Audi A6 Avant Review 2025: Price, specs & boot space

Written by Phil Hall

8/10
heycar ratingMore lifestyle now than practical
  • 2025
  • Estate
  • Petrol, Diesel

Quick overview

Pros

  • Supremely comfy and assured drive
  • Slick interior with a proper premium feel
  • Competitively priced against key competition

Cons

  • Boot space down on key rivals
  • High central tunnel makes third rear seat compromised
  • Shiny surfaces attract fingermarks 

Verdict: Is the Audi A6 Avant a good car?

"The new Audi A6 Avant is a handsome premium estate car that'll whisk you along in extreme comfort. The shrunken boot compared to the old car means that it's a bit more of a lifestyle choice rather than a practical decision."

Audi A6 Avant Review: overall verdict

Right, the new Audi A6 Avant. Thanks to Audi's naming conventions that would see all its electric cars badged with even numbers and combustion engines with odd numbers, the updated A6 Avant was going to see its name changed to A7 Avant. A change of heart at Audi recently has seen them revert back to existing names (we'll ignore the new A5 for now), so we're back to A6 Avant. And it's also the reason why it doesn't look much like the A6 e-tron Avant. Confusing, right?


Speaking of design, the new A6 Avant has had more than a simple nip and tuck compared to the older model. The grille sits lower at the front, and with just the right amount of sculpting along the side of the body, it results in a sleek and elegant-looking estate with a good amount of presence. Does it look better than an A6 e-tron Avant? We reckon the more muscular and distinctive lines of the combustion-engined car are more successful, but you might disagree. 


But this sculpting hasn't been done just to make the A6 Avant look nice - it's the most aerodynamic combustion engine Avant to date (it has a drag coefficient of 0.25 if you're interested), but this has impacted functionality a touch. The sharp slope at the rear has contributed to a smaller total boot capacity than the outgoing car, at 503 litres. It's still big, though not actually much bigger than the boot found in the A5 Avant and a touch smaller than the Audi Q5


The rest of the cabin though is incredibly spacious, and it has a classy feel thanks to the premium materials used. There's lots of tech on tap as well, including a minimum of two digital displays that use OLED technology to deliver a crisp and responsive user experience, while front-seat passengers can also get their own display. 


With the A6 e-tron Avant taking care of electric power, the new A6 Avant comes with the choice of either a 2.0-litre petrol or diesel engine, both delivering 204PS. The devil's in the detail, though, and the diesel gets mild-hybrid tech for electric-only driving at lower speeds, while also bolstering total power available when pulling away or under hard acceleration. A plug-in hybrid is expected to arrive sometime later this year.


The Audi A6 Avant is an assured and comfortable drive - steering is precise and it rides well over a variety of road surfaces. It's in its element on long runs, but still very capable when on windier sections of road, while the addition of quattro four-wheel drive delivers extra confidence in all-weather conditions. 


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Buying an Audi A6 Avant in the past was because you wanted something with a bit more space in the back than a typical SUV like the Q5. With the new A6 Avant losing out in this area the lines become more blurred, and as we've touched on, it becomes more of a lifestyle choice - do you want to have an SUV or swim against the tide a bit and have an estate?


Both the new BMW 5 Series Touring and Mercedes E-Class are more practical (at least when it comes to boot capacity), but the A6 Avant has the more tempting entry price. That's not forgetting the diesel engine that the 5 Series Touring doesn't offer, and with a range of over 600 miles with a full tank of fuel, this might be the bigger attraction for high-mileage drivers. 

With just two engines to choose from currently, the choice is very much dependent on your needs and what driving you're likely to do. While diesel is falling out of favour, the 204PS diesel engine with its mild hybrid (MHEV) tech really impressed, especially as it comes paired with Audi's quattro four-wheel drive system and four-wheel steering as standard. 


