This post is cool. People arguing about a car thats nearly the same. But I have to agree w/ the price difference, s4=better deal. But for those who think an s5 is rare and are willing to fork the extra money for alittle extra weight and different materials, thats cool too.

well i owned both, (s4 base, s5 vert) both had there ups and downs. but i can tell you one thing i will never own a s5 vert agian........... next car is going to be a 88se (hopefully)


-Shawn................ S4's rule

lol, I have a 86 SE and a 88 Turbo 2, so Im i have the series 4 covered pretty well, I dont mind them....Buying an FD tho, just to own another RX7

I think you are right on the jack. The jack appears to be steel. The spare on my S4 is the same as the S5 however, both steel. Not all S4 have AL spares (or hoods).

Another difference is the sway bars on the S5 have ball joints on the ends which adds to the better feel when driving and maybe a tiny bit of weight.

They do have more speakers.

Well.....My S5 does not have door speakers. Just the rear strut tower speakers and the under dash speakers. In Canada we got no automatic seat belts in the S5's either so there is that problem gone. :D

Personally, I have ridden in my buddies S4 NA lots, and of course driven my S5 tons. The differences are not noticable to me at all, although I have never driven his car. But I have seen S5's for sale for pretty darn cheap up here. I bought my S5 NA for 2k Canadian, my buddy just bought an S4 NA with 60k km on engine for 2500.

I say go for whatever comes along first for a price that is not unreasonable for what your getting. If you can get a S4 for dirt cheap in wicked shape then go for it, if you can get an S5 in wicked shape for a price your willing to pay then go for it.

i want an aluminum hood. :( anyone know where i can find a brave blue aluminum hood?

Its interesting to note, that the majority of top TII's on this forum, in terms of level and quality of mods, horsepower, and cleanliness seem to be S4's (Blue TII, 1FastT2, BDC etc).

Stock for stock, the S5's may be better, but once pride of ownership kicks in, all bets are off :)

heres some fun fuel for the fire.
my s4 t2 with 20b is 2860lbs with a full tank of gas
my friends 89 gtu is 2700lbs with a half tank of gas

mike