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Audi S4 Quattro Cabriolet – Road Test – Auto Reviews – Car and Driver
August 15, 2011 | 
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Picture this: You’re at a dealership eyeing the latest zooty roadster. You’ve taken the test drive. It made all your body hairs tingle, and now you’re seeing yourself in it on weekend mornings, blowing out the cobwebs.
Then your more practical significant other chimes in: "Where are we going to put the kids? And how is that thing going to get up our snowy driveway?" You almost ask, "Who is this person?" But you know the truth: You’re busted.
Not so fast. Over at the Audi store sits The Answer: the new
cabriolet—a $56,270, 340-hp V-8-powered convertible that has none of the usual sports-car impracticalities, not to mention four seats to placate whatsername
and all the goodies.
The S4 is the latest in Audi’s expansive line. At the bottom is the $25,970 A4 sedan that’s powered by a turbocharged 170-hp four-cylinder engine. Until this S4 cabriolet debuted, the top model was the S4 sedan (the "S" prefix denotes the hot-rod model), a $48,070 four-door with a 340-hp V-8 and standard six-speed manual transmission. In between, there are three body styles—sedan, wagon, and convertible—and a variety of engines and transmissions. The Quattro four-wheel-drive system is available or standard on all models.
The S4 sedan is one of our sweethearts. It won a comparison test in May 2003 Compact ("
") and snagged a spot on this year’s list. Its combination of burly V-8 power, tautly beautiful sheetmetal, and four-wheel-drive sure-footedness is unbeatable in this segment of the car market. We all expected the droptop version to be just as sweet and, well, basically, it is.
The transformation from sedan to convertible has, however, added 309 power-sapping pounds to the 3864-pound sedan. There’s a multitude of guilty parties, but the main culprits are the steel body reinforcements that must attend a convertible and the heavy, motor-operated softtop. There’s also a pair of protective steel hoops that automatically extend from the rear bulkhead if sensors detect an accident.
The extra weight spells softer performance. The sprint to 60 mph took 5.8 seconds—0.8 second slower than the sedan. The quarter-mile time worsened from 13.6 seconds at 103 mph to 14.3 seconds at 98 mph. There was one major advance: The S4 sedan has a governed top speed of 130 mph, and although Audi says the S4 cabriolet has a 155-mph top-speed limiter, our test car ran to 162 before the limiter hollered.
There are two direct competitors to the S4 cab: the $57,295 BMW M3 convertible and the $81,970
cabriolet. We’ve only tested the quicker Bimmer, which gets to 60 in 5.1 seconds and turns the quarter in 13.7 seconds at 104 mph.
The S4′s straight-line speed feels plenty quick, though, and is about equal to that of a pair of sharp roadsters, the Porsche
and the Nissan . But those sports don’t offer four-wheel drive, a feature that’s standard on the S4 with either the standard six-speed manual or the $1150 six-speed automatic.
Article source: http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/car/04q3/audi_s4_quattro_cabriolet-road_test
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2009 Ford Fiesta – Auto Shows – Car and Driver
We were okay with the Verve name, but Ford has decided to go with a tried-and-true global name for the small car it will sell in virtually every market, including the U.S. So when the Verve concept goes into production, it will be known as the Ford Fiesta.
There are three distinct variations of the subcompact, or B-segment, Fiesta for Europe, Asia/Pacifica, and North America—all to be launched by 2010.
At the 2008 Geneva auto show, Ford of Europe shows the three- and five-door Fiestas for that market, being assembled this fall in Cologne, Germany. Ford’s plant in Valencia, Spain, will add production next year.
Jim Farley, Ford’s head of marketing, said, “The good news is that Ford of Europe has figured out how to make premium small cars. It will be built in Valencia, Nanjing, Thailand, and Cologne. We will build it locally somewhere in the Americas.” Regarding the fact that it looks better than the Focus, he commented: “I would never advocate holding back on introducing better product and if it has an impact on our current lineup, so be it.”
Shown are the first, and exclusive, pictures of the five-door unveiled at the show, a body style which may come to the U.S. if reaction is positive. Also in our gallery are images of the three-door Fiesta that will stay on the European side of the pond.
The styling, inside and out, doesn’t veer much from the Verve concept shown at the
, including the futuristic center stack that was modeled after a cell phone and toggle switches on the steering wheel to perform many commands. The 2009 doesn’t increase in size from the current Fiesta sold in Europe, but it’s lighter through the use of lightweight, high-strength steel.
For Europe, consumers have a choice of five powertrains including a new Duratec 113-hp, 1.6-liter Ti-VCT gasoline engine. Others are 1.3-liter and 1.4-liter Duratec gasoline mills and a pair of diesels: a 1.4-liter and a 1.6-liter. Transmissions are a five-speed manual or a four-speed automatic.
The Fiesta will be kind to the environment, with fewer than 100 grams per kilometer in carbon-dioxide emissions, Ford says. Much as CAFE regulations are dictating product development in the U.S., strict new emissions regulations are forcing greater degrees of efficiency in Europe.
Article source: http://www.caranddriver.com/news/car/08q1/2009_ford_fiesta-auto_shows