Then it comes down to which trim to pick. If we're honest, the base Sport trim has pretty much everything you'll need, but S line is likely to prove the most popular due to its slightly sportier styling, lower ride height and a few more little extras. That said, we'd be tempted to stick with the A6 Avant in Sport spec and plough the money saved into some wafty adaptive air suspension that's an optional extra. 

If you're looking at an Audi A6 Avant, then its direct rivals are the BMW 5 Series Touring and the Mercedes-Benz E-Class Estate, and while it might be showing its age against newer competition, don't discount the Volvo V90. Both the 5 Series and V90 aren't available with a diesel engine, but you've got the choice of petrol and plug-in hybrid options, while the E-Class offers all three options. 


If your biggest concern is boot space, then take a look at the latest Skoda Superb Estate. It might not have the premium cache of the other cars above, but it's a brilliant all-rounder, while spec it in top-of-the-range Laurin & Klement trim and you'll get that premium feel without the premium price.


Looking for something electric? Then the A6 Avant's sister car (or should that be cousin?), the A6 e-tron Avant, is one to take a look at, while there's the excellent BMW i5 Touring and sleek Volkswagen ID.7 Tourer to consider as well.  

Comfort and design: Audi A6 Avant interior

"If you want a slick and sophisticated interior that marries tech with plenty of soft-touch materials, then the A6 Avant should it the mark. It's just a shame that boot space has shrunk a little compared to the previous model."

Audi A6 Avant Review: interior

The new A6 Avant sports Audi's new 'Softwrap' interior design treatment - a door-to-door design flourish that uses a mix of faux leather and cloths to connect the interior. It looks great and makes you feel nicely cocooned once you're nestled into one of the comfy sports seats. 


This design incorporates what Audi has labelled 'Digital Stage' - a free-standing curved OLED screen that incorporates an 11.9-inch Audi Virtual Cockpit (a digital dash) and a larger 14.5-inch central touchscreen. If that's not enough screens, you can even get one for the front seat passenger. 


While pretty much all car controls are accessed from this main touchscreen, the A6 Avant also benefits from a set of controls in the driver’s door handle. This means you can adjust door mirrors, seat and door functions, lighting and visibility settings from here rather than trying to quickly find it in the menu system. 


It's hard not to be impressed by the cabin - spacious and well-finished, it's also airy and comfy. You'll find plenty of storage spaces around the interior too, including some handy cupholders, USB-C ports and wireless charging. Some of the shine though is taken off by the fact that the boot is a bit smaller than its predecessor, more on that below. 

Audi is famed for the quality of its interiors and the A6 Avant doesn't disappoint. It has a real premium feel with lots of soft-touch plastics at key touchpoints, while the use of semi-gloss silver and high-gloss blacks is used to complement the soft-wrap dashboard with contrast stitching. 


Seats are finished in twin leather upholstery, but you can also have some surfaces trimmed in sustainable materials, including Cascade fabric and Dinamica micro-fibre - both manufactured from recycled polyester. 


Look a little further down and you'll find some less premium plastics, though it doesn't dull the overall quality feel of the car. If we're nitpicking, the abundance of screens and high gloss surfaces is a nightmare for fingerprints - you'll need to keep on top of these with a microfibre cloth if you want to retain the slick feel of the cabin.

With up to three large displays possible on the central console of the A6 Avant, there's a lot to get to grips with. First up is the 11.9-inch digital instrument display for the driver, which is supplemented by a large 14.5-inch MMI touchscreen in the centre. If that's not enough screens, you can also spec an optional 10.9-inch MMI display for the front seat passenger (standard on Edition 1 cars). What's the point of this, you might ask? Well, if they can't be bothered to reach over to the main display, they can help with/interfere with the sat nav on their own screen, choose what you're listening to or be really antisocial and watch something, leaving you to get on with the driving. Don't opt for it and the display is replaced by some gloss black plastic.


Back to the larger infotainment display and as is the way with lots of new cars, pretty much every facet of the car is accessed via this display. That means anything from simple tweaks to the climate control to more in-depth adjustments via submenus. You'll need to spend some time familiarising yourself with the interface, but it's a solid system and has some useful shortcuts to the side of the main display. Reality is though that once you've got the car set up how you want. you'll probably rely on the A6 Avant's Apple CarPlay and Android Automotive connectivity most of the time. 


