IbisRS4

I know we've seen it before but here is more interesting info about the B8 RS4 platform coming to NA..albeit ONLY in the form of an Avant.

http://www.fourtitude.com/news/publi...cle_4820.shtml

greatwhiteshark

Unfortunately, the Avant will not come to the US if the battery is located underneath the rear floor, which all signs point to. The DOT won't allow passenger cars to be sold in the US if their battery is not behind a firewall or otherwise sequestered from the passenger compartment.

IbisRS4

Oh yeah, hence the reason for the B7 not coming to N.A. Forgot about that.

RS Maniac

The question of the day when (and if) the RS5 comes out in the US would be: what would you rather drive - a 1-2 yr old R8 or a new RS5? Those prices would probably be quite on par...

Quite sad how we Americans don't get the Avant. In Europe, for every RS4 sedan that was sold Audi sold 3+ Avants...

IbisRS4

Which is exactly why I pitching for a B7 S4 for my fiancee's next car.

What else would you get your lady for $30k that you'd enjoy driving as well?

grendelswr

I don't think that the r8 would sell for around 70-80 K. These cars are still hard to find. I know that this isn't relevant to todays market situation, but I offered a guy who drove into the dealership with a used r8 and I offered him $15,000 profit to buy the car off his hand and he said no.

fallout

How many do you need?

India Whiskey Charlie

How is it different for the B7 RS4 sedan? There is no firewall between the passenger compartment and the battery which is located below the rear floor in the trunk.

RS Maniac

Times have changed, dealers in Metro NY for example advertize R8s at sticker, and in fact sales are a shade below. Several started showing up at Manheim. Audi has since limited production to something like a day for the last several months, so limitedd supply may be the only factor keeping prices from nosediving, because demand certainly isn't. And the V10 will take away sales from the V8.

Also, we are realistically talking 2 yrs from now as if we ever get the RS5, it will likey be a 2012 MY in late 2011.

GotRS?

Good point, but I didn't think it was necessarily a firewall issue, just a requirement for further crash testing which wasn't viable for projected import numbers. Either way it's a bummer we didn't get them.