on deaf ears. The best answer I got was from a guy at AoA who seemed to be very knowledgeable although I don't remember his credentials. Here was his answer, paraphrased:

Yes it's true that these cars are built on the same line as A4's, so in theory, yes, they could build one that looked just like an A4 2.8. However, A4's are mass produced, and as such, the only thing my parts mine & your parts yours on the assembly line is essentially a "build ticket" in a database.

When Audi (and/or AoA) decided what the possible options would be, it was effectively engraved in stone. There is no way to put what I want into the computer, and there is nobody to follow my car from one step to the next to make sure that the differences between what I want & what the computer says come out right.

In short, if we tried to do this, I'd probably end up with a car that had ecru front seats with silver headreasts & backseats, one blue & one black sideskirt, and chrome top-edge trim, but black bottom edge trim.

The only other way to do it is order it through quattro Gmbh, which this guy said is so expensive that "even our A8 customers won't pay for it." He said that just getting them to do the leather would cost nearly 10 grand. Thus, AoA doesn't touch quattro Gmbh.

Incidentally, this last point doesn't shed a good light on the question of "will the RS4 ever make it to the states?" although it's just an inference. Hopefully the RS4 will be the *reason* AoA *starts* dealing with quattro Gmbh!

Warren Wang

nt

peterhe

Interesting - the R&T test car is listed w/Pirelly P Zeros {nt}

Dennis

yes but the pic of the car clearly has Potenza written on the tire