It's a shame there are no dedicated temperature controls (a complaint levelled at most new cars it has to be said), but the touchscreen is responsive, while the clarity is excellent. It's not all jabbing at a touchscreen though - there's a welcome volume dial, as well as quick access to the A6 Avant's drive modes and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). And as we've mentioned, there's a suite of buttons on the driver's door handle to adjust things like mirrors and lighting.  


The driver display can be toggled through different displays - you can get turn by turn directions displayed for example, though we couldn't get a full screen sat nav map that was possible on older versions of the system. 


As part of the £2,965 Sound & Vision Pack, you can get a handy head-up display, while other highlights of this optional extra include a Bang & Olufsen premium sound system with 3D sound and integrated headrest speakers. Otherwise, you get a 10-speaker sound system as standard.

The outgoing car was big, but the new A6 Avant is bigger still, with Audi adding a further 60mm of length to the car, increasing the overall length just under five metres. As you can imagine with a wheelbase of 2.9 metres, there's huge amounts of space in the cabin of the A6 Avant. There is loads of space up front and generous legroom in the rear, while both front and rear seats are really comfy with plenty of headroom for even tall adults. If you're planning to get three people in the back on a regular basis, you might want to consider the rather large centre tunnel. Anyone pulling the short straw and sitting on the middle seat will have their legs straddling either side of it. 


The cars we tested were fitted with a switchable panoramic glass sunroof (£2,400 optional extra) that makes the cabin of the A6 Avant feel really airy and spacious. The neat trick here is that it has nine different levels of density, ranging from almost fully transparent to effectively fully shaded to suit the ambient light conditions.


What about the A6 Avant's party trick - the boot? At 503 litres it actually comes in smaller than the 565 litres in the outgoing car. Even less impressive is if you opt for the diesel-engined A6 Avant as the addition of the mild hybrid unit means boot space shrinks further to 466-litres. At 503 litres, that's almost 70 litres down on the BMW 5 Series Touring and 140 litres down on the Mercedes E-Class. If you want a really big boot, then if the Skoda Superb Estate's 690 litres doesn't suffice then you're going to need a van. 


That said, it's a good useable space with easy access, while the rear seats have a 40:20:40 split. Fold them all down and you have a total of 1,534 litres to play with. 

Handling and ride quality: What is the Audi A6 Avant like to drive?

"On the road and the Audi A6 Avant is an incredibly refined and sophisticated driving experience. It excels on long flowing roads, but Audi has still managed to make it feel pretty nimble on twisty stretches of tarmac."

Audi A6 Avant Review: driving dynamic

We've driven both the petrol and diesel options of the new A6 Avant, the latter fitted with optional adaptive air suspension (a £1,755 optional extra) and 21-inch alloy wheels (the petrol model tested was on 20-inch alloys) and we were left suitably impressed with both.


Our test routes encompassed a mix of motorway miles, windy mountain roads and urban driving. As you'd expect, the A6 Avant is in its element on wide motorways - it's incredibly stable at speed and wafts along without putting up any resistance. The diesel feels naturally more suited to these conditions, but the petrol engine doesn't do itself a disservice here either.


We haven't driven a car with Sport suspension yet, but the standard suspension copes well. Though it can feel a bit firm in parts (especially on 20-inch wheels) at lower speeds, it rides well over a variety of road surfaces - it won't crash and bang over rutted roads for instance, and feels planted on twistier sections. 


The optional adaptive air suspension on our diesel test car really does provide a very cushioned driving experience, making light work of uneven road surfaces. It's an expensive option, but with larger wheels, it's certainly recommended. One other thing in favour of opting for air suspension is the variable ride height you can select - it can be raised when navigating rougher roads for example, or lowered when parked to make it easier to get luggage (or a tired dog) up into the boot. 


