Audi A6 Review 2023

The Audi A6 is a large, comfortable executive saloon that is aimed at company car drivers with a bit of cash to spend, who want the latest in on-board technology, and a luxurious cabin to unwind in on their commute.

It actually feels more like a fully-fledged luxury car than ever, with many of the impressive gadgets from the flagship Audi A8 having trickled down into this more affordable model. You get more passenger space and slicker infotainment screens than in the Audi A4 saloon, and at nearly five metres long, it feels like a bigger, more expensive car than it is.

There's no single area where the Audi A6 stands head and shoulders above the competition, and to drive it feels more at home quietly cruising the outside lane of the motorway than anywhere else. If you need practicality, the A6 Avant is a better choice, while the Audi A7 Sportback wraps the same underpinnings in a far sleeker body.

The Audi A6 has been locked in battle with its two fiercest German arch-rivals - the BMW 5 Series and Mercedes E-Class - for the last 25 years, and the heat of that competition has driven all three to excel.

If we were to pigeon-hole them, the BMW is the best all-rounder, with the lowest running costs and tidy handling, while the Mercedes is a comfortable cruiser, perhaps even more supple than the A6. Both come with marginally more standard equipment than the Audi, and can also be bought for a lower starting price.

This trio totally dominates the class in the UK, but if you fancy something stylish and safe that does a very similar job, the Volvo S90 is hard to ignore. It's got a gorgeous cabin, and class-leading crash safety stats. If it's driver appeal that matters more than most factors, the Jaguar XF is a good buy - particularly the recently facelifted version with much better cabin tech. 

Another left-field choice is the Lexus ES, with a conventional hybrid powertrain and beautifully crafted cabin, it's a more affordable than any of the Germans, with prices for the standard version starting from £35,200. Its low 119g/km CO2 emissions mean it sneaks into a much lower BIK tax bracket than the cleanest A6 diesel.

A new entrant into the sector is the Genesis G80, which offers a distinctive look and a plush cabin that's loaded with standard kit. We'd find it difficult to recommend over the above cars until better engine options are available, however. 

Sitting in the Audi A6 feels a bit like being in an architect's bathroom. That's not a bad thing; it looks ultra-modern, with the bright metal trim contrasting nicely with the gloss black plastic that's used to hide the tech on-board.

It certainly makes a change from the usual expanse of shiny wood and leather that was de rigueur in luxury cars for decades, but while the materials have changed, the underlying sense of quality remains fully intact.

We prefer the more classically elegant design of the Mercedes E-Class and Volvo S90 to look at, but in those cars the upmarket feel seems like a veneer hiding some cheaper stuff underneath, the Audi feels solid and substantial throughout its cabin.

The steering wheel and wide, almost aeronautical 'thrust control' style gear selector are both really nice items to hold, operating with crisp, weighty precision - even the indicator stalks feel as though they are built to last.

As standard, all models get twin leather upholstery (a mix of leatherette and real hide), while S line cars have a mixture of leather and suede-like Alcantara, stylish contrasting white stitching, and stainless steel pedals.

The range-topping Vorsprung does take things up a notch, with genuine leather, multi-coloured LED lighting (something that's standard in an E-Class), ash grain trim inserts, a big sunroof and soft-closing power doors.

At first, sitting in the fully upgraded Audi A6 might feel like being in an electronics shop. It surrounds you with large screens, all tilted towards the driver. Pricier versions and those fitted with the Technology Pack have a 10.1-inch HD display integrated into a glossy black panel in the centre of the dash, sitting below it is a second 8.6-inch touch panel that operates the climate controls, with a 12.3-inch digital driver’s display behind the wheel.

Lesser models have an 8.8-inch screen and normal analogue dials, but since the main display sits flush with the dashboard (so the whole thing looks like a single panel) you won't notice the difference in size too much.

Audi describes this as an 'all-digital' approach, but what that really means is you don't get as many physical controls as you do in its rivals. The screens do vibrate and make a sound when you press them, just like your smartphone does, but tweaking the fan or temperature settings is not as easy to do on the move as simply turning a dial.

Fortunately the MMI software is very slick, with coloured-coded menus and large on-screen icons that make it easy to navigate. Touch response is crisp, and it has all the connectivity kit to make the Audi A6 a mobile office. 

An excellent sat-nav, 10-speaker audio system, DAB radio, Bluetooth, online services (with a three-year subscription), integration for Android Auto, Apple CarPlay and Amazon Alexa voice control are all baked-in to its circuits.

While it looks futuristic, in practice this system is more fiddly to use (and distracting) than BMW's iDrive, and the 5 Series and E-Class come with digital dials as standard, so we don't know why Audi charges for them.

Large four-door saloons such as the Audi A6 tend to focus on providing lots of space for passengers to stretch out in, rather than being able to stack them to the rafters with luggage. For that job you really want an estate or high-riding SUV.

Despite this limited brief though, the A6 is one of the best cars in this class when the need does arrive to shift an old item of furniture, cram in some suitcases for a two-week holiday, or drop younger kids off at nursery. 

