Audi S4 (B8.5) Review: 44/70

The Buyer's Guide

We scored the car as a 2013 to 2016 Audi S4 sedan with the supercharged 3.0-litre V6, the six-speed manual and quattro all-wheel drive, and it landed at 44 out of 70, with a verdict of Buy a 2015 or 2016, chain checked.

This car is for someone who wants a four-door with all-wheel drive and a supercharged six, who will have the timing chain and the steering looked at before paying, and who accepts that both of its serious repair modes only partly show up in an inspection.

All money figures use a fixed set of assumptions so they can be compared to other cars we cover: 12,000 miles a year, insurance for a 40-year-old with a clean record on full coverage, and 91 octane at $4.00 a gallon. Prices are Kelley Blue Book private-party in Good condition, on a 2014 Premium Plus sedan. The manual is the transmission we scored, and it is the minority car: owner and dealer forum consensus puts it at roughly 10 to 15 percent of the market, an estimate with no manufacturer split behind it. Most S4s for sale are seven-speed S tronic automatics. We carry no manual-only price, so the book and asking figures below are for the S4 sedan.

Why 2013 to 2016: the B8.5 facelift changed the headlights, bumpers and MMI over the 2010 to 2012 car and left the engine alone, so the 333 hp and 325 lb-ft are the same on both. We cut at 2013 to keep this car's figures off the earlier options list and calibration. We also leave out the 2018-on B9, an unrelated platform with a turbocharged V6, and the Avant wagon, which Audi built for Europe and never sold here.

---

The Deal

~ our estimate, not a measured or quoted figure · [S] one credible source, uncorroborated · * there is a caveat, and the note under the table explains it. Why we mark figures

Kelley Blue Book values a 2014 S4 Premium Plus sedan at $13,970 in Good condition private party. The range on the same page runs from $12,770 in Fair to $14,820 in Excellent, and the Prestige trim runs about $500 to $600 higher at every step.

The market asks for more than the book. Across 61 Cars.com listings of 2013 to 2016 S4s, the average ask by model year is $14,938 for 2013, $18,456 for 2014, $18,726 for 2015 and $21,020 for 2016, and the mean of those four is $18,285. That is the asking figure we carry, the same method the F30 335i uses, and it is a mean of four year averages rather than a median of listings. The spread inside it is wide, from a $4,500 outlier at 152,000 miles among the 2013s to $32,998 at the top of the 2015s. Cars.com inventory turns over, so a later search will not show these listings. What lasts is the shape: asking rises with every year of the scope.

Two figures decide the Deal score. What you lose: KBB's resale value for a 2014 Premium Plus went from $14,594 in 2023 to $12,326 in 2024 and $11,709 in 2025, falling about 10.4% a year, which is about $1,457 a year on the $13,970 buy-in. That is gentler than the F30 335i's $2,404 a year and the Q50 Red Sport's $3,387. KBB's current "Now" row jumps back up to $13,500, but that is today's private-party price, a different series, so we leave it out of the loss. What you get: $13,970 buys 11.6 lb per hp, against about $13,608 for what that power-to-weight usually costs across our Board. That is 1.03 times the going rate. It works out to $42.0 per horsepower on book, against $42.3 for the F30 335i and $46.4 for the Q50 Red Sport.

The Deal is a 5. The entry is fair, and the car gives back about a tenth of its value every year.

---

The Drive

333 hp at 5,500 to 6,500 rpm and 325 lb-ft from 2,900 to 5,300 rpm, in 3,869 lb. That is 11.6 lb per hp, against the F30 335i's 11.9 and the Q50 Red Sport's 9.6. The torque arrives early and stays, which is what a supercharger does.

The engine is a 3.0-litre direct-injected V6 with an Eaton TVS1320 supercharger, not a turbo, and it makes the same 333 hp in every year of the scope because the 2013 facelift did not touch the powertrain.

The gearbox we scored is the six-speed manual, and it is the minority car. Most S4s for sale are seven-speed S tronic dual-clutch automatics, which add standard launch control that the manual does not get. MotorWeek's own instrumented test put the S tronic sedan at 4.7s to 60 and the manual S5 coupe at 4.9s. Audi's press kits repeat 4.9s for the manual quattro, but that is Audi's claim, and nobody we can cite instrumented the manual sedan, so we have not published a 0-60 time for it.

