# Autoweek A6 review



## A4Jetta (Feb 16, 1999)

http://www.autoweek.com/cat_co...49272
Fast Lap of Luxury: Audi aims to redefine luxury with its sporting next-generation A6 sedan

By DUTCH MANDEL 

Where Audi’s new A8 raised the style stakes in the luxury market, the A6, too, throws down the gauntlet. There’s no denying you will not mistake this face for any other marque’s, which, when building a brand, is the idea. 
2005 AUDI A6 
ON SALE: November 
BASE PRICE: $42,000 (est.) 
POWERTRAIN: 3.2-liter, 255-hp, 243-lb-ft V6; awd, six-speed tiptronic automatic 
CURB WEIGHT: n/a 
0 TO 60 MPH: 6.8 seconds (mfr.) 
THE IDEA THAT LUXURY CAN BE slathered on like cake frosting runs counter to its essence. Luxury is an inherent ethic. Luxury does not dangle like loopy gold chains and you cannot pluck it from a tree, though in every sense it must be cultivated. Luxury must be earned. 
So when a company, which itself has striven to join Europe’s elite carmakers, raises the notion of “commodity luxury,” as has Audi, it invites comparisons. According to Audi, commodity luxury is practiced by Japanese automakers. Infiniti, Lexus and Acura build great cars in great quantities and load them with gadgets, dress them in leather and sound-deadening materials, and sell them for a discount compared to European rivals. The commodity luxury equation reads something like high-line attributes plus low price equals great value. 
Commodity luxury is wonderful for the consumer and not so good when you’re selling against it. Still, in the A6, Audi has a sporty and luxurious car that in many ways recasts what we should come to expect in a luxury vehicle—whether it must go against luxury’s true definition or something from a marketing Power Point presentation. 
Start with its looks. The A6 face boasts a wide grille opening. Importantly, it is a strong and chiseled face that is more distinctive than the one it replaces on the outgoing model, which is key in the high-end segment: Build a face, build a brand. When you recall grilles of merit, Bentley and Bugatti come to mind; not strange that these are within Audi’s corporate family. Flanking the grille are optional jeweled xenon headlamps that go beyond the normal road-lighting requirements—they have the ability to turn coincident with steering input to follow the road’s curvature to light the way better than before. This is a carryover feature from the A8, and is also on cars from Lexus. Other carmakers will have it soon—suppliers are pushing it. 
The car’s profile is elegant. It has a lower rocker crease that gradually rises as it moves from behind the front wheel arch rearward toward the bumper. Its shoulders are strong with a crisp line emphasizing that strength, though the line dips toward the rear, but it doesn’t culminate in a dog-dragging-its-tail look. The A6 boasts an expansive six-window greenhouse that makes it distinctive and affords its driver tremendous sightlines. 
A chrome strip off the A6’s rear deck is another style cue with a nod toward luxury. Dare we say as a compliment that it looks almost BMW 7 Series-esque? 
A rear, upturned spoiler is handsome; whether it is also efficient in reducing lift matters little, though its overall shape cuts the wind with a 0.28 drag coefficient.
When you cannot hear the world outside pass by, it is a quiet reminder that you are in a car of substance. Such is the case with A6. Interior noise deadening is a particular focal point for the Japanese, and that is true too for this car. Take cross sections of the bodywork and you see the effort: The rear package shelf, for example, gets nearly three-quarters of an inch of insulation sandwiched between lightweight metal. No rear passenger should quibble about too much noise unless that noise is generated by the optional Bose stereo system. 