It has a 530-litre boot, which matches the 5 Series and is a smidgen less than you get in the E-Class, but fitting stuff inside the Audi is easier, since the boot opening is such a wide, square shape. It's longer than it is deep, but you'll be able to fit a stroller, bag of golf clubs or three big suitcases without folding the rear seats down.

Pick either of the PHEVs though and things aren't nearly as rosy. You'll be getting a severely reduced boot that's 360-litre capacity is more like that of a family hatchback, so we hope eco-conscious buyers pack light.

Unlike some rivals (we're looking at you, Lexus and BMW) split-folding seats are included as standard. They tumble flat in a 40:20:40 configuration, giving you the flexibility to carry people and increase the load space. They lie flat enough to make sliding heavier stuff in a breeze, and only tall, boxy items will pose a challenge.

Audi gives you three spots to mount a child seat, with ISOFIX in the two outer chairs and the front passenger seat, plus a switch to deactivate the airbag. There's more than enough room to fit even the bulkiest varieties.

Room in the back seat is excellent, with bags of head- and legroom that makes it very comfortable for adults. While the middle spot is narrower than the others, it can carry three with less shoulder-jostling than its rivals.

There are deep pockets in all four doors, a decent glovebox and more useful loose storage under the central armrest, but if your rear passengers are of a coffee-drinking age, cupholders (and a few other bits) are a stingy £100 option.

In terms of exterior dimensions, the Audi A6 is among the larger cars in its class, but is only slightly above the class average, It's 4,951mm long. 1,886mm wide and 1,458mm tall. 

Cars in this class need to provide effortless pulling power with parsimonious fuel consumption, and the wide range of engines available in the Audi A6 saloon do exactly that, with some leaning more one way than the other.

Kicking off the range is a pair of four-cylinder turbocharged units, one petrol and one diesel. The 40 TDI is the only front-wheel drive A6, the rest of the range uses Audi's patented quattro four-wheel drive technology. You can fit the latter as an option on the entry-level diesel, should you need the extra all-weather capability.

With 204PS and a decent slug of torque from low revs, this engine is refined, with a brisk turn of speed when you need it, although it's not as strong (nor as economical) as its equivalents in the BMW 520d and Mercedes E 220d. It's still our pick of the range and comes fitted with a seven-speed S tronic automatic gearbox as standard.

The 45 TFSI has a healthy 245PS, but doesn't necessarily feel much faster. A lot of its additional oomph only comes at the very top of the rev range, and if you drive around bouncing off the limiter, it'll do about 25mpg. Still, it's better at a cruise - but only one we'd buy if diesel was out of the question.

The two V6 models, the 50 TDI and 55 TFSI, are both exceptionally refined and will shove you back in your seat, they're the ones to go for if you want discreet performance. Still, the diesel comes with an eight-speed conventional automatic that's pretty hesitant to kick down, even more so than the standard twin-clutch 'box.

At the top of the performance tree sits the diesel Audi S6. Its 3.0-litre twin-turbo engine has enough grunt to power a small boat, with 349PS and a titanic 700Nm. It's an effortless overtaking machine, but so is the 50 TDI, and you'll struggle to find any road where you can legally deploy all its firepower, unless you're a German citizen.

Audi recently introduced a pair of plug-in hybrid models - the 50 and 55 TFSI e. You know the drill, a punchy four-cylinder petrol engine is ably supported by an electric motor and battery pack. This gives them speed to rivals the V6 models, but also the ability to drive shorter distances (up to 30 miles or so) in full electric mode.

There is no difference between the electrical architecture of the two models, so they have the same range and recharging times, but the 55 TFSIe has a more highly tuned petrol engine, giving it a combined 367PS.

Everything is pretty calm behind the wheel of the Audi A6. It's a car that has been designed with long distances in mind, and that really shines through in the way it manages to isolate its driver from the usual driving hubbub.

Even the four-cylinder diesel is hushed, sending little to no vibration into the cabin, and generally it minds its own business, even when you're accelerating down a motorway slip road. As with most things in life though, the more you spend, the more pampered you'll be. The 3.0-litre V6 in the A6 50 TDI is wonderfully smooth, but the plug-in hybrid is the quietest for pulling up outside a swanky restaurant - all you'll hear is its electric motor.

Road and wind noise are well suppressed by the clever 'acoustic' glass in the windscreen and side windows, although the former gets noticeably louder on high-spec models with enormous wheels and low-profile tyres.

It's also worth saying that this car's slippery shape makes it a fair bit quieter than a large SUV at high speed.

On cars fitted with steel springs (all of them bar the Vorsprung and S6) you'll hear the odd clonking sound from the suspension as it goes over bumps, which is not something we can say we experienced in its rivals.

If there is one weakness that detracts from the general sense of tranquillity though, it's the gearboxes. Both the seven-speed S tronic and eight-speed Tiptronic transmission are very effective at shuffling through the ratios - sometimes so imperceptibly you won't know which one you're in - but they're quite hesitant as well. This can make sharply exiting a junction or pulling onto a roundabout a bit hit and miss. 

