Anyway, I can’t afford a BMW

BobTPH said:

Since I don’t attempt to draw donuts with my car, I prefer the understeer of an Audi.

When bought my first one I test drove it and the comparable BWM on the same curvy road. It was effortless in the (FWD) Audi and scary as hell in the (RWD) BWM at the same speed. Does that make me an unskilled driver or does it make the BMW wrong car for most people? Don’t answer. It is a personal preference. To quote Billy Joel, “I don’t want to work that hard.” My car at that time was a Toyota Supra, more similar to the BMW, but, IMHO, better behaved. I have owned several AWD Audis since and have been very happy with them. The handling in snow has saved my life twice.

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I have owned BMW RWD, X-Drive, and Audi Quattro vehicles. My experience with BMW vs. Audi is that Audi is, indeed, "less work" to drive fast but also not able to handle the same roads as quickly as the understeering BMW. However, I have never needed to drive fast enough on curvy roads that is mattered, and I also have been able to recover from unexpected sliding about equally in both.

So, that's my experience. My current S5 is much more pleasant for long trips than my 328xiT wagon, but the wagon is more fun to drive on challenging roads because of how much you can sense the road through the steering and how flat is corners. The is not to say the S5 is a slouch in handling, it isn't—it's just more insulated from the road and doesn't have the super low CoG and 50/50 weight distribution of the 328.