New York - Long before I started writing about cars for a living, I didn’t think much about them.
A car is a machine to move me from Point A to Point B, I thought. They’re all more or less the same. As long as it has a radio and a heater (I’m an Oregon native), I’ll be happy.
Fast forward a decade, and I have become considerably more discerning. When you drive 100 different cars a year (give or take) you quickly understand there are vast differences between a Mazda Miata roadster, a drop-top Bentley Continental, and a McLaren 650S Spider. Not to mention between a Ford and a Ferrari.
But there’s still something important about that original theory. Some cars are neither flashy nor exceptionally fast. They’re not boring - they work well, they do their job efficiently and practically - but they are forgettable in the sense that, for better or worse, there’s nothing too obtuse to remember about them in the first place. And that’s okay. Cars in their purest form are human conveyances. The 2016 Audi A6 falls into this category.
Vanilla is plain but popular
I don’t mean this to sound disparaging. For many, many drivers, a well-made, smart-looking vehicle that comes with a supportive dealer network and well-placed creature comforts is exactly what they need. Drive the Audi A6, and you’ll look comfortably, appropriately, upper-middle class. Come to think of it, it would be the perfect car for a spy. Drive this around Anytown, USA, and no one will notice you. (Especially if it’s silver.)
Audi’s fourth-generation, $57 400 A6 comes with the company’s excellent Quattro all-wheel drive, a comfortable, responsive suspension, and a 333-horsepower V6 engine. It goes to 60mph in 4.6 seconds, with a top speed of 128mph. And it drives as if it’s been educated at one of Connecticut’s finer prep schools: smart around corners, well-mannered on the straight. It listens when you turn the wheel or applies the brakes; it reacts immediately to directives and responds well to encouragement.
Here, behind the wheel of the automatic eight-speed A6, nothing is off-kilter, since the DriveSelect system comes standard and allows a choice among Comfort, Auto, Dynamic, and Individual modes. Each of those offers different throttle and steering response. The transmission includes its own Sport mode. Fuel efficiency hits 20 miles per gallon in the city and 30 on the highway.
In short, this is Audi’s second-biggest sedan, but thanks to all that, you could easily forget its size. The driving personality is unfailingly even-handed - placid, not sluggish. It's geared as smoothly as those big oil derricks down in Texas working as you drive by.
Perfect data
The media offerings are also highly evolved but not to the point of distraction. There is an interface dial between the front seats that controls menus, navigation, sound, and climate, plus there are buttons and a touchpad on the console. Google Earth and Audi’s data system support live traffic updates, parking garage capacities, gas prices, and weather patterns. Considering the complexity of its functions, it’s an easy universe to navigate.
The dashboard is nicely sculpted; the leather steering wheel and seats are high quality. The rear bench seats three adults in comfort, provided they’re friendly. In fact, it’s all nice, very nice. Which is to say, it’s all pretty vanilla.
I think the thing here is to get as many upgrades as you can. First on the list should be the Prestige Package, which for $4 600 includes a heads-up display, LED headlights, front-seat ventilation and lumbar support, BOSE Surround Sound, a Warm Weather Package, a power-automatic trunk, and interior LED lighting.
See also: the $1 800 S-Line Sport Package (19-inch wheels, all-season tyres, sport suspension, S badging on the interior and exterior); the $500 Cold Weather Package (heated rear seats, heated steering wheel); and the $1 500 Black Optic Package (20-inch titanium finished wheels, summer tyres, high-gloss black trim on the grille). Total price on the version I drove, which included all this plus taxes and fees, came to $66 875. (The base 2016 A6, with a 2-litre turbocharged engine and front-wheel drive, costs $47 125.)
Sticking with the standard accoutrements will get you 18-inch wheels, automatic start-stop, a power sunroof, Xenon headlights, auto-dimming power-heated exterior mirrors, heated front seats, and an anti-theft system, among other things. These are no small items; they’re the welcome trappings of any high- end vehicle.
The main thing to know here is that the 2016 Audi A6 is a fine car. It’s not spectacular, but it’s very good. Consider it against the BMW 5-Series, Cadillac CTS, Mercedes-Benz E-Class, and Jaguar XF, though I think you’ll find those more memorable than this, performance- and aesthetics-wise, especially that XF.
But anyway - the upside of mass luxury these days is that all of the cars in the sedan segment are much safer and more powerful than things from 20 and 30 years ago. Much of the decision to buy comes down to branding and aesthetics. And the A6 is as solid a choice as any.
BLOOMBERG