Jeffc

That's the same kind of driving I do. I probably should have mentioned it in my opening post. My track days were over a long time ago.

superswiss

Basically, the steering is fundamentally unpredictable. Say you enter a corner at 30 mph and you turn the steering wheel 15 degrees. That gives you a certain steering angle and rotation of the car. However, if you then enter the same corner at say 50 mph that same 15 degrees gives you a different steering angle. So you will frequently find to have to correct, because the car will either turn less or more than you expected. You don't have to drive aggressively to notice this. For example, there's a highway fork near my house that has effectively a 90 degree turn to get on one of the highways and I always had to correct there. It's partly the sport differential and partly the DS, but the rotation of the car was never proportional to my steering input. I could always feel that there's a level of computing going on between my inputs and what the car actually did. You will also find that the DS feels even lighter than the standard steering in daily driving. Because you have to turn the wheel less to get a reaction, it feels very light at low speeds. It does make it very easy to park the car, but there's zero feel to the steering at lower speeds.

Jeffc

Going straight down the road at highway speeds is DS inactive, or is making the steering even firmer and slower than it would be with the standard steering?

superswiss

It's never inactive. On the highway and higher speeds it becomes more indirect. I don't recall the ratio range exactly anymore, but if I remember correctly, the ratio can go from as direct as 1:9 to as indirect as 1:18, and in Dynamic mode in case of my RS5 it was at 1:14 I believe. That's a good sporty ratio for a road performance car. As high as 1:18 means that at highway speed it's not as eager to change direction, but it makes it very comfortable to drive in a straight line. because a minor jerk on the steering wheel doesn't result in much of a change in direction.

To be honest, for just plodding along on the highway, it was pretty good. It's a bit hard to put it all in words, but perhaps one of the biggest issues for me was that regardless of the mode, there was always a situation where the mode wasn't suitable. For example Dynamic was great for spirited driving, but then when I slowed down it was suddenly hard to park the car, because I was used to Auto mode for normal driving. So there was always sort of a surprise factor, because of how different the steering felt in each mode. I basically arrived at the point where I don't think the steering should change like that in the different drive modes. In fact, my AMG no longer has a setting for the steering. Instead it's folded into an overall chassis dynamics settings with four levels, which not only fine tunes the steering, but also the torque vectoring and the locking rear differential to provide predictable handling characteristics at each level. I'm not even a particular fan of artificially weighing up the steering in the "sportier" modes. It doesn't actually make the steering more dynamic. Just adds weight, and in fact takes away some feedback. I believe the chassis, handling and steering of a car should be great at its basic level and then the modes should just fine tune it for driving closer and closer to the limit, but not fundamentally alter steering ratios and such that have one needing to get reacquainted with the steering again whenever changing modes.

Jeffc

I think I get it....Please correct me if I'm wrong.

When you are driving around-town at lower speeds or going straight down the highway at higher speeds, DS is a good thing.

It's when you take a turn aggressively that the DS concept has some holes in it. The faster you go, the more DS tightens up the steering. So, cornering at 40mph requires a different amount of steering input and effort than at 60mph. If you stay at a fairly constant speed thru your favorite turn, there might be some limited confusion when you take it at 40mph one time and 60mph another time. But, if you late-apex the same turn (or any turn) at 35mph and accelerate to 60mph by the time you exit the turn, with the DS adjusting throughout, there's no way you'll be able to control your line thru that turn.

If that description is correct, I'll pass.

Glisse

^^

No that is not correct in practice. I have it on both my S5's, largely due to advice Superswiss gave me several years ago to consider Dynamic steering. I held off on placing an order until I could compare standard vs Dynamic on S models (it feels different on A models). I predominantly use it in Dynamic mode (in my Individual settings) because it uses a tighter ratio than the standard steering, and I like that it feels more direct. In comparison, standard steering feels a little vague and lazy to me.

But the difference is not huge, and if you don't have it, you won't miss it. If you are unable to compare the two versions in B9 S models in your area, then don't get it.

In the performance trilogy of Sport differential, S Sport adaptive suspension, and Dynamic steering the latter has the least influence of the three, at least for an S4 or S5 Sportback. On an S5 coupé, I would always get Dynamic steering because of the shorter wheelbase.

superswiss

Agreed with @Glisse . The ratio won't change if you accelerate out of a corner. That would be kinda disconcerting. It's more the entry speed that counts. If you predominantly leave it in one mode. @Glisse leaves it in Dynamic mode as said, and I left it in Auto mode in my Individual settings mostly, then you get fairly used to its characteristics. I found that in my case the best setting for most of my driving was DS in Auto and Sport Differential in Dynamic. It will feel more direct overall as said above and this may have gotten a bit lost in the whole conversation. My issues with it came more down to how it changes its characteristics between the different modes, but I also liked how overall it was more direct than the standard steering. This is what I meant when I said it feels more lively.

