Overview An exquisitely rendered luxury sedan with a newfound elegance
Pros Incredible fuel economy, elegant exterior, surprising performance
Cons Interior is a little fussy and Audi Canada’s “freight” charge is now more than $2,000. Otherwise I’m stumped.
Value for money As good as it gets in the luxury segment
What would I change? I’d see if we could find some more horsepower as long as it didn’t hurt the fuel economy and I think the alphanumeric pad thingie is a giant waste of technology.
How would I spec it? I’d pass on a few of the options outfitted to my tester like the Heads-up Display and the S-Line sport package.
The gap between elegant and stodgy can be a mighty fine distinction. Quite what, for instance, separates Gregory Peck’s Atticus Finch from Jimmy Stewart’s George Bailey can be extremely difficult to define. Both, after all, wear rumpled suits, talk in monotones and seem to amble along at a pace that would frustrate snails. Their hair is likewise disheveled and both are ponderously moralistic. But Peck is elegance personified in every single frame of To Kill a Mockingbird while Stewart always comes across the country bumpkin in It’s a Wonderful Life. In the end, American Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s famed definition of pornography — “I know it when I see it” — would seem just as appropriate to panache and grace.
2016 Audi A6 3.0 TDI Technik
David Booth, Driving
So, while I could detail the revisions Audi has made to the 2016 A6 — wider front grille, greater emphasis on horizontal accents and a slightly swoopier rear roofline amongst its stylistic alterations — the truth remains that as soon as you actually see the 2016 version of Audi’s mid-sized luxury sedan, one’s immediate reaction is one of, “Oh, they got that right then, didn’t they?” Where the previous A6 looked like a Passat that had lingered too long at the buffet, the 2016 version is easily mistaken for a top-of-the-range A8, a mistake quite a few of my neighbours — including one who fancies himself an expert on luxury cars — made.
Car Review: 2015 Audi A6 TDI
I suspect the improvement will be sufficient to rejuvenate interest in the A6, which had seen its popularity wane under the onslaught of the ever-growing number of svelte four-door “coupes,” Audi’s own A7 included. Even conservative consumers, it seems, are looking for something swoopier these days than the traditional three-box design and the A6’s newly sloping roofline is Audi’s way of making even bankers feel like they’re with it. For the first time in its long history, the A6 looks elegant rather than just expensive.
One thing that hasn’t changed is the A6 is one fine automobile. Based on the same platform as its A7 sibling, the dynamics of both cars are strikingly similar. And as much as there are all manner of upgraded gasoline-fueled engines — from an upgraded 252 horsepower 2.0 TFSI all the way to a 450-hp twin-turbo V8 — for 2016, I contend that the 3.0-litre TDI is still the A6’s best foot forward. Two hundred and forty horsepower may not sound like much, but 428 pound-feet of torque, even if most of us don’t understand what torques are, certainly sounds impressive.
2016 Audi A6 3.0 TDI Technik
David Booth, Driving
It’s a glorious powertrain. While not quite as quiet as the proverbial church rodent, differentiating between Audi’s turbodiesel V6 and the similarly configured supercharged TFSI gas engine also available is getting increasingly difficult. Where older oil-burners were always everyone’s cloddy Uncle Fred — strong as the proverbial ox when there’s work to be done, but noisy and belligerent enough to embarrass in polite company — Audi’s latest V6 is, to overuse a compliment, elegant. Seriously, nine out of 10 people who get behind the wheel of an A6 TDI wouldn’t know they were driving a diesel until it comes time to fill ‘er up.
And those 428 torques sure do propel the big Audi, especially mated to Audi’s latest eight-speed Tiptronic automatic. Diesels may benefit even more than gas engines with the proliferation of multi-speed automatics, the extra ratios going a long way to disguising their relative lack of top-end power, not to mention keeping the revs down so that noise, vibration and harshness is minimized. The A6’s performance is similarly perked up, the current diesel’s 5.7-second romp to 100 kilometres an hour virtually the same as the original 4.2-litre V8 powered A8, surely an indication to how far diesels have come in 20 short years.
2016 Audi A6 3.0 TDI Technik
David Booth, Driving
Of course, the reason one opts for a turbodiesel is fuel economy. The A6 TDI does not disappoint. I averaged 8.1 L/100 km through the A6’s 2,500 kilometre stay in the Booth manse and, even if a greater proportion than normal of that total was highway cruising — where diesels and eight-speed automatic particularly shine — it’s darned impressive nonetheless. To put that parsimony in perspective, the A6 proved only 0.5 L/100 km less frugal than the last Ford C-Max Hybrid I tested. Do I really have to mention that the Ford is smaller, slower and not nearly as fun to drive? For perhaps a more likely comparison, any gas-fueled SUV that boasts the same interior room and comfort, not to mention performance, is going to double your fuel consumption. Buy the A6 for its poise and opulence; gloat about its penny-pinching minginess.
Car Review: 2014 Audi A7 TDI Technik
Other than the outer shell, the changes to the 2016 A6 are buried deep beneath the skin, detailed electronic upgrades of the sort that wows the crowds that throng to consumer electronics shows. For instance, Audi made a huge noise at this year’s CES in Las Vegas about using Nvidia’s new super fast Tegra 30 processor, but unless you’re wowed by 3D graphics, I’m not sure you’ll notice much improvement over last year’s infotainment system. Oh, there’s now 64 gigabytes of onboard memory storage — 10 of which is reserved for your music — but, again, few will ever pack that many songs onto their car’s hard drive. Besides, there’s now two SD card slots if you really need to have instant access to every single track from the inglorious ‘70s. As for Audi’s much ballyhooed MMI “touch” system, which allows the driver to write letters and numbers on a special touchscreen located on the centre console, it’s a neat novelty to show off to your friends, but hardly a differentiator: I used it a few times to show off and then went back to standard knob twirling and button pushing.
2016 Audi A6 3.0 TDI Technik
David Booth, Driving
Of course, all this still begs the question of whether I would buy the new A6. To bare soul, I’m still — as pretentious and trendy as it proclaims me — a bigger fan of the A7, which is essentially, as I said, the same car with a sassy roofline and hatchback trunk. But, unlike previous A6s, which offered me no temptation, I’d have to now think long and hard about the choice. The A7 may indeed be sportier, but the A6 is, in a word, elegant.
The Specs
Type of vehicle All-wheel-drive luxury sedan
Engine 3.0L turbodiesel V8
Power 240 hp @ 3,500 – 3,750 rpm; 428 lb.-ft. of torque @ 1,750 – 2,250
Transmission Eight-speed automatic
Brakes Four-wheel disc with ABS
Tires 255/40R19
Price (base/as tested) $72,600/$83,350
Destination charge $2,095
Natural Resources Canada fuel economy (L/100 km) 9.6 city, 6.2 highway
Standard features Power door locks, windows and mirrors, automatic climate control air conditioning, intermittent front windshield wipers, Bose AM/FM/CD/MP3 audio system with 14 speakers, Sirius satellite radio, rear and top view camera, information display, Audi MMI navigation system, electric tilt and telescoping steering wheel, cruise control, heated front and rear seats, ventilated front seats, 8-way power front seats, leather seats, leather wrapped steering wheel, electric tilt/slide sunroof, Electric Roll-up Sunscreen for Rear Window, power trunk opening, front air bags, knee air bags, front side air bags, Anti-lock Braking System (ABS), Electronic Stability Control, Audi Side Assist, front and rear parking sensors, Tire Pressure Monitoring system
2016 Audi A6 3.0 TDI Technik
David Booth, Driving
