Audi's face-lifted A6 won't ruffle too many feathers and is a discreet and refined executive saloon, making it an ideal post-boom choice, writes PADDY COMYN
YOU WERE never too far away from an Audi in Celtic Tiger Ireland. The brand had something of a meteoric rise in the State as the money started rolling in. Part of the appeal of the brand was and remains the fact that, as Pat Kenny might have said (if he didn’t now have to buy his own BMW), there is one for everyone in the audience. You can become an Audiphile early on with the A3 and remain there right up until the quite frankly biblical R8 supercar.
Audi have a seemingly endless product range. There are now two SUVs, multiple convertibles, the achingly beautiful A5 and by next year we will have the A1, a car that has Mini firmly in its cross hairs. And we lapped up everything they threw at us. You would see A4 diesels with impossibly large alloy wheels dotted around building sites, while the developer might have arrived in the obscenely big Q7 SUV.
Unsurprisingly, Audi recently released results showing that 2008 was a rather good year for them. Revenue at Audi rose nearly 2 per cent to €34.20 billion last year, while net profit jumped to €2.18 billion. However, Audi said recently that they now expect a sharp drop in profit and its first annual decline in sales in 14 years. Audi’s annual report states something that we probably all know already: “2009 will probably be the most difficult year in the history of the automotive industry.”
Audi plans to expand its already large range from 28 models now to 40 by 2015, a prospect that must strike fear within many of its ailing rivals. But while the brand continues to expand into niche areas, their bread and butter remains the core A3, A4 and A6 models, with the A6 having been the most recent recipient of a makeover. Since a new A4 and the beautiful A5 were firmly embedded into the market, Audi gave the A6 a nip and tuck and the car now features LED lights front and rear, as well as some minor changes to the interior. Daytime running lights are built into the headlamps and in the optional xenon plus system as fitted to our test car, they form a horizontal strip of LEDs.
The look of the car has matured since its 2004 debut, and it looks more like the brand’s flagship saloon, the A8. Audi have fine-tuned some of the car’s more awkward styling, and with the right wheels (in our case some 18” alloys) the car looked absolutely beautiful.
Despite these improvements, the A6 manages to perform the whole task of executive transport with a fine degree of diffidence. There really isn’t anything showy about the A6, making it an ideal post-boom choice.
As we have mentioned before in Motors, there are certain cars being driven around the country that unfortunately remind us of the good times and perhaps remind us that we were all a little too extravagant.
These include models such as the Range Rover Sport, which seems as discreet now as walking about with a bell attached to your leg. The BMW 5-Series is another. No parents in their mid to late 30s would be seen dead outside the creche in anything other than a 530d during the good times. We now see many driving around with worried-looking faces behind the wheel. They are ghosts of good times past.
The Audi A6 somehow didn’t quite give off that air of aspiration. But then again, it wasn’t quite as good as the 5-Series, and to an extent has lived beneath the shadow of its German rivals, which include the Mercedes-Benz E-Class too. It might now be time for the A6 to become more relevant than ever.
Audi now have some superb offers on the A6 range, one of which is a 2.0 litre TDi A6 with Band B emissions for under €40,000. That is superb value for what is a vast car.
Our test car came with a slightly more potent diesel power plant in the form of the 3.0 litre 240bhp diesel engine. This V6 is the most powerful diesel available in the A6 range, with 500Nm, and it really is a talent. Our test car was fitted with a six-speed tiptronic automatic transmission and comes at this level with Quattro all-wheel drive.
It adds up to a combination of power and refinement. You have to spend time getting used to its speed. At 100km/h it feels slow and the acceleration is so urgent and silent that overtaking safely is just a slight flex of your right leg away.
Granted, as is Audi’s usual policy on press vehicles, this car was loaded with optional extras. For those interested in saving money on options, you could buy 23 TomTom sat-nav units for the price of the navigation in the press car (which works beautifully by the way), or you could have 38 Motorola Bluetooth headsets for the price of having Bluetooth in your car, something that comes standard on a Ford Fiesta these days.
Put another way, for the price of the options fitted to this car, you could have a 2004 A6 3.0 litre TDi with one owner and a warranty. Ouch.
This aside, we came out of Audi’s Q5 SUV straight into the A6, and there really was no comparison. Sales of the Q5 have been poor, a smudge on Audi’s usually pristine copybook – and with a comparison such as this it’s not hard to see why.
Our Q5 came with a 2.0 litre TDi engine, and with options costs more than the basic price of a 3.0-litre TDi A6. What is likely to come out of the recession is that SUVs are likely to become increasingly irrelevant.
Our week in the Audi took us on our usual M1 motorway commute across some pitted back roads, and all the time it felt comfortable, competent and compelling. This is such a nice car to spend time in and with Quattro all-wheel drive it feels as sure-footed as any car of this size. There are some of the usual gripes of perhaps not quite enough steering feel, but this has improved in recent models.
There are some significant rivals in this segment, as we have mentioned. In the BMW 5-Series we’ll see a new model early next year, and this summer sees a new version of the E-Class which we test drive at the start of next month.
Another is the Jaguar XF, which has taken the segment by storm and is about to get a new diesel engine – a 3.0 litre V6 diesel with either 237bhp or a more potent 271bhp. These new diesels have CO2 emissions of 179g/km, making them Band E, and you can read about a first drive in next week’s Motors.
This aside, the A6 is not only discreet enough to help you ride out the recession without ruffling too many feathers – it’s comfortable, powerful and refined enough too.
Factfile Audi A6 3.0 TDi Quattro Tiptronic
Engine: 2,967cc V6 common rail turbo diesel engine putting out 240bhp @ 4,000rpm and 500Nm of torque @ 1,500rpm. Six-speed tiptronic transmission, all-wheel drive.
Specification: Standard features include front fog lights, 17" alloy wheels, electro-mechanical handbrake, 4-spoke leather multifunction steering wheel, cruise control, ESP with brake assist, cloth upholstery, air con/climate control, single CD player.
Options: fitted to the test car were Metallic Paint €1,497, Valcona leather upholstery €3,718, MMI Navigation plus €4,754, 18" alloy wheels €1,436, Front sport seats, electrically adjustable €2,197, Bluetooth mobile phone preparation €957, Xenon plus with LED rear lights €1,892, Lighting package €463, Audi Music Interface €405, Sports Suspension €595, Leather sports multi-function steering wheel €207, Load-through hatch €321, Interior mirror with anti-glare action €266, CD changer and DVD player for MMI navigation €693, Tyre pressure monitoring €165, High beam assistant €214, Adaptive lights €791, Three-zone air conditioning €826. RRP of optional extras: €20,687
Consumption: L/100km (mpg); Urban: 9.3 (30) Extra-urban: 5.8 (49) Combined: 7.1 (40)
CO2 Emissions: 189g/km (Band E - 28 per cent VRT) and €630 annual road tax
Price: €64,890