Audi has made a concerted effort to take this new-generation A6 upmarket. Note the crisp lines at the rocker panel and at the shoulder to give its elegant look character. Even the chrome strip on the trunk connotes luxury. 
The A6 has grown physically and emotionally. Its stance is longer by three-tenths of an inch and its overall length has grown by 3.3 inches. It is 1.8 inches wider and is a half-inch taller. All these dimensions combine to give greater interior volume and more shoulder, knee and rear-seat room; a recessed B-pillar allows driver and passenger easier access. 
Other touches include an electromechanical parking brake set with a touch of a button on the center console. There is an optional tire-pressure monitoring system as well as adaptive cruise control. For those who don’t know when it is dark or wet outside, headlights can turn on automatically and windshield wipers sense rainwater. 
The A6 also gets the driver-intuitive Multi Media Interface control knob affixed to a monochromatic display as standard equipment. Audi’s advanced key access is an option that allows a driver to keep the key in his pocket and fire up or shut down the car with a touch of a button. 
What happens after you press the fire button is that the A6 comes very much to life. When the car arrives this fall, the quattro model gets an advanced 3.2-liter V6 FSI engine that pumps out 255 hp at between 6000 and 7000 rpm with a torque peak of 243 lb-ft maxing out between 3000 and 4000 revs. This normally aspirated V6 delivers power with nary a lag as shown by its claimed 0-to-60-mph time of 6.8 seconds. 
Unfortunately for clutch fans, no manual transmission is planned for the United States. The 4.2-liter V8 quattro with 335 hp will move the A6 a full second quicker to 60 mph from a standstill, according to Audi. A front-drive V6 with a continuously variable transmission arrives late next fall. 
A current A6 driver, depending on how calibrated his seat is to a high-fun driving quotient, will immediately notice some of the significant structural and suspension changes to this car. Engineers increased its body rigidity by 34 percent from the car it replaces; the new A6’s front and rear tracks have been widened to give it a greater stance, the front by 2.6 inches, the rear by 1.9 inches. A four-link front suspension and trapezoidal rear link with separate springs and shocks keep it planted on both the high-speed sweepers and in the lower-speed decreasing-radius turns. There is no steering shake whatsoever, which is something that can be particularly bothersome at triple-digit speeds on an autobahn. Steering for the V6 and the V8 differ: The V6 gets a constant-ratio steering box, dubbed Servotronic, which Audi engineers found to be more responsive with better on-center feel than that produced by the variable-ratio box fitted to the larger V8-powered A6. Who are we to argue when they both work admirably? 
Other than the time you’ll spend ogling your A6 as it sits in the driveway, you’ll be behind its wheel, and that’s a very pleasant environment indeed. Every competitor car company has at least one new Audi tucked in its design studios as the exemplar of how interiors should be crafted. This A6 shows why: The cockpit embraces driver and passenger without being claustrophobic or overpowering, and it boasts a slightly angled center console canted toward the driver. No matter your size, you can get in a comfortable driver-oriented seating position. Two instrument-panel gauges, shaped liked teardrops on their sides, are elegant and easily legible. Even the ubiquitous cupholder gets something special: a mug-handle cutout to accommodate the mightiest thirst. Oh, how the German designers must cringe at American tastes. 

A driver will find immediate comfort in the A6’s interior, which is another Audi milestone in its elegance and efficiency. 
One interior touch that separates A6 from others: If you have its power rear-window sunshade up and put the car in reverse, it senses you want to back up and it automatically lowers the shade to improve visibility. That’s convenience, and luxury.
Audi has perfected the use of materials for its cars, too, and that shows in A6. 
The headliner is a nailhead-like diamond pattern that looks as if it comes from a haberdasher’s bolt rather than an automotive supplier. The use of colors is great; subtle shades with fantastic touch points mix with graceful lines with no unsightly gaps. Everything Audi has done to raise the bar on interior designs continues with this A6. Note to competition: Here’s your target, good luck hitting it. 
Which begs the point about commodity luxury vs. traditional luxury. There will always be those who want to play the apprentice, and those who will always be the apprentice... and then the boss. Though it is too far in the future to say what the definite A6 price is, word is the front-drive V6 model will come in near the low-$40,000 mark while its big V8, all-wheel-drive brother will start at near $50,000. 
But really: When you’re looking for sports and performance and luxury, what price is too high?


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## car_nut (Jul 13, 2001)

*Re: Autoweek A6 review (A4Jetta)*

I think it'll be a long time before anyone's able to catch up to Audi for interior quality and design. Seem to have the most talented people in their employ, and it attracts even more. Never driven one, but saw at NY & LA car shows, felt around all edges and underneath. Their doing things MB stopped doing due to cutting costs. And MB is way behind with aluminum architecture and engine design. JMO.


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