Audi’s relentless progress, their Vorsprung durch Technik, reveals itself in another tranche of four upgraded and improved and refined versions: A1, Q3, A6 and A7.
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This already impressive performer now claims a potential fuel economy in the official combined mode of 67 mpg and exhaust emissions down to 109 g/km.
These figures are achieved without any loss of accelerative performance. As it happened, my test drive was in a 190 PS car fitted with 19-inch wheels that raised emissions to 113 g/km (£30 per annum) and worsened the official combined figure to 65.7 mpg. Over the 60-mile test route, mainly rural with a fair bit of slowing down and stopping and starting, the car’s trip indicator showed the consumption figure of 44 mpg.
Driving the car was most enjoyable. The steering seemed better than before, with no ‘deadness’ in the straight ahead position and having a generally nicely-weighted precision.
The ride was as comfortable as ever (now on weight-saving plastic springs), without any over-softness that might affect the handling. This was totally reassuring, as is to be expected, with the car happy to take bends at high speed with virtually no leaning over. Although the test car WAS comfortable, the Drive Select system did not include the option of being able to adjust from Comfort, to Dynamic to Automatic to Individual, as may have been suggested by looking at the screen; in fact, you’d have to pay more than £2000 to have this suspension feature.
Apart from improved economy and exhaust emissions, the A6 190 PS continues to provide more than adequate performance; zero to 62 mph comes in 8.5 seconds and there’s a good push in any gear at the torque peak from 1750 to 3000 rpm. Audi has also introduced an excellent new 7-speed S Tronic auto box.
The cars are now equipped with double-glazed windscreens and front side windows and the test car certainly provided a hushed environment, with hardly any sound coming in from the outside, or from the road or from the engine, for that matter.
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[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row border=”none” bg_color=”#ffffff” padding_top=”0px” padding_bottom=”20px”][vc_column width=”1/1″ fade_animation=”in-from-left” fade_animation_offset=”350px”]Minor styling changes to the exterior indicate the 2015 models. At the front of the S line model, the fog lights are now integrated into the main lamp binnacle and the rear indicator lights now flash in a linear movement outwards. Further enhancement of the lights feature in the S line version: these are all-LED (Bi-Xenon on SE) and the option is now here to have Matrix-LED that cleverly switch off those bits that would otherwise blind oncoming vehicles, or those you’re following behind, when on full beam; theoretically, therefore, you could always have the benefit of seeing best at night with the full beam permanently on.
You need to study very carefully the myriad of options as opposed to standard features available dependent upon whether the car is the SE version or the S line. S line test car options included the larger wheels at £1050; MMI Navigation Plus including MMI Touch for £1175; electrically-adjustable front seats with driver’s side memory (£950); and no less than £335 for leather covered door armrests, plus £655 simply for the metallic paint. What was standard were the Nappa leather sports seats — very smart and comfortable they were, too. However, a further extra on the test car, as it was an Avant, was the £750 Advanced key with hand-free, power-operated boot opening; and, glory be!, there was a full-size spare wheel.
The basic price of £37,935 including delivery with half a tank of fuel, number plates and first registration fee and total of £43,775 for the rest car is a lot. However, comparisons with the opposition from other makers put this sector in perspective and it can be said that Audi’s prices are very competitive.
The company’s overall graph of many years of increasing sales bears this out.
Review Audi A6 Ultra 2.0 TDi
Price as tested: £43,775
Engine: 1968cc 4-cyl, turbo diesel
Power: 190PS
Torque: 400Nm
Transmission: 7-speed S Tronic automatic, front-wheel-drive
0-62mph: 8.5 seconds
Top speed: 140 mph
Fuel economy: combined 65.7 mpg
CO2 emissions: 113 g/km
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