A6 cheaper than A3 with discounts??

[Shermo]

Just looking at options for a new car, started off being tempted with an A3 184 quattro then started looking for something with a bit more boot space and ended up looking at an Octavia Estate and the Golf Estate.

Thought I'd speculatively look at the A6 as its a cracking looking car and to my surprise there are insane discounts available on it, so much so that the A6 I specced up (S Line 190ps Ultra) was actually cheaper than the A3 I had specced up, albeit the A6 isn't quattro.

The only downside I can see to getting the A6 is slightly higher insurance, but it comes with tons of stuff as standard that the A3 doesn't and its a much bigger nicer car... I don't get it!

On OrangeWheels and DriveTheDeal it's about a £9000 discount on an A6 S Line Ultra with a few options like Tech Pack Advanced and parking camera.

 

[BahnStormer77]

I know the depreciation on the A6's tends to be a lot higher, but surprised that they're discounting the 2.0TDI's that much, unless the 190PS is just above some car tax threshold and they're having difficulty shifting them.... fact is they're only £30 / year on tax, so should be a cracking option!

Shop around for the insurance... I went from a 10yr old 180PS TDI A4 quattro saloon (worth £2500) to a new 310PS 3.0TFSI Avant (worth £53k) and my insurance went DOWN from >£700 per year to <£400 per year... and it was only about 2 months between those quotes, so pretty much no difference between those quotes except the car!

 

[BahnStormer77]

Make sure the advanced tech pack includes MMI touch... it's a cracking system!

 

[Shermo]

Insurance wise I got quotes around £400 for an A3, or £600ish for the A6. That does include my girlfriend as a named driver though and she's only had her licence for a year... which is why I am getting all the parking sensors and stuff with the advanced tech pack, and reverse camera!

The tech pack includes the MMI Navigation Plus which comes with the MMI touch. I'm pretty amazed with what you can actually have on a car these days, if money was no limit there are so many options I would pick like the heads up display.

Tomorrow I have a test drive booked for an Octavia but I think I am going to pop in to the Audi dealers afterwards and have a look at the A6, its about 9k more than the Octavia but its certainly that much more of a car.

 

[Shermo]

I notice you've got the auto park, whats that like? Does it only do parallel park or does it do bay parking like the latest Golf/A3/Octavia?

 

[woollyjoe]

90% of A6's are sold via company cars, and the category is down c20% yoy. The premium hatch category is booming as is SUV category and super mini. The A3 is also one of Audi's best selling cars next to Q5 so no discounts or very little.

 

[BahnStormer77]

I notice you've got the auto park, whats that like? Does it only do parallel park or does it do bay parking like the latest Golf/A3/Octavia?

Auto park is freaky.... I wouldn't have picked it, but now that I have it, I probably would add it again, #1 it's funky to have on a 5m long car, so you can get it to identify which places you can actually fit into... if you press the button once, you get parallel, second press and it does bay (reverse) parking... in either mode, indicate right and it scans right instead of default left. #2 and this is the best bit... it gives you proper 360deg sensors, with 5m to play with, there's a lot of car to scrape against pillars, etc. I'm sick of seeing cars with front and back sensors with scrapes in the middle...

Best add-on I had was the adaptive LED headlights... watch the YouTube video to see how good it is, it uses GPS and also has sensors for other cars, so it switches to different types of dipped beam based on where you are (town, country, dual carriageway) and even when you're running FULL beams, it drops the beam around tail lights / oncoming headlights VERY fast... Xenon's would probably be an okay compromise, but those LED's are frickin awesome... plus they look mean as hell, even on a 2.0TDI it would look like the BiTDI in the TV adverts...