If you've picked the TDI version of the A6 Avant, quattro four-wheel drive is standard, which also means you get to enjoy all-wheel steering as well. At low speeds you'll find that the wheels can turn up to five degrees in the opposite direction to the front wheels. Not only is the turning circle reduced, but it really doesn't feel like a car that's just under five metres in length when navigating city streets. 


At higher speeds the rear wheels turn in the same direction to aid handling further and we found this to be the case on the windy mountain roads of our test route. The A6 Avant's steering was precise and assured, and despite its size, it felt dynamic and controlled when rolling into a bend. This is certainly helped by the extra traction from the quattro system, delivering a confident driving experience. 

Audi has kept things pretty simple when it comes to engine choice with the A6 Avant - there's one petrol and one diesel. 


Starting with the petrol, it's a 2.0-litre four-cylinder TFSI unit with 204PS and delivering power to the front wheels only it has a 0-62mph performance in 8.3 seconds. Opt for the diesel and you get a 2.0-litre TDI with again, 204PS. With a bit more torque (400Nm vs 360Nm) and quattro four-wheel drive, the diesel is quicker off the line, taking just seven seconds to hit 62mph.


That's not all, as the diesel engine also benefits from a 48-Volt MHEV system, which means that it can run under electric power alone - for example, in slow-moving traffic or pulling away from home. It also bolsters the total power output by 24PS and 230Nm of extra torque when starting off and accelerating. 


If you're looking for a plug-in hybrid option, there's not one currently at launch, but one will be joining the range very soon.


Regardless of which one you choose, both engines come with a seven-speed S tronic twin-clutch transmission. 

Audi reckons sound insulation has been improved by as much as 30% compared to the outgoing car (without adding any weight thanks to the materials used), and the result is an incredibly hushed and refined cabin. The sleek sculpting of the body means air flows over the body and subdues any wind noise, even at high speed. 


If you've been used to starting up a diesel in the past to be greeted by an audible clatter, then it can be a little unnerving when pressing the start button in the new A6 Avant as nothing happens. Pop it into drive and you simply glide away under electric power before the diesel engine kicks into life once you're on the move. Once up and running, the engine disappears into the background. 


The petrol engine doesn't feature the MHEV tech, so you don't get to enjoy silent running, but in the main it's pretty quiet. You'll probably notice the whistle from the turbo than the engine, with it only making its presence known under acceleration as it has to work harder than the diesel to get up to speed.

While the Audi A6 Avant is yet to be tested by Euro NCAP, we'd be surprised to see it not scoring less than the full five-star rating - all recent Audis have scored highly, including the Audi A5 and A6 e-tron.


As with a lot of new cars, the Audi A6 Avant is brimming with safety tech, with Adaptive cruise control, Lane departure warning, Swerve assist, Turn assist, Front cross traffic assist and Front emergency brake assist all coming as standard across the range. In addition to this, Edition 1 spec cars also get Side assist and exit warning, Lane departure warning with emergency assist, Rear-cross traffic alert and Rear turn assist. 


While the beeps and bongs can be fairly unintrusive, you can turn these systems off and what's really nice is that you don't have to spend ages in the menu to do so. A couple of presses and you can mute things like lane keep assist and the speed limit warning alert.

MPG and fuel costs: What does a Audi A6 Avant cost to run?

"While buyers will have to wait a little longer for a plug-in hybrid version, both the diesel and petrol engines used by the A6 Avant are very efficient."

Audi A6 Avant Review: driving dynamic

The Audi A6 Avant is a big car, so the 48.7mpg from the diesel engine is nothing to be sniffed at, especially as it's also four-wheel drive. With a full tank you should expect a range of over 600 miles, making it perfect if you need to cover a lot of miles regularly. For comparison, the petrol engine delivers around 37.1mpg officially. 


If you're looking at the Audi A6 Avant as a company car, the diesel is 153g/km and the petrol 173g/km. Compared to a comparable electric car, monthly Benefit-in-Kind tax bills will be significantly higher.

