Audi A6 3.0 TFSI quattro 2011 Review - International

Audi A6 3.0 TFSI quattro

Not so much:
>>Have they stretched the exterior design far enough?
>>That's about it

The south of Sicily isn't the place to launch a new car, unless you're supremely confident about its poise in tricky situations, because the place is full of them.

Corners tighten suddenly, without warning. Roads subside in strange places, leaving valleys and plateaus everywhere, so the road can also drop away by inches just when you least expect it. The bumps range from smooth and rounded to sharp and brutal, from undulations along to the road to sharp cracks across it.

Besides all of that, the road surface itself is either patched to smithereens or so old it's polished to the point of shining like marble in the sun, so the grip is usually extremely limited. To make it even more difficult, a near-constant wind blows sand and dirt across the road.

Yet poise isn't something many large Audi sedans have ever worn as merit badges. They've often lead with superb interior build quality, design and materials, followed up with economical and powerful engines and polished it all off with a bit of design.

With their engines sitting forward of the front axle for extra cabin space, they've often been nose heavy, and they've tried to disguise this with all-wheel drive and intricate suspension architecture. But on roads like this, there just aren't enough places to hide an inherent imbalance.

But Audi has turned a corner. Last year's A8 started it, with its all-new architecture pulling the engines further back into the bay and now the long-awaited A6 carries it even further.

And it's a cracker. It was a car that was strong in some areas and weak in others. It has now transcended that reputation to become a superbly balanced, impressive driving machine and it has retained all of the old strengths to boot.

Easily the most-impressive Audi to date the A6 has, at a stroke, become an even-bigger headache to its German rivals and has enough serene poise to challenge on even Jaguar's traditional turf.

It's larger inside, shorter outside and has a longer wheelbase and wider tracks front and rear. It uses the A7's chassis, which is a curious mix of aluminium and exotic steels, to lower the overall weight by up to 80kg, which helps in both acceleration and fuel economy.

It's the same engine as the flagship A7 uses, too: a 3.0-litre, direct-injection, supercharged V6 that pumps out 220kW. OK, not much, you might say, but the A6 is lighter than both the E-Class and the 5-Series, and it's enough power to throw it to 100km/h in just 5.5 seconds.

But it's not just a quick mid-sizer; it's quick everywhere, from every spot in the rev range, with the mechanical supercharger boosting torque even from idle. To get the best acceleration out of the A6, you just step off the brake pedal and onto the accelerator and, with a deep, slightly rumbly roar, it's throwing you back into the seat and giving you V8-esque acceleration.

The engine delivers its peak torque at 2900rpm and then keeps punching hard all the way to 6500rpm. It's not as smooth as a slick BMW in-line six, but will take a 'Benz V6 to school on noise, vibration and harshness in most situations.

There are two other keys to the straight line performance; the superb seven-speed double-clutch gearbox and the new crown-gear centre differential is the star of an all-wheel drive system plucked from the RS5 hot rod.

The gearbox is brilliant. It's now as good as a full automatic in its smooth shuffling back and forward, suffers no juddering whatsoever and saves far more fuel than an auto. What's more, this gearbox replaces full automatic transmissions in the A6 and it's capable of far faster shifting, too.

Flinging between the bends has been a traditional shortfall, particularly to BMW's 5 Series, but those days are coming to an end. We tested this same A6 with the firmer, lower S-Line suspension package and steel springs – and really didn't like it – but in standard trim, the car is brilliant.

For starters, it gives you the wonderfully engaging feeling of sitting right down inside the chassis, without ever feeling like you sit too low. It helps its drivers feel like they're part of the machinery rather than, in the manner of the old A6, being along for the ride.

It's also quiet, with just 66DbA of road and engine noise floating through the cabin at 100km/h – about three less than the 535i – and even big bump strikes are muffled.

There's another key to its ride and handling, too; the Audi Drive Select system is now built into the MMI setup and it's even easier to use. That's good, because there are now five different settings that allow you to change the car's entire character.

They change the car's suspension, ride height, accelerator response, engine response, gearbox speed/smoothness, the steering weight and response, plus the skid-control settings. On our car, with the optional air suspension, it even lowered the ride height in Dynamic mode.

The first of them is a fuel economy mode, which does everything from giving you a more economical engine map to changing the air-conditioning program. It's good enough to eke 8.2L/100km out of the supercharged V6 and less than five out of the base 2.0-litre turbo-diesel.

