Auto News 5

Right car, wrong timing?
At a glance, it would seem that a high-powered German sedan is the wrong car for the times. The new Audi S4 arrives in the midst of a global economic slump. It was unveiled at the Paris show, where hybrids and electric vehicles stole the limelight, and it unashamedly advertises the brand motto Vorsprung durch Technik when everybody is talking CO2 and mpg and $$.

It's hard to make a case for the Audi RS4 Cabriolet on a rational basis. With destination charge and gas-guzzler tax, it costs nearly $85,000. That's almost $20,000 more than the RS4 sedan, and roughly $27,000 more than the S4 Cabriolet. It's convertible top means that it doesn't have the structural rigidity of its sedan sibling, so - as any car magazine geek will tell you - it doesn't handle quite as well. It's based on the outgoing version of the A4, which for the sedans and wagon has already been replaced, so it's not the latest-and-greatest. Oh, and it gets 12 mpg, city.