It's no surprise to discover that the new Audi A6 Avant comes with the brand's standard three-year, 60,000-mile warranty. If you wish, you extend this to four years and 75,000 miles (£815), or five years and 90,000 miles (£1,970). In the latest HonestJohn.co.uk Satisfaction Index, Audi placed twelfth for owner satisfaction.

Insurance groups for the new Audi A6 Avant are still yet to be set, but as a marker, the previous model started in insurance group 33, though more desirable trims and power naturally move insurance groups up. 

After the first year, you're going to be paying a flat rate of £195 to tax an Audi A6 Avant, whether that's the diesel or petrol option. One thing to bear in mind is that as even the most affordable model easily costs over £40,000, you'll be subject to the Expensive Car Supplement. This adds a further £425 a year to the standard rate between years two to six, bringing the total annual tax cost to £620. 

Audi A6 Avant price

"Prices for the new Audi A6 Avant start at £52,210, which undercuts rivals from BMW and Mercedes."

Audi A6 Avant Review: side profile

For that money, that gets you an A6 Avant in entry-level Sport trim with the 2.0-litre TFSI petrol engine. How does that compare to the competition? Well, compared to a 2.0-litre petrol BMW 5 Series Touring you'll walk away with just over £2,000 in change, while a Mercedes E-Class Estate will set you back some £5,500 more. 


Upgrade to S line trim and you'll have to stump up a further £3,100, while the top-spec Audi A6 Avant Edition 1 comes in at £60,210. 


If you fancy your A6 Avant with the 2.0-litre TDI diesel engine and quattro four-wheel drive then you'll be paying around £4,000 more than the TFSI equivalent. This sees prices a little more comparable to the Mercedes E-Class Estate, though you won't find a new 5 Series Touring with a diesel engine. 

The Audi A6 Avant kicks off with Sport trim, with the A6 Avant sitting on 18-inch alloy wheels and coming with bumpers, grille, air inlets, rear spoiler and diffuser that are designed to enhance the sport-orientated feel of the car. The A6 Avant also gets LED headlights and rear lights as standard, while there's a total of seven digital light signatures to allow you to personalise your A6 Avant.


Moving inside and highlights include Audi's 14.5-inch OLED MMI Navigation system as standard, along with an 11.9-inch digital instrument display. There's four-zone climate control, electrically adjustable and heated front sports seats trimmed in twin leather, and a twin-spoke multifunction leather steering wheel with shift paddles. Other notable features include ambient LED lighting, a reversing camera, 'parking system plus' with a 360 camera, adaptive cruise control and hill hold assist. 


Plump for the Audi A6 Avant S line and not only does it run on larger 19-inch alloy wheels, but it sits 20mm lower due to the addition of sports suspension. There are also some styling cues to differentiate it from the Sport model, with the bumpers, grille, air inlets, rear spoiler and diffuser all getting some attention. That's not forgetting the rear privacy glass. 


The interior of S line trim cars sees S embossing on the sports seats, a three-spoke steering wheel that's flattened at the top and bottom, while aluminium door sill inserts have an illuminated ‘S’ logo at the front. 


Top-spec Audi A6 Avant Edition 1 cars get even larger 20-inch alloy wheels (you can even spec optional 21-inch wheels if you wish), a black exterior package and red brake callipers. The sports seats are now finished in Dynamica microfibre/leather with an ‘S’ embossed and diamond pattern, while there are a number of additional safety features bundled in as standard - side assist and exit warning, lane departure warning with emergency assist, rear-cross traffic alert and rear turn assist. 

Ask the heycar experts: common questions

Yes, there is. The Audi A6 e-tron Avant is the equivalent electric version of the A6 Avant, though it's not simply an electric version of the A6 Avant. It has unique styling inside and out.
The new Audi A6 Avant has an overall length just short of five metres.
New Audi A6 Avant prices start from £52,210, rising to £64,480 for the top-spec Edition 1 model.

Audi A6 Avant Alternatives