Any regretted going from A4 Avant to A6 Avant?

[Vanderlust]

So I'm relatively new to Audi's and estate cars. Small cars just stopped being practical as I tend to haul luggage and bikes inside them, and just generally like being able to have a useful car with loads fo space and great mpg.

So I went from an A3 Sportback, then four months later got an A4 Avant 2016. It's great, way more space and I'm starting to love the car. It's fuel economy (2.0 TDi) is the best I've ever had in any car, although initially I wasn't keen on the diesel engine noise but I've learned to live with it.

So I've only had this A4 Avant for a couple of months and being sold on having a large estate car, I'm now looking at the A6 Avant. It has more space again and loads more cabin luxury.

My main concern is that it's going to be heavier than the A4 Avant and the cornering and road feel generally will be worse (I'd be looking at a 2.0 TDi again). I'm also concerned about some super narrow residential roads I've had to pass recently after moving which are these tight curbs with two bollards on each side. These appear to be horrendously marked up!

I'm wondering are these marks from larger estate cars and SUVs scraping along, or is it just vans mostly? I'm not used to seeing these but are set to become normal part of my life unfortunately, for a while anyway. I felt like I had to take it super slow with the A4 Avant, let alone something larger.

And then there's the fuel economy, heavier car, same engine, must be worse efficiency in the real world, which would make me a bit sad.

Sorry for the length, just wondering if it's worth trading up for the luxury of the A6, or is the A4 the sweet spot..

 

[Longstride83]

I went from an A4 saloon to A6 saloon to A6 Avant. The car is slightly bigger but not big enough to cause any trouble on narrow roads. The C8,IMO, is a class above the C7 A6 and can say you won’t regret the switch. I’m sure everyone else here will say the same.

 

[DaveW]

I went from an A4 saloon to A6 saloon to A6 Avant. The car is slightly bigger but not big enough to cause any trouble on narrow roads. The C8,IMO, is a class above the C7 A6 and can say you won’t regret the switch. I’m sure everyone else here will say the same.

I followed the same path as you spookily enough and I couldn't agree more.
Make sure you have a good test drive, just to make sure you're happy with the A6. I'm sure you'll love the space, refinement and tech the A6 has to offer.

 

[Longstride83]

Oh and don’t be fooled by the wheel arches either, they look beefy in the mirrors but they aren’t as big as they seem

 

[psychopomp1]

OP,
Are you my twin by any chance lol? I had a MY18 A4 Avant Black Edition, loved the car but hated its engine (TFSI 190) as I missed the fuel economy & torque of a diesel (came from a B7 diesel). Anyway I sold the A4 earlier this car and have now ordered an A6 Avant Black Edition 40 TDI Quattro. It has a slightly more powerful engine than the equivalent A4 40 TDI (204 PS v 190 PS) which makes up for the extra size/weight. When I took the A6 Avant out for test drive, it was a sheer pleasure to drive. Just oozes class in every way (couldn't find any faults!) and IMHO its a quite a big step up from the A4 Avant. I don't think you'll have any issues with the fuel economy of the A6 40 TDI, the range was showing around 700 miles on a full tank on my test car - similar to the A4 Avant 40 TDI. Also I was shocked at how refined the diesel engine on the A6 was - very similar to the A4 40 TFSI engine for noise.

Go for it, you won't regret it!

 

[Vanderlust]

I went from an A4 saloon to A6 saloon to A6 Avant. The car is slightly bigger but not big enough to cause any trouble on narrow roads. The C8,IMO, is a class above the C7 A6 and can say you won’t regret the switch. I’m sure everyone else here will say the same.

I was on a trip from London to Cardiff and back at the weekend, and had my mind on it while I was on the road. Really didn't see many A6's at all. Maybe saw one A6 Avant the entire journey. Are they not so popular? The more I think about them when I'm out and about, the more I realise I rarely see one! The new ones have a silver streak across the boot so are quite easy to spot from behind especially.

 

[MCarda]

I was on a trip from London to Cardiff and back at the weekend, and had my mind on it while I was on the road. Really didn't see many A6's at all. Maybe saw one A6 Avant the entire journey. Are they not so popular? The more I think about them when I'm out and about, the more I realise I rarely see one! The new ones have a silver streak across the boot so are quite easy to spot from behind especially.

At least here on the streets of London, they really are a rare sight. It’s BMW and Mercedes land here.

 

[psychopomp1]

The new ones have a silver streak across the boot so are quite easy to spot from behind especially.

Is it just the angle of light in the Audi configurator or is the rear chrome strip now less prominent on the MY2019 A6 model?

 

[Longstride83]

That’s the black edition

 

[Longstride83]

Here it is with chrome in the flesh

 

[Candell]

I had an A4 Avant 2l 190PS for 3 years and have now had my A6 40 TDI for 2 weeks and absolutely love the A6. I thought the A4 was a great car but the A6 trumps it in all aspects. The fuel economy so far is 15mpg off the A4 (used to average 65mpg in the A4) but the car just has a few hundred miles on the clock so I'm sure it will improve, my A4 did after a few thousand miles.

Driving the car, it does feel larger than the A4, especially the length as the car parking spaces I have been in I have been sticking out over the end. However saying that, I find it easier to park than the A4, the mirrors are much better on the A6.

Performance wise, the engine does not feel as fast as the A4 and has more lag so I find myself dipping in to Sport mode more often. Whizzing around country lanes feels the same as the A4 though despite the car being larger.

 

[psychopomp1]

@Jenkobenko
Yes I know the photos are of a Black Edition A6. Does that mean the rear silver trim is replaced by a black trim on the BE? Not very clear going by the photos..

 

[MCarda]

@Jenkobenko
Yes I know the photos are of a Black Edition A6. Does that mean the rear silver trim is replaced by a black trim on the BE? Not very clear going by the photos..

Yes, on a BE anything you see in chrome on an S-Line (except the Audi ring logos) are black instead of chrome : the rear strip, window surrounds, front grille, etc.

I hope that helps

 

[psychopomp1]

Yes, on a BE anything you see in chrome on an S-Line (except the Audi ring logos) are black instead of chrome : the rear strip, window surrounds, front grille, etc.

I hope that helps

Thanks mate

 

[Longstride83]

@Jenkobenko
Yes I know the photos are of a Black Edition A6. Does that mean the rear silver trim is replaced by a black trim on the BE? Not very clear going by the photos..

yes it’s replaced with a black strip

 

[Random467]

I used to have a 2017 A4 Avant Sport Manual 1.4l TFSi and switched to a 2020 A6 Saloon Sport Auto Quattro 45 TFSi.

I went for the Saloon because there was only one occasion that I ever loaded the Avant's boot higher than the window line. The A6 Saloon's boot is so huge that you can fit kids bikes and pushchairs in with ease and still have room for lots of shopping. It copes easily with luggage for several weeks of holiday for all the family.

I was immediately surprised at some of the stuff the A6 lacked: No sports seats as standard in the Sport model. Weird. Flimsy glovebox door that only closes properly if you slam it. Car doors that you have to slam 50% harder to close (this one is really really annoying). 2 zone climate control, rather than the 3 zone I had as standard on the A4. No motorised closer for the boot lid (again standard on the A4 Avant). And I actually preferred the tactile controls on the A4 pre-