I personally didn't test both first before ordering my car. Back then RS5s weren't even available for test driving, so I ordered blindly. I agree that test driving both of them would be best, but you might not find one with DS on a dealer lot to test.

Dan99

I'll add to and/or contradict some of the earlier statements. The most confusing part of "Dynamic Steering" is it's name. It is not the same steering you get in Dynamic mode. It seems like a language conversion issue by the German marketing department, where the same word was used to mean different things.

It does not matter what type of steering you have in your Audi, it will be numb. The steering in some modes feel heavier than others, but they do not have any more road feel. So, road feel should not be a consideration in deciding whether or not Dynamic Steering is important. On the other hand, despite the lack of feel, the car goes where you point it. Unless you are on a track and trying to figure out the exact moment when front end traction starts to diminish, this doesn't really matter. The car is very drive-able despite this issue, and any lack of feel is easily addressed with simple driving techniques unless you are going for absolute maximum performance on a track.

If you buy a car without the "Dynamic Steering" option it will have a large, fixed ratio steering in Comfort and Auto modes. By this I mean the steering wheel has to turn many times to go from full right to full left turn. Faster turning ratios just require less turns lock-to-lock of the steering wheel. Instead of road feel, Audi manipulates steering effort with drive modes. Comfort is lightest, Auto is medium, and Dynamic is heaviest. Also, in some models, Dynamic mode will have a faster steering ratio than Comfort or Auto.

If you buy a car with the "Dynamic Steering" option the steering ratios in Comfort and Auto will vary with road speed. For example, if you are in a parking lot, Comfort and Auto both give you very quick steering to help with parking maneuvers. It's really nice. At highway speeds the ratios gradually become longer so that a simple twitch of the steering wheel doesn't create as much movement, making high speed travel more comfortable and less twitchy. Some people claim that the ratio changes unexpectedly, but I have never experienced this. I would describe the transition of steering ratios with Dynamic Steering as seamless. However, if you put the car in "Dynamic mode", "Dynamic Steering" is disabled and you get faster, fixed ratio steering. It's more like the faster ratio of Dynamic Steering in parking lots, but at every speed. Clear as mud, huh?

So, in my view, Dynamic Steering is the best of both worlds. If you want fast fixed-ratio steering, just use Individual mode and set your steering to Dynamic. If you want more relaxed driving, just put steering in Comfort or Auto and you will have variable ratio steering for more convenient and relaxed driving.

One caveat to this - I'm not sure if every Audi model gives a faster steering ratio in Dynamic mode. I would double check the specific model you are getting.

superswiss

It's more the use of the word Dynamic to describe the Sport mode in Audi Drive Select that's somewhat of a misnomer. Dynamic in a system implies constant change, which describes the Dynamic Steering well, but not the Dynamic mode. On the contrary. The Dynamic mode provides a predictable sporty handling in response to the driving dynamics and constant change in road conditions, grip etc. Nobody else calls the sport mode in their cars Dynamic. Most common is the use of Sport for a slightly more sporty setup above normal, and Sport+ for even more of a sporty setup and then some performance models have a track mode called Track or Race or something similar. Comfort is used to describe the normal daily driving mode. The Comfort, Auto Dynamic nomenclature was always odd to me and even more odd is that the middle mode is actually considered the normal daily driving mode. So Audis kinda have two Comfort modes, but only one Sport mode. Where other brands such as MB/AMG, BMW etc. have one Comfort mode and at least 2 Sport modes. The only exception for Audi was the R8 V10 Performance, which had the Performance mode atop Dynamic and the Performance mode could further be tailored to dry and wet roads.

Dan99

The labels matter less than an understanding of how they are used by Audi. Audi's approach, regardless of labels, separates the behavior of the suspension from the behavior of the engine/transmission. The Porsche Panamera, for example, does not do this. At least earlier models don't. So, in the Porsche, you could not have a responsive engine/transmission unless you also opted for a firmer suspension. You could not have one without the other. Audi's approach is much better. For example, Audi allows you to drive in Comfort but also have the most aggressive engine/transmission at the same time.

Regardless of how the systems work, Audi's labeling is ambiguous and could use improvement. Another labeling misstep example is Auto, as in Comfort/Auto/Dynamic. This label makes some people think it's an adaptive mode that adjusts to your driving but, instead, it's just the middle setting for handling and comfort. You could think of it as Soft/Medium/Firm or Comfort/Balanced/Performance.

So, I can't argue that Audi's labels make sense, but I prefer their implementation that separates ride/handling from the performance of the engine/transmission over cars that don't make this separation. I might want to ride in comfort but still have a maximum response from the drive train.