and if in the market today for a new car....Sorry to say the 14 IS would be low on the list of potential purchases...Grille is hideous body lines into lights..not much better..

But maybe it looks better in person...Now a A5...

 

I'm in the same boat as you buddy...going to put a deposit on a 2014 A5, premium plus package in a couple months.

 

The A5 will be a slower car, you realize.

 

it's pretty quick with 258 foot pounds of torque. It's plenty fast for me....I had my IS350 for 4 years and in my commute, I really couldn't open it up to use all the power unless I wanted to risk getting pulled over for a speeding ticket.

 

I agree with you about the grille but the regular one looks better than the f sport versions IMO. I had an Audi A4 once and it was the least reliable car I ever owned and Audi USA was terrible to deal with re warranty issues. My current 2004 Lexus has been bullet-proof.

 

yup...the ultimate trade off. Lexus/Japanese reliability vs Audi/German savvy.

My 06 is < 70K miles so I'm not spending any money on a new car any time soon.

I don't get the big grille trend. Acura sure learned a lesson with the 'bottle opener' grille. I was hoping Lexus would avoid the trend but seem to be coming late to the game...

All the photos I have seen of the 14 ether have no front plate or a Euro plate...wonder what the N America plate will look like on it? Maybe break up the vast expanse of the Predator jaw? Also wonder how the plate is attached? Current process blows..drill screws right into the plastic bumper!

 

it looks a lot better in person, I've seen the non F Sport in person at a car show

 

The car looks absolutely gorgeous in person and even though I love the A5 and almost did go get one I just couldn't trade reliability and power of the IS350 just for looks... I love the looks of the IS just as much so it was a no brainer. As for the 2014 IS, I'm still torn between waiting one more year or getting it right away since my car is still fairly new... I don't know why, or if maybe photographers don't know how to capture the beauty of the new IS but most pictures out there don't do it justice. I'd wait until at least seeing it and even test driving it before jumping to an A5 cause you might regret it later.

 

what model year was the a4?

 

Only bad thing about the snazzy A5 is it's old now. New model is in the works and I will bet Audi will not go backward, but only forward. THAT will be the car to have. So in a short two years, today's model will be playing second fiddle.
I don't know about the rest of you, but one of my biggest auto-buying pet peeves is having to go prematurely into debt just because the car I bought has just been eclipsed by something even better. Timing is everything.