Jeffc

Dan99,
How does that compare to Drive Select mode set to "Dynamic" WITH the Dynamic Steering option? More or less effort? Faster or slower ratio? Etc....

Dan99

@superswiss My issue with a number of your posts is that you spend more time describing how Mercedes does everything better than Audi, than you do helping people understand and use their Audi. I'm glad that you are happier with your 2019 C63s than you were with your 2013 RS5. Different strokes for different folks, and MB seems to be a better fit for you.

Personally, I will never buy another new Mercedes. I had a CLK500 with an AMG package on it. My car won in a comparison with an BMW M6 at the time, which is why I bought it. It was flashy and cool, but, in the end, it the worst handling, least reliable, most expensive car to maintain I have ever owned, and the dealer has a s--t attitude about it all. It started to break at 55K miles, just after the warranty ended, and every time I took the car in it cost thousands to fix. Broken door handles, broken springs, rebuild the front end, replace the car's computer to fix the headlight washers, exorbitant fees to reattach weather stripping that could not stay on by itself, and sloppy sloppy handling that had more understeer than any Audi I have owned. It stopped on the Pennsylvania Turnpike one night around midnight because the dealer overfilled the oil almost 800 miles miles earlier. It was the first car I ever owned that required new rotors with new brake pads. When I purchased the car new it was fast for the day with its 5 liter V8 and 302 hp. Acceleration was good until the transmission started to shift really really hard one day during casual driving. It could knock the fillings out of teeth or send someone to the chiropractor. It gave me a headache. The dealer had to replace all or part of the wiring harness going to the transmission. After that, acceleration was anemic and the shifting sucked. The dealer would not do anything about it and just said it's working how it's supposed to, even though it did not resemble the performance when I bought it. When I raised concerns about reliability and cost of repairs, the service manager gave me a lecture on why I should NOT buy a used Mercedes and I should just expect to have repair costs like that. I had to remind him I bought the car new from his dealership. I never got any compliments on it, and it was the only car I ever owned that other drivers would spit on at traffic lights. I got rid of it at 80K miles because I had enough.

Audi is not perfect, but it was and continues to be a breath of fresh air compared to my experience with Mercedes.

My focus in this forum is not to bash MB and, you won't see me do that on a regular basis, but you need a reality check. I just try to help Audi owners better understand what they have and how to use it. I do find some of your posts helpful, but more and more you feel like an MB troll. Many of your comments on Audis are dated and no longer relevant to the current models, or simply inaccurate. Our recent exchange in another thread about shock valves in the Sport Suspension is an example of that. In this thread you incorrectly described mid-corner corrections with Dynamic Steering - the steering is not unpredictable as you said. You described rotating the car in a 90 degree turn at different speeds. If you are driving aggressively enough to "rotate" the car in turns, you should have the steering set to Dynamic and you will get fixed ratio steering. Even so, I can easily rotate the car with Dynamic Steering, but it's not my choice for aggressive driving. In another post you incorrectly said that Dynamic Steering is never inactive. So, rather than describe how to use the car correctly, your post just bashes a feature that works really well for its intended purpose. After all, Audi disables Dynamic Steering when you put Drive Select into Dynamic mode or set Individual mode Steering to Dynamic. I find it impossible to believe you don't know that this is how current models work, which makes that post seem somewhat malicious in intent. You also said in an earlier post that it's impossible to drive in a straight line at highway speeds with steering set to Dynamic. I find this to be absurd, but something a non-Audi owner who is trying to decide what to purchase might believe.

I welcome your help when its relevant and current, but I find your constant drone about "MB is better than Audi" to be tedious. And, for me, none of the MB features you describe overcome my first hand experience with the brand.

Dan99

Steering Effort: Audi changes the amount of steering effort by Drive mode. Comfort is light effort, Auto is medium effort, Dynamic is heavier effort. This is the same whether you have Dynamic Steering or not.

