Nearly 1700kg, four-wheel-drive hardware and an automatic ’box are hardly the ingredients of choice for great standing-start acceleration times. Audi claims 7.1sec to 62mph; we couldn’t match that, but 7.5sec to 60mph, 7.3sec from 30-70mph and 19.7sec to the three-figure mark are still nothing to be ashamed of. Rare are the occasions when you’re aware of any shortage of urge, and that’s largely down to the V6’s refinement, flexibility, and the snarl it unleashes at high revs as the bright red needle sweeps past the 5000rpm mark.
But equally important is the smooth-shifting six-speed automatic gearbox. Drop the selector into Drive or S and forget about it if you like: electronics will do the rest. Feel the need to select a specific cog for that upcoming corner? Just give the perfectly placed paddle mounted on the steering wheel the required number of taps.
The technical specification doesn’t reveal any vast advances (quattro A6s have always had the independent rear suspension until now denied their front-drive siblings), but this new car feels substantially different to the old one to drive. Thankfully, that change of character is mostly for the better. Thanks to the vastly improved body control, it’s now possible to tackle a twisty road and enjoy it.
The added quattro traction renders the ESP system largely redundant, and power can be appied without worrying about the wheelspin that afflicts the front-wheel-drive car. And while the electro-hydraulic steering (super-light at parking speeds, suitably weightier on the move) still might not offer much genuine feel, it is at least accurate and endows the car with a keenness to turn into corners.
We aren’t quite so enthusiastic about the A6’s ability to smother ruts, ridges and potholes. On the same stretch of B-road the A6 manages to glide over certain bumps serenely, yet seconds later crashes into the next as if the springs were made of concrete. Fundamentally, the A6 is too unrefined for this clas