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http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/C
omparos/articleId=125265
Before you start sending us flaming e-mails
complaining that a comparison between the
2008 Audi S5 and the 2008 BMW M3 Coupe is an
obvious mismatch from the get-go, you should
know a few things.
Our first full test of the $53,000,
all-wheel-drive 2008 Audi S5 was a bit of a
revelation. With a 354-horsepower version of
Audi's direct-injection 4.2-liter V8 under
its hood, the voluptuous Audi S5 ran a
13.3-second quarter-mile at 104 mph, just 0.1
second and 2 mph shy of the 420-hp 2007 Audi
RS4 sedan. What's more, the S5's slalom speed
is within a couple mph of the harsh-riding
RS-spec sedan. "It ran a 13.3? With that kind
of speed, who needs a $67,000 RS4?" we asked
ourselves.
We believe so strongly in the 2008 Audi S5
that it earned our Inside Line's inaugural
Editors' Choice Award.
So we acquired (hastily perhaps) another 2008
Audi S5 and set it against the new 2008 BMW
M3 Coupe, a car now fortified with V8 power
for the first time. Speed-reading the
specifications sheets of these two cars, they
seem like natural rivals: the 354-hp,
all-wheel-drive 2008 Audi S5 measured against
the 414-hp, rear-wheel-drive 2008 BMW M3.
But as it turns out, we gave the 2008 Audi S5
a bigger challenge than we had initially
intended.
Tags : Battle of the Beemers: BMW M3 135i 335i Edmunds Edmunds' Inside Line |
