Audi A6
June Neary Takes A Look At Audis Latest A6 And Comes Away Impressed
I must admit I was a little unsure of the latest
Audi A6. The last model was such a quietly understated car that just got on with its job in a dignified manner but the latest model is cut from rather different cloth. Its almost as if Audi have suddenly decided that they were fed up with hiding their light under a bushel and that the A6 needed to make itself as visible as possible. So it is that the car is way bigger than its predecessor and a whole lot showier with a long grille at the front and lashings of chrome.
If you want to make a statement as to your standing in life, the A6 works very well. Me? I must say that although the looks grew on me, I feel that Mercedes and
BMW do the whole German thrusting thing quite well and that Audi were better served acting as a cerebral alternative.
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The first thing youll need to get used to is the size of the latest A6. Whereas its predecessor struggled a little bit when the tape measures emerged, the latest car dwarfs a
BMW Five Series or a Mercedes E Class. In fact the boot is bigger than the flagship A8 saloon. If your garage is on the tight side the A6 may well be a bit too much car for you.
Theres a good deal of A8 in the A6s genetics. It too makes extensive use of aluminium to help trim the weight. The bonnet, front bumper, bootlid and firewall are all constructed in aluminium, although such are the volumes that
Audi predict this car will sell in that an all-aluminium construction like the A8 would have proved too difficult to productionise. Despite being significantly larger than the old car, the weight of the 2.
4-litre saloon has swelled by a mere 45kg to 1525kg.
The car I tried was a 3.0-litre TDi diesel model and its a class act. Drop inside and it smells delicious like all new upspec Audi models leather and the faint tang of oil. Just because it burns diesel rather than unleaded petrol doesnt mean its a sluggard either.
Its markedly more powerful than its challengers from Mercedes, BMW and
Jaguar, the 225bhp engine setting a new class benchmark and easy beating the 204bhp of the most expensive car of the trio, the Mercedes E320CDi. That power advantage also means that its one of the quickest and although its advantage is clear over the Jaguar S-TYPE 2.7D, that huge body takes a serious engine to get it moving. A sprint to 60mph takes just 7.
1 seconds and a top speed of 150mph put it on a par with the BMW 530d and its also a fair bit quicker off the line than the Mercedes. It seems as if the Audi has swept all before it. If there is one Achilles heel in the A6 3.0 TDIs make up, it comes in the form of its emissions figures.
Emitting 229 grammes of carbon dioxide per kilometer, the Audi will be significantly more expensive in terms of benefit in kind taxation than all three of its key rivals. Its also a bit thirstier with a combined fuel consumption figure of 33.2mpg. Do bear in mind when making comparisons of this sort that the Audi is fitted with a six-speed tiptronic automatic gearbox as standard.
This gearbox is a massive 14kg lighter than its five-speed predecessor. Audi have also widened the gear ratios, giving the A6 better pick up at low speeds and more relaxed high speed cruising ability. The shift is faster and the downshifts are accompanied by an automatic double-declutching feature that blips the throttle in a sporting fashion. A sport mode will interest keener drivers although the gearbox isnt as quick-witted as the DSG twin-clutch manual thats fitted to the top of the range TT coupe.
Youll have to pay for the privilege of all this engineering excellence but maybe not quite as much as you were expecting. Not only is this A6 3.0TDi bigger than all three of the rivals previously mentioned, but at £31,045 on the road, its significantly cheaper than the German duo and within a couple of hundred pounds of the Jaguar.
Although the big and shiny quotient has been ramped up a fair bit, the A6 would still be my executive car of choice. Now I just need an executive job.
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