kudlajz

Hey!

First of all, newbie here and this forum is awesome! I am in a market for a used S4, however, there is only one(!) decent model available here. It is an 2013 Audi S4 with ~19 821 miles. Main features are B&O, sport seats, MMI and sat nav.
Unfortunately, no sports diff or even ADS. My main questions - is this car still worth it and fun, even without these features? How's the throttle response and steering, cornering etc.? I don't plan to track this car, but I'd like to have some fun sometimes (and we have lots of curvy roads in here).
Is it possible to retrofit the ADS, the active suspension, etc.? Or am I out of luck and should just save up for a new S4, where I can buy all this when ordering?

I currently drive a 2016 Golf 1.2 TSI, so, definitely an upgrade, but question is, how much of an upgrade. I don't want to buy a sedan, just a "faster" version. I want to have fun with this car

Thank you very much for your insights.

DrGP

You cannot retro fit the ADD or Sports Dif. I personally will not buy an S4 without the SD, IMHO,it is the option that make the S4 special. But that's me and I'm 67 yrs young .Others may have a different opinion If you never drive an S4 with the SD you will be happy as a clam with the car and still have fun with it. If you can, find an S4 for sale with a SD and drive it even if you have no intention of buying that car.Or even test drive a New B9 S4 with a SD. That way you will see what the SD give you. .Perhaps a member in your area will let you drive one of theirs? Where do you live?

millersntx

I agree with DrGP. I wouldn't own a S4 without the Sports Diff. It makes a huge difference in the feel of the car.

kudlajz

I've been lurking through the market and found what appears to be a fully loaded 2015 S5. I know I am in an S4 thread, but didn't want to start another thread.
I've read that if you have the ADS button on the middle console, it should have the sports diff. Seller did not specify if the car has a sports diff. I've tried scanning the VIN, but couldn't find anything else other than the base info.
Anyway, that S5 is currently financially out of my reach, but I'm going to save up some more money and we'll see.

Thank you for your replies!

alexdell

Go to this site <window sticker lookup> and paste the VIN. It will show you the original monroney sticker (window sticker) of the vehicle where you can see if the it has the "Sports Diff" option. Good luck!

fstr n u

I wish not to start an argument with any members here. 98% of people don't drive their cars in a setting where the SD comes into any advantage. I race cars, but my Audi gets me to work and back home. Once in a blue moon it hits the higway on a trip....with you guessed it, more straight roads. I purchased a 2015 Audi S4 and i don't have the SD (i had in my prev 2010 Audi S5 coupe) and i don't miss it. Would i have said no to having it? No, but most people will rarely if ever get the opportunity to track their cars with any regularity to warrant the SD. Does the SD add some feel...yes, but only in certain situations.

If you find an S4 you are happy with, you need to decide which transmission you want. For me it's only about manuals, but for some, they prefer the convenience and automation of the DSG. If you find an S4 with the SD it's an added bonus.

In the winter i have just as much fun 'sans" SD as people do with their SD's. Like most cars...buy them, have fun with them for a little while, sell, and step into something new...then repeat steps.

millersntx

No fights, just dialogue. And I don't race, just drive spiritedly.
I'll say this - the SD in my 12 S4 felt like a binary switch. It was either on/off and needed a healthy application of throttle to activate it. I liked it and used it daily on on-off ramps. With that said, I'll stay by my original stance that it's a must-have. The car is so much more neutral under power in corners
The SD in my 18 S4 feels completely different. It feels to be much more integrated with other systems in the car and really just makes the car feel very neutral in most situations.

My car's my daily driver/commuter car

superswiss

Lots of sport diff threads on this forum, so doing a search will bring up lots of answers and probably even more questions :-). My short answer to this question is if you have to ask, then it probably won't make a difference for you. The SD is about driving dynamics, in particular the ability to rotate the car through corners under power, also referred to as power oversteer or throttle steering. It's what makes cornering a lot more fun than in a neutral car and the least fun is an understeering car.

I get to drive a lot of different Audi models. Pretty much anything from an A3 to the R8 and dynamically the models with the SD are the most fun Audis to drive. I even take my RS5 over an R8. The R8 is dynamically actually quite disappointing. Way too much initial understeer to make sure owners with more money than driving skills aren't flying off the road. Quattro with SD combines the fun driving dynamics of an RWD car with the benefits of AWD. Kinda the best of both worlds. You can feel how in dynamic mode, the SD pushes the car around a corner and the more throttle you give it, the more it rotates to the point where you can even get some drifting action and you don't have to drive like a maniac to feel it. The difference is to the point where I keep my SD in dynamic mode most of the time as the difference between the neutral handling in comfort mode and the oversteering handling in dynamic mode is like night and day. I put it in comfort on a long highway trip with mostly straight roads, that's about it.

However, if you mostly just commute to and from work on boring straight roads then you won't get much out of the SD, except it can make quite a difference in an emergency situation. Besides making the car more agile, the SD also acts as an inverse ESP, so if you have to swerve around an obstacle for example, the SD can make quick adjustments to stabilize the car long before the traditional ESP can build up brake pressure to intervene. The SD makes adjustments every 100 ms.

Lastly, the Drive Select buttons are not an indication that the car has the SD. Depending on the market and model year, Drive Select can be a standard feature and even if it's optional, there are three different components that will add it. The sport differential, the adaptive suspension and the optional dynamic steering. So the car could have any of the three options if the Drive Select buttons are present, but you don't know which one(s).

The following link is a good read on understanding what the SD and the other components do and how they integrate with each other.

https://www.audiworld.com/articles/q...ism-redefined/