BMW 7 Series vs Audi S4

What's the difference?

The BMW 7 Series is Munich’s flagship, the car that fans of the blue and white roundel respect as peak plush motoring.

Now, for the seventh 7 Series, BMW has brought electric power to the table in the form of the i7 in order to stay ahead of the curve.

It’s still joined by a petrol-powered variant here in Australia, the 740i, which is a mild hybrid and shares a lot of the luxury specifications of the i7 - including a properly impressive rear seat theatre screen.

But is it forward-thinking enough to fend off the likes of the Mercedes EQS?

Audi would probably prefer you not to realise this, but the five distinct versions of S4 and S5 on the market all pertain to a single performance and equipment formula spread across five different bodystyles. 

Yes five, and this has been the case for more than a decade, with the S4 sedan and Avant wagon, A5 two-door Coupe, convertible Cabriolet and five door liftback Sportback all representing vastly different shapes for you to choose from, with the same underpinnings. This simply echoes the A4 and A5 ranges they’re based on of course, and BMW clearly thought it was a good idea too, given the 3 and 4 Series ranges were split into individual lines at the start of last generation.

Mercedes-Benz offers a similar array, minus the liftback, but is happy to wrap the whole lot under the C-Class label. 

So, given that the A4 and A5 range scored a mid-life update a few months ago, it’s only logical that the changes flow on to the performance S4 and S5s, with the top-tier RS4 Avant following suit. 

We’ve covered the latter in October, and now it’s the turn for the former, and CarsGuide was among the first to drive the updated S4 and S5 ranges at their Australian media launch last week.