audi S4. I had one for a while and absolutely loved it. I put 15,000+ miles on it and never put $1 of maintenance into it, other than oil changes and a fuel filter.
*disclaimer* the audi 4.2's take 10 (yes, ten) quarts of oil, so the oil change will cost about the same as a duramax oil change. :rofl:
My favorite part was that the S4's are sooo sleeper. From 10 feet away they look like any other A4. Except when you start it and hear the V8 rumble.
And they are AWD, so they arent useless in the snow/bad weather like an M3 or CTS-V.
Everyone complains they (S4's) are heavy, but personally I loved the heaviness of them. When you get in and shut the heavy/thick door you feel like you are in a vault. Its one of the only "small" cars that I feel truly safe in, if I were to get in an accident.
STI's/Evo's are nice and AWD too, but you feel like you're driving around in a tin can, and you look like a 17 year fast-and-furious old boy racer. The doors/window pillars/etc are about half as thick as an S4, and when you shut the door on an STI/Evo, the whole car rattles and shakes.
Once I got it tuned, the fuel economy improved quite a bit. I mean, its still a naturally aspirated V8 in a 4,000lb AWD car, so its never going to be "great", but if I really tried I could get 21mpg.
heres a little video I took of mine when I was putting the aftermarket exhaust on. Sometimes people would do double-takes in the parking lot when they saw an "A4" make those sounds when it started up. :angel:
[YOUTUBE]E1CVx3HWgFo[/YOUTUBE]
Sadly I drove through a puddle on the road one rainy day that was a lot bigger/deeper than it looked, and the engine took in a huge gulp of water and hydrolocked it/threw a rod. Insurance said it was cheaper to total the car than to freight a new engine over from Germany, so I no longer have it. I will definitely own one again though, I really loved that car.
ben