The steering is what holds the Drive at a 7. It is electric assist, precise and numb, the same read as the Golf R's, and the Risk section below covers the binding some of these cars develop. The engine earns points back: the supercharger's whine is a real reason to own the car, though it is not the headline the way the engine is on a Golf R or a Camaro SS.

Handling is scored in The Limit, not here.

---

The Upkeep

About $5,847 a year: $2,400 in fuel, $2,295 in insurance, $452 in tires and $700 in service. That is above the E90 335i's $5,668 and the F30 335i's $4,996, and under the M340i's $6,025.

Premium is recommended, not required. fueleconomy.gov's own wording is "Premium Gasoline Recommended," and we price 91 octane at $4.00 a gallon regardless. The manual is rated 17 city, 26 highway and 20 mpg combined, which is $2,400 a year in fuel. The S tronic rates 21 combined, one mpg better.

Insurance is $2,295 a year, and it is a model-wide figure for the S4 nameplate, not a quote for the manual. MoneyGeek breaks it out by model year, at $1,956 for 2013, $2,280 for 2014, $2,412 for 2015 and $2,532 for 2016 on full coverage, and we averaged the four. MoneyGeek's own average for the model is $2,305. Read it as an estimate.

Tires are 245/40R18 on the standard wheel, the same size front and rear, and 255/35R19 square on the optional 19s. Quattro does not mean staggered here, so a replacement is one size and the set can be rotated. Tires are on our Board tire rule, the same for every sedan we cover: a Continental ExtremeContact Sport 02 in the factory sizes, priced at SimpleTire, one set every 24,000 miles. That is $225.99 a tire, a $903.96 set, or $452 a year. Service at $700 is also our estimate: a synthetic oil service about every 10,000 miles, filters, and brake fluid every two years.

What year one costs, by condition

Those are at 120,000 miles, parts plus independent labor. Oil, plugs, filters and fluids are about $800 to $1,200. Carbon cleaning of the intake valves is about $500 to $800, a water pump about $700 to $900 and a PCV diverter valve about $400 to $600. The timing chain job, at $2,500 to $4,000 for the serious version, is the line that decides which column you land in. It is not scheduled maintenance, but it is the tail risk this engine carries.

---

The Risk

Two different things get called this car's timing chain problem, and they are not the same size. The first is a cold-start rattle. Audi's own bulletin, TSB 2039995/1, which NHTSA hosts, covers all 2011 to 2014 3.0 TFSI cars, traces the noise to one upper chain tensioner and says it does not lead to damage. The fix is to replace both upper tensioners, and it is comparatively cheap.

The second is the plastic chain guides themselves breaking down. Owner forums report it on this engine family at 60,000 to 100,000 miles, and an AudiWorld thread describes a 2011 Q7 with the same engine, failed guides, a jumped chain and a dealer quote of about $8,000. Neither source ties it to a model year. The $2,500 to $4,000 we give for an S4 is our own estimate for that job, built from enthusiast sources and not a pulled quote, so read the $8,000 as a documented ceiling on a related engine, not the expected bill.

The bulletin's range stops at 2014, which makes a 2015 or 2016 car the more likely to carry the improved tensioner already. It does not make either one immune to the guide failure, which we cannot tie to a year. A rattle on a cold start or at idle is the tell for the cheap version. A clean cold start does not rule out the expensive one, so an inspection finds this mode only partly.

The second thing to check is the steering, and it is not a catastrophic mode. The electric power steering on this car can go notchy or bind, most often because the intermediate shaft's lower U-joint seizes rather than because the rack fails. It is the leading NHTSA complaint category for both the 2013 model year, 16 of 33 complaints, and the 2014, 6 of 17. Owner forums call it the dreaded B8.5 electronic steering issue. We have not priced the repair independently, so we give no figure for it: the U-joint alone is cheaper than a full rack, and which one you need decides the bill. This one is findable. Turn the wheel through center at low speed and feel for a notch or a bind. A car doing this still steers and drives: it is a repair that makes the car unpleasant at center, not one that stops it, which is why the Risk counts one catastrophic mode and not two.

