If the RS4 reeks of good breeding from the outside, it is positively regal inside. From the moment you pull on the beautifully engineered handle and peer in, you can’t help but be taken in by the cabin. It looks good and feels good once you’re in one of the heavily bolstered front seats. No doubt about it, the RS4 is a class act inside.
The highlights are, as mentioned, great seats, including those in the rear; very possibly the sexiest steering wheel on the market; swathes of tastefully distributed leather and carbonfibre; some of the smartest-looking and clearest-to-read instruments about and roominess in the rear that no M3 passenger could contemplate. Oh yes, and the boot is a big 460 litres, or 720 with the seats folded.
The RS4 also comes stacked with goodies. For your £49,980 you get full leather, CD player, climate and cruise control, xenon headlights and 19in wheels. Yet what arguably makes it an even more impressive machine to live with than its pure toy count is its mechanical refinement, and its ability to switch from high-performance saloon to refined luxury tourer. That wouldn’t be possible without such a good ride, such excellent wind-noise suppression and such fine refinement on smaller throttle openings.
Our only criticism concerns the road roar that filters into the cabin at high-ish speeds on roughish asphalt; it’s not dreadful, but neither is it better than in the five-year-old M3.
We averaged 19.3mpg on test with a best of 24.6 and a worst of 13.2 – pretty good for something this heavy and quick. According to Audi the previous RS4 held more of its value over three years/60,000 miles than either the M3 or Mercedes C32 AMG, and we suspect the new model could even improve on that.
