Audi RS4 sedan ceasing production update

Winding Road have heard from Audi regarding the rumours of the RS4 sedans demise first picked up by Autocar last week. At the time Autocar reported that RS4 sedan production had ceased to make way for the upcoming Audi RS6.

Patrick Hespen of Audi Media Relations told Winding Road that this is not quite true.

"There will be a full build of the 2008 model year RS4 sedan, and production is still continuing," Hespen told Winding Road.

Patrick went on to explain that Audi would continue its tradition of only offering one RS model at a time. This effectively means that the RS6 won’t be available until production of the RS4 has ceased or in other words the RS6 will not be available until the 2009 model year…

You might be wondering where that leaves the RS5 whose existence seems to me more than just a rumour with spy photos recently making the light of day (see picture above care of Autogespot). If the policy is only one RS model at a time any RS5 model would not appear until after the RS6’s two year production run.

We are of the opinion that the ‘one RS at a time’ rule is frankly hard to understand. From an owners point of view it is no doubt a good thing, providing limited edition exclusivity. However at a time when the world is awash with money, buyers of performance cars are knocking down dealers doors and AMG and BMW’s M division are pumping out more new models than you can poke a stick at, it doesn’t seem right to keep the world on a strictly controlled RS diet.

We have just one question. If Audi have a 'one RS model at a time' policy why is it that no-one seems to have heard of this before and the demise of the RS4 sedan was reported with shock on so many car sites around the world...did everyone forget?

You can read previous Audi RS related articles by clicking on the links below:

Audi RS6 spy photos

Audi RS4 sedan to cease production

Audi RS6 Nurburgring spy video