Around those two sit three items that are wear rather than failure. The electric water pump has a plastic impeller and goes at about 60,000 to 90,000 miles, at about $700 to $900. Carbon builds on the intake valves of any direct-injection engine, noticeable by 50,000 to 70,000 miles, and a walnut-blast clean is about $500 to $800. A borescope is the way to check, and few sellers offer one. The PCV diverter valve is about $400 to $600 at 50,000 to 80,000 miles, and shows as an underboost code (P0299) or a whistle under boost.

One recall reaches this scope, 14V667000. An improper algorithm in the airbag control module could stop the front airbags deploying after a secondary impact. It covers 2013 to 2015 S4s built from February 16, 2012 to October 21, 2014, so a 2016 car falls outside it. The remedy is free, a dealer reprograms or replaces the module, and a VIN lookup at nhtsa.gov/recalls finds it. We found no other S4 recall reaching this scope.

NHTSA has 33 complaints for 2013, 17 for 2014, 1 for 2015 and 0 for 2016, across all categories. Power train and engine complaints are the second-largest group. A younger car has had less time to collect them, so read the pattern more than the count. Aggregator pages citing 467 complaints blend the whole S4 nameplate back to 2000, so we do not use that figure.

The inspection checklist

1. Cold start: listen for a chain rattle
2. Turn the wheel through center at low speed, feel for a notch or a bind
3. Check coolant level and color, and ask for the water pump history
4. Check idle quality: a rough idle points to carbon buildup
5. Scan for an underboost code such as P0299
6. Ask about tune history, and verify rather than trust the word
7. Confirm it is a six-speed manual, not an S tronic
8. Check the VIN against recall 14V667000

---

The Daily

Five seats, four doors and a 12.4 cu ft trunk, 34.0 cu ft with the second row folded. Could it be your only car? Yes.

Audi built an S4 Avant wagon for Europe and never sold it here, so the sedan is the body in scope. A sedan trunk is the reason the Daily is an 8 and not a 9.

What dates the car is the infotainment. It has MMI with Bluetooth standard, the 2G system in 2013 moving to the navigation-plus system in later years, and no Apple CarPlay or Android Auto anywhere in the run. CarPlay arrived with the MIB2 head units that followed this generation. On a 2016 car that is a real ding.

---

The Limit

D Street, on the 2026 SCCA National Solo Rules. Appendix A lists the Audi S4 (2010-25) in D Street, and we read it on the rulebook itself, not on a mirror. An older mirror put the S4 in F Street, which was wrong for this car: F Street's own Audi entries are the A6 supercharged V6, the A7 and the V8 S4 of 2004-09, a different car.

Class is context, and it does not rank. The score comes from the car: quattro traction under a nose-heavy V6, a car that pushes wide before it rotates, with the sport rear differential an option rather than standard. The tires are the same 245/40R18 front and rear, or 255/35R19 on the optional 19s, and the car weighs 3,869 lb. We have no instrumented grip figure, because the outlets that publish one are not sources we cite. It is competent rather than sharp.

---

The Mods

The first step is a software-only tune. Integrated Engineering's entry tier is $520, in three tiers at $520, $670 and $820, and claims up to 416 hp at the crank from its own 329 hp dyno baseline for this engine.

The next step is a pulley and a tune. 034Motorsport's Stage 2 package for the manual is a 190mm billet crank pulley, a tune and a supercharger belt for $1,698, and it claims 450 hp at the crank on 91 octane against Audi's 333 hp, about +117 crank hp. That is a tuner's claim, and 034Motorsport does not publish a wheel-hp figure, so this is not a clean +100 whp number, only the closest priced package to one. Past +150 whp over stock starts at $4,276 on the same vendor and wants fueling and driveline work.

That is why this scores an 8: a cheap first step on a factory-supercharged engine, with a deep and shared ceiling. APR, Integrated Engineering, 034Motorsport and Unitronic all list software and hardware for this engine, and 034Motorsport writes packages for the manual. The ecosystem is shared with the S5, which uses the same supercharged 3.0T and drivetrain. Compare the Golf R's $799 Stage 1, which claims 355 hp, and the F30 335i's $700 to $1,000 flash for roughly 60 to 90 whp.