Lay your mind at rest. If you have the misfortune of having an accident in the Audi A6, it'll protect you very well. In crash tests by Euro NCAP it got the top five-star rating, with high scores in each of the individual categories.

It's pretty much neck-and-neck with the BMW 5 Series, but the Mercedes E-Class performed slightly better in the detailed breakdown of adult and child occupant protection. If you want the safest saloon, the latter is it.

Still, the Audi is hardly lacking in the equipment department. Essentials such as a full complement of airbags, cruise control, auto headlights and wipers, tyre pressure monitors and electronic stability control are all here.

There is a decent array of preventative equipment too, including lane departure warning (which will actively steer you back into line if you don't indicate), and Audi Pre-sense, an autonomous emergency brake system.It scans the road ahead for obstacles and will warn the driver if it senses a crash, stopping the car if needed.

Parking is made easier (it is a bit of a barge after all) by all-round parking sensors and a reversing camera but you can also add additional driving aids from the extensive options list. The Tour Pack brings adaptive cruise control (it'll stop, go and steer for you in traffic jams), a traffic sign recognition camera, and high-beam assist.

Meanwhile, the City Assist Pack dots extra sensors all over the car, giving you electronic eyes to check your blind spots on the motorway, to watch out for traffic passing behind if you're reversing, and Pre-sense rear. It can't brake for you like the front can, but it will warn you and tighten the seatbelts if you're going to get hit.

Like most modern cars, there's no spare wheel, but you can fit one for £190 (just not to the 50 TDI or TFSI e, annoyingly).

Audi should benefit from the efficiencies of the wider VW Group, as its cars use a number of components shared across numerous brands and models. Despite this, Audi is one of the lowest performing VW Group brands in the latest HonestJohn.co.uk Satisfaction Index, with only SEAT in a lower position.

The A6 is also one of Audi's more high-tech cars, with additional complexity and potential to go wrong over the smaller, cheaper A4. Having said that, it's been on sale for a few years now, and no major problems have been reported. Just ensure the maintenance record is spotless.

The Audi A6 saloon is not the cheapest executive express when it comes to finding the lowest annual premium, since the entry-level 40 TDI diesel in Sport trim falls into the Group 30 insurance band, out of a possible 50.

That's on a par with its German competitors, but you can cover a base-spec Volvo S90 or Jaguar XF for quite a lot less. Trim level also affects the rating quite severely. S line cars start in Group 32, Vorsprung trim is in 39. Unfortunately, Audis are a popular target for thieves, which is reflected in insurance costs. 

A good rule of thumb is that a four-cylinder model will be a thirty-something, while a V6 (petrol or diesel) or plug-in hybrid will be somewhere in mid-to-late forties, with the searingly quick S6 topping out in Group 46.

Almost every Audi A6 costs more than £40,000 when new (unless you buy the 40 TDI Sport and don't fit a single option - not even metallic paint) and as a result will attract the higher 'premium' rate of road tax (VED).

That means after the car has first been registered, you'll need to fork out £475 a year to keep it on the road for the next five years before it drops to the standard rate, which is currently £150 for petrol and diesel cars.

You get a measly £10 discount if you choose either of the TFSI e plug-in hybrids, as they're alternative fuel vehicles, and their super-low Benefit-In-Kind rate of just 10% makes them a no-brainer for company drivers.

All Audi A6s come with leather upholstery, sat-nav, a 10-speaker audio system, 10GB music hard drive, parking sensors all round, heated seats and a high-definition reversing camera, and a pair of large touchscreens.

That's just on the entry-level Sport, which also has 18-inch wheels, LED front and rear lighting, dual-zone climate control, keyless go, and the all important Android Auto and Apple CarPlay phone connectivity.

S line cars have sporty extras like grippier front seats, brushed aluminium scuff plates and a perforated leather steering wheel, plus some very snazzy 'Matrix' adaptive LED headlights, and 19-inch alloy wheels.

Black Edition models don a massive set of 20-inch wheels, and (as the name implies) some stealthy black trim on the door mirrors, radiator grille, front bumper, and window surrounds, plus darkly tinted privacy glass.

If the stormtrooper look isn't your thing but you have cash to burn, the range-topping Vorsprung models take the one-stop shop approach to optional equipment. Every box is ticked, but you'll also need to remortgage.

We think this all-singing trim is needlessly expensive, while the Black Edition is style over substance. For us, a Sport or S-line model with a few choice options fitted represents the best value. There are two noteworthy bundles worth fitting to enhance the experience on-board your A6 - the Technology, and Comfort & Sound Packages.

The former costs £1495 but adds a bigger infotainment screen with improved graphics and touch response, a wireless charging pad, and Audi's 12.3-inch 'Virtual Cockpit' digital dials (which are standard in the TFSI e).

Choose the latter and your wallet will feel even lighter (to the tune of £1895) but you'll be the proud owner of a deafeningly loud 16-speaker Bang & Olufsen stereo, 360º parking cameras and multi-coloured cabin LEDs.