There's a comfort mode, which obviously gives the softest gear changes and the softest ride; an automatic mode, which uses sensors to determine the best of all possible worlds; a dynamic mode, and then there's the individual mode. Audi lets you tweak that as you choose and, in Sicily, the combination of dynamic steering, engine and gearbox setups in concert with the automatic suspension adjustment worked a treat.

That's why assessing the A6's handling isn't a simple matter of saying it's good or bad, because the car has so many different shades to its character.

Yet, throw it at a mountain road and the 1740kg car responds like it's 200kg lighter. The all-wheel drive's default setting is to send 60 per cent of the drive to the rear axle and it can instantly send 85 per cent back there or even 70 per cent of it up to the front, depending on which end of the car can use it best.

The steering could perhaps use a bit more feedback (but the same could be said of BMW's electric steering), but it's accurate and quick. Fling the car at a set of corners and its front end just seems to bite and bite.

When it finally runs out of grip, it takes just a small lift off the accelerator pedal and the diff figures out how to bring it all back into line again and the throttle is accurate enough that you can make as many adjustments as you like through the same corner.

The car gives the impression that it's overjoyed to be driven with some enthusiasm (which not all Audi sedans have done before it), and the way the weight shifts around the car and the way it rides bumps when it's all loaded up means it's basically unflappable.

Get it wrong somewhere and the car will do everything it possibly can to bring it back into line for you and you never have the impression that a bump in the wrong place will throw it off line. It's as trustworthy as cars come, but it's also a bit of fun now, too.

Inside, Audi has taken its reputation for quality and materials to a whole new level. There is luxury dripping from every pore of the A6's cabin and everything you can touch feels both robust and just so nice that you want to touch it again.

The seats are brilliant, with ventilation, heating and a huge range of adjustment, and so is the steering wheel. At first, the headrest seems too far forward, which can be annoying, but Audi has made even this adjustable fore-and-aft, so you can quickly slide it back to where you want it.

The instruments are superb, with Audi spreading the tacho and speedo wider in the dash and then angling them, individually, towards the driver to give it a 3D effect. In between, there is a full digital screen that can show you navigation, music or even the optional night-vision, infra-red camera footage.

The latter is so effective that Audi's not allowed to sell it in certain Middle Eastern countries, but it mates the camera footage to complex algorithms that not only identify people hidden in the dark, but warn you of those walking into your path.

There's also the speed-limit display, that tells you what the maximum speed is, even if you forget, and a head-up display, too.

Then there are the technologies that are already proven in the A8, including the satellite navigation system that ties in with Google Earth to show real-world graphics. The A6 also has the ability to turn itself into a rolling wireless hotspot, capable of linking eight laptops and smart phones into the net.

It doesn't stop there, because there's a system to parallel park the car, with the driver doing nothing more complicated than working the throttle and brake, into any space just 80cm longer than its own 4915mm length.

There's the best radar cruise control we've yet tested, which not only slows you down (to a standstill if necessary) in traffic, but starts accelerating again far faster than earlier editions.

Around the cabin, some of the wood trims have millionaire dripping from them, as do the leather trims and even the feel of the plastics. It's just a superb piece of thorough interior design from Audi and, with a wider cabin, there's plenty of space for six footers in the rear seat.

But that's not all…

There are, obviously, other engines in the A6, and they start with the ultra-economical 2.0-litre TDI front-wheel drive, which will be a European fleet favourite.

With 130kW of power, it accelerates to 100 in a more-leisurely 8.7 seconds, but it's stronger in the mid range, thanks to 380Nm of torque from 1750rpm. The real reason it's here is that it's the weight leader, at 1575kg, and it's around 20 per cent more economical than its predecessor.

Yes, a combined cycle of 4.9L/100km will do that for you. It's also the cheapest, by some margin.

Next up the ladder are the 2.8-litre V6 direct-injection petrol motors, available with both front-drive and Quattro configurations. With 150kW, the front-driver is a second quicker to 100km/h than the small diesel, but it doesn't have the diesel's torque and it's also nearly three litres thirstier per 100km.

In the real world, the 3.0-litre TDI V6, with 150kW, looks to be the pick of the A6s, surging to 100 in seven seconds flat and using just 5.7L/100km – and all the while it has a thumping 450Nm of torque waiting to help you in the mid-range.

At the top end of the diesel range is a 180kW Quattro version of the 3.0-litre TDI. It's incredibly smooth, too, and has another 50Nm to justify the extra cost. Six litres/100km and a six-second sprint to 100? Yes, please!

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