The catch is that more boost leans on the same timing chain and supercharger drive the Risk section names. No source we found puts a number on a tuned S4's failure rate against a stock one, so this is plausible rather than proven. The WRX's ringland failure is documented in a way this one is not.

---

The Verdict

Buy a 2015 or 2016 with the chain job priced and the steering turned through center, or keep $4,000 aside for the guides. It scores 44 out of 70: an 8 for Daily and an 8 for Mods, a 7 for Drive, held down by a Risk of 5, where the chain guides only partly show up in an inspection, and an Upkeep of 4, at $5,847 a year.

If you are choosing between years, Audi's chain bulletin covers 2011 to 2014, so a 2015 or 2016 car is the more likely to carry the improved tensioner, and the airbag recall covers 2013 to 2015 cars built before October 2014, so a 2016 falls outside it. The power is the same 333 hp in all four years. Asking prices climb with the year, from an average of $14,938 for a 2013 to $21,020 for a 2016.

This car is for you if you want all-wheel drive, four doors and a supercharged V6 with a mainstream tuning ecosystem, and you will have the chain and the steering inspected before you pay. It is not for you if you want a manual that is easy to find, because most S4s for sale are S tronics. And it is not for you if you want a cheap running cost, because at $5,847 a year it runs above the E90 335i's $5,668 and the F30 335i's $4,996, or if you want CarPlay.

The Long Read: Should You Buy a Used Audi S4 (B8.5)?

We scored the S4 as a 2013 to 2016 Audi S4 sedan with the supercharged 3.0-litre V6, the six-speed manual and quattro all-wheel drive, and it landed at 44 out of 70, with a verdict of Buy a 2015 or 2016, chain checked.

So you are looking at a four-door Audi with a supercharged six, and you have already read the forum threads about the timing chain. A 2013 to 2016 S4 puts 333 hp in a five-seat, all-wheel-drive sedan for $13,970 on book, which is a fair price for that power. The catch is two repairs an inspection only half finds: a timing chain guide job at $2,500 to $4,000, and electric steering that can bind.

We scored the manual, which is the minority car, at roughly 10 to 15 percent of the market on owner and dealer forum consensus, with no manufacturer split behind that estimate. Most S4s for sale are seven-speed S tronic automatics. We carry no manual-only price, so the figures below are for the S4 sedan.

How much does a used Audi S4 cost?

Kelley Blue Book values a 2014 S4 Premium Plus sedan at $13,970 in Good condition private party, with a range from $12,770 to $14,820. The 61 listings we found on Cars.com across 2013 to 2016 average $14,938 for a 2013, $18,456 for a 2014, $18,726 for a 2015 and $21,020 for a 2016. The mean of those four, $18,285, is the asking figure we carry.

Asking sits above the book, and it climbs with each model year, so the year you pick moves the price more than anything else on the sticker.

The number to watch is the price against the power. KBB's value for a 2014 Premium Plus went from $14,594 in 2023 to $11,709 in 2025, about 10.4% a year, or $1,457 a year on the buy-in. That is gentler than the F30 335i's $2,404 and the Q50 Red Sport's $3,387. The entry is fair rather than cheap: $13,970 is $42.0 per horsepower, against $42.3 for the F30 335i, and 1.03 times the $13,608 our Board pays for 11.6 lb per hp. That is why the Deal is a 5.

Is the Audi S4 reliable?

Not without a look under the hood. It has one catastrophic mode, the timing chain guides, that an inspection only partly finds, and a steering fault worth checking on the test drive.

The first is the timing chain. There is a harmless version and a costly one. Audi's own bulletin, TSB 2039995/1, covers a cold-start rattle on every 2011 to 2014 3.0 TFSI, blames one upper tensioner, and says it does not lead to damage. A separate failure, the plastic chain guides breaking down, is reported on this engine family at 60,000 to 100,000 miles, and it is the $2,500 to $4,000 job, which is our own estimate. A related-engine Q7 got a dealer quote of about $8,000. A rattle on a cold start is the tell for the cheap fix. A quiet start does not clear you of the expensive one.

