Audi A6 (2011) review
by Mike Grundon (22 April 2011)
Nobody on the face of the planet knows how to make the all-new Audi A6. I mean it. There's no one person out there could tell you how it works or how to build it. Rather than describe it as a single car, it's better explained as a mobile community of technological innovations, drawing in the expertise of specialists in satellite navigation, phone technology, radar, image interpretation, dynamics, acoustics and a myriad of computer applications.
Audi executives tell us that car makers are approaching a technology wall. They're running out of ideas for extra goodies to bolt in and give them the edge over their competitors. At the launch of its latest executive saloon, the company says weight reduction is the new priority, and that's why it's going big on how comparatively light the new car is.
How do you put a skip load of technology into a car, yet still keep the weight down? Well, Audi is using lots of aluminium in both the frame and the skin so the car is now 15% lighter than it would be if it was all-steel instead. It contributes to improving performance and reducing fuel consumption and pollution.
Even the standard versions of the cars are truly packed with kit and the optional extras list gives you a chance to almost double their price with add-ons. I'll tell you about some of the headlines in a moment, but first let's get an overview of the basic range.
You're faced from launch with a choice of one petrol and three diesel engines, though there are plans to bring in a hybrid model in the future. The 2.0 TDI turns out 175bhp, and the 3.0 TDI has either 201bhp or 242bhp, depending on the model – the more powerful version comes on the all-wheel drive quattro version. The petrol engine is a 3.0 TFSI unit turning out a range-topping 296bhp.
There are three gearbox options – a manual six-speed unit, a Multitronic CVT and the sporty semi-automatic S tronic for the high-performance quattro versions.
Only two trim levels are available – SE and S line. Prices begin at £30,145 without road tax for the two-litre TDI SE with a manual gearbox, and rise to £41,640 for the three-litre petrol S line quattro with the S tronic gearbox.
The most efficient model in the line-up is the cheapest, returning an official average of 57.6mpg, and the quickest off the mark is the most expensive which will sprint to 62mph in 5.5 seconds.
Perhaps needless to say, even the basic SE models have a high level of equipment. Leather seats, satnav, adjustable engine, steering and transmission response, a parking assistance set up and a music system that plays pretty well everything short of vinyl LPs are all part of the package. Moving up to S line brings smarter wheels, better seats and sounds and changes to the lights, trim and minor interior equipment.
The list of optional extras is as long as your arm, but rather than boring you to death, I'll just mention a few that caught my attention.
Adaptive lights are common nowadays, shining minor lamps into the corners you're turning into, but on the A6 the pattern of light can be part controlled by the navigation system. If you're in what's deemed the countryside, the straight-ahead dip beam is a long, low and narrow one, but if you're in the town, it's a short, low and squat beam. Cool, but is it absolutely necessary?
Satellite navigation systems will often tell you what the speed limit is where you are, but on the A6 there's a camera you can have built into the back of the rear-view mirror that scans for temporary speed restriction signs, say at roadworks. Once it recognises them, it relays the information to the driver on the head-up display projected onto the windscreen. Now that's a bit more useful.
The rake of equipment designed to keep you in lane on the motorway, safe distances from the nearest cars, warn you of approaching overtaking cars, even brake hard for you if you're about to crash is prodigious. There's also the established Night Vision Assistant which detects pedestrians that, for some unaccountable reason, haven’t been spotted in the sculpted beam of the blinding LED headlamps.
You see now what they mean by the technology wall. What else could you want a car to do for you, other than take you home while you nod off in the back seat? Arguably, if you’re driving with due care and attention, none of this stuff is strictly necessary.
However, one thing which would be worth having, if you could afford it, is the Bang and Olufsen Advanced Sound System. It plays everything and it plays it extremely well . . . if you can face the £6300 price tag!
At the press launch event we had the opportunity to drive the car with the top diesel and petrol engines in heavily kitted-up versions with S tronic gearshift and the quattro drivetrain. There was also the two-litre diesel available with a manual box and front-wheel drive. I could have spent days alone with each car on the wild and empty roads of the high country and still fallen short of exploring their extensive capabilities, so a few hours on the lanes and motorways just west of the M25 were little more than tasters.
You'd expect a car that's spent seven years in development by a company that already has a reputation for producing some of the most desirable cars in the world, to be smooth, responsive and enjoyable, so there's nothing surprising to report there.
The big diesel and the petrol engines were both very quick off the mark and solid duckers and weavers along the lanes. They're both well-endowed with power and torque and on paper the acceleration times are extremely close, the TDI clipping through 62mph just half a second later than the TFSI. My money would go on the diesel, though.
A similarly specced petrol model would be around £200 more expensive to buy and the road tax for the diesel is £165 for a year; less than half the £445 for the petrol. The clincher has to be fuel consumption. The official average for the diesel is 47.9mpg, but the petrol gets no more than 34.4mpg.
However, the car I had most fun in was the manual two-litre diesel which I felt was powerful enough and much more involving. Even setting aside the cash savings, I prefer cars to be more basic where the driver gets to rely more on the craft of driving than abdicating so much to the technology. Audi expects the 2.0 TDI to account for 75% of its annual sales in the UK. Quite right too.
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