You love me Randall.

 

Unfortunately this is wrong on a few accounts. A4's drop all their power to the wheels that are slipping the worst making them horrible at getting out of deep snow if you get stuck. Also you should learn the difference between Gross Vehicle Weight and Curb Weight, your A4 weighs nowhere near 4900lbs lmfao. Try more like 3,300.

To the OP. Speaking from alot of personal experience with all 3 cars mentioned here, The Evo's and STi's are obviously better platforms to build, with the Evo probably being the best. They are neither meant to be "luxury" but I'm not sure I would call my A4 very luxurious with its crappy leatherette seats and manual adjustments that I'm sure could break an old lady's bone trying to raise her seat. The SSL packaged Evos come with VERY nice leather Recaro seats, a nice sunroof, and power everything except the seat obv. I'm not denying the cheap build quality of the evo (more so than the sti), but I wouldnt call them shitty cars. They are actually very tight, nice, and fun to drive.

As for modding, you can make any of them very fast. But the A4 is handicapped mostly by the lack of airflow that its head can handle. Also the Newer Evo's and STi's are just that, newer, with updated tuning technology. Not to mention that the aftermarket market is way bigger which naturally brings out more products.

If I had to do it all over, I would have bought a turbo diesel ford truck and a nice fast mustang.