Faster/Slower, Standard Steering: The standard steering provides fixed-ratio steering in all drive modes. In Comfort or Auto the turning ratio is slower (many steering wheel turns lock to lock). In Dynamic, the turning ratio is faster (fewer turns lock to lock). These ratios are unaffected by road speed.

Faster/Slower, Dynamic Steering: Dynamic Steering changes the behavior in Comfort and Auto, but not Dynamic. It provides variable-ratio steering in Comfort and Auto modes, but retains fast fixed-ratio steering in Dynamic mode.

Effect of Dynamic Steering: With variable-ratio steering, the ratio changes from fast to slow with road speed. The slower the road speed, the faster the steering so, for example, you get fast steering at low speed for convenience (such as a parking lot) and you get slower steering at highway speeds for a more relaxed driving experience. I find the transition in steering ratios to be imperceptible in daily driving. It's just comfortable on the highway and it's convenient when you pull off the highway and maneuver in a parking lot. It adjusts for how you are driving, and it's nice.

How I use this: Of course you can approach this any way you want. In my case, I drive in Individual mode about 90% of the time. I set Individual mode Steering to Dynamic and have fixed ratio steering whenever I am in Individual or Dynamic mode. However, If I'm on a road trip and just want to drive long distances more casually, I'll put the car in Comfort or Auto and Dynamic Steering becomes active. The ability to manipulate steering behavior is, in my view, the best of both worlds. I can choose to be aggressive or casual and the car lets me easily adjust the steering for how I want to drive. But, even if I want casual, it helps me out in tight situations.

I notice features like this when I switch from my car to my wife's Jeep Grand Cherokee. We back into our garage out of a turn. My car goes right in with one turn of the steering wheel. My wife's Jeep requires two full turns of the steering wheel to accomplish the same maneuver. Yet, on the highway, they drive the same. I never really noticed the issue with the Jeep until I got the Audi, but now I find the steering in the Jeep to be tedious in situations like this.

Clearly you don't need a feature like Dynamic Steering, but I would get it again.

Jeffc

Thank you.

I think I have a good conceptual understanding of HOW the systems work, but without knowing (or caring about) the actual ratios and ft-lb required for various combinations, I don't have any way to answer these (final?) questions. So, I'll ask....

With Drive Select mode set to "Dynamic" (where I'll leave it 90% of the time):
1) WITH the Dynamic Steering option, is the steering RATIO (speed) faster, slower, or the same as it is WITHOUT the Dynamic Steering option?
2) WITH the Dynamic Steering option, is steering EFFORT heavier, lighter, or the same as it is WITHOUT the Dynamic Steering option?

Dan99

The ratio and effort for Dynamic mode is the same whether you have Dynamic Steering or not. The Dynamic Steering option only affects how the car behaves in Comfort and Auto.

Jeffc

That's it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm done!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm ordering the Dynamic Steering option.

Thanks to all.

superswiss

It was badly worded yes.

Dan99

Well, let me raise a note of caution about my advice. You should confirm what I said with a dealer. I have accurately described how my car behaves, but it is possible the current S4 is different. So, please confirm what I said with a dealer before you sign on the dotted line. If you find out something different, please let us know.

Jeffc

It all hinges on whether, in the current DS system software, the steering ratio is fixed when in Dynamic mode. I don't know if it's fixed, or what ratio it is fixed at, or if that ratio is the same ratio as the standard steering. Nobody at the dealership will be willing or able to answer those questions.

I ordered an S4 with DS last week. Now that I have a better understanding of how DS works, I really don't care to wait for it until a June-July delivery. I asked the salesman to drop that option and look at US inventory again. If he finds one tomorrow, I could have it by the end of the month. I think I found 2 on Cars.com.

Thanks.

superswiss

Well, you seem curious enough to read them, so not sure what to tell you. I don't expect you to read my posts. You are free to ignore them. It's just an Internet forum. BTW, I've been here since 2006, and you've only been here since 2019. Where were you? I have more posts than you and a bunch of others here combined, so unless you've read them all, you have absolutely no clue about how much I've helped others. It's always the new kids on the block who think they know better, isn't it?