The other thing to check is the steering, and it is not catastrophic: the car still steers and drives. The electric power steering can go notchy or bind, most often from the intermediate shaft's lower U-joint seizing. It is the leading NHTSA complaint category for 2013, with 16 of 33 complaints, and for 2014, with 6 of 17. We have not priced the repair independently, so we give no figure. You can find it, though: turn the wheel through center at low speed and feel for a notch.

Around those are a water pump at about $700 to $900, valve carbon at about $500 to $800 and a PCV diverter valve at about $400 to $600. The Risk is a 5 because the chain guides are real and only partly detectable. The steering is worth finding, but it does not stop the car.

Which S4 recall should you check?

One, and it is the airbag control module. Recall 14V667000 covers 2013 to 2015 S4s built from February 2012 to October 2014, because an improper algorithm could stop the front airbags deploying after a secondary impact. A 2016 falls outside the build window. The fix is free, and a VIN lookup at nhtsa.gov/recalls will tell you whether it was done.

Is the S4 expensive to run?

About $5,847 a year. Fuel is $2,400 at 20 mpg on 91 octane, which fueleconomy.gov lists as recommended rather than required. Insurance is $2,295, a model-wide figure for the S4 nameplate averaged over four model years, not a quote for the manual. Tires are $452 a year on our Board tire rule, and service about $700, our estimate. That is above the E90 335i's $5,668 and the F30 335i's $4,996, and under the M340i's $6,025.

The tires are one size front and rear, 245/40R18 on the standard wheel, so you can rotate them. On our tire rule a set is $903.96, one every two years.

How does the S4 drive?

With a sound you will notice. 333 hp and 325 lb-ft in 3,869 lb is 11.6 lb per hp, and the torque is flat from 2,900 to 5,300 rpm. The supercharger's whine is a real reason to own the car, though it does not carry the car the way the engine does on a Golf R.

We have no 0-60 time for the manual sedan. MotorWeek timed the S tronic sedan at 4.7s and the manual S5 coupe at 4.9s, which is the closest independent data we can cite.

The steering is why the Drive is a 7 and not an 8. It is electric, precise and numb, the same read as the Golf R's.

Can an S4 be your only car?

Yes. Five seats, four doors and 12.4 cu ft of trunk, 34.0 with the second row folded. The Avant wagon never came to the US, so the sedan is what you are shopping.

What dates it is the dash. MMI with Bluetooth is standard, and there is no Apple CarPlay or Android Auto in any year of the scope. CarPlay came later, with the MIB2 head units.

Is the S4 any good at autocross?

It is competent rather than sharp. SCCA's 2026 Solo rules put the S4 in D Street, listed as the S4 (2010-25). That tells you where it would run, not how well. Quattro gives it traction, but it is a nose-heavy V6 car that pushes wide before it rotates, and the sport rear differential is optional. We have no grip figure we could source.

Should you tune an S4?

You can, and the market is mainstream. A $520 software tune from Integrated Engineering is the first step, and 034Motorsport's $1,698 pulley-and-tune Stage 2 for the manual claims about 117 more hp at the crank, a tuner's number and not a dyno reading. APR, Integrated Engineering, 034Motorsport and Unitronic all support the engine, which is shared with the S5. The Golf R's Stage 1 is $799 for a claimed 355 hp.

The cost is not on the invoice. More boost leans on the same chain and supercharger drive the Risk section names, and nobody we found has put a number on it.

S4 buy or skip: the verdict

Buy a 2015 or 2016 with the chain job priced and the steering turned through center, or keep $4,000 aside for the guides. Audi's bulletin stops at 2014, so a 2015 or 2016 car is the more likely to carry the improved tensioner, and a 2016 is outside the airbag recall.

The S4 finished at 44 out of 70 on our Board. It earns an 8 each for Daily and Mods, and a 7 for Drive, on 12.4 cu ft, a supercharged V6 and an ecosystem shared with the S5. It loses points to a Risk of 5 and an Upkeep of 4, at $5,847 a year. Buy it if you want all-wheel drive and a supercharged six and you will check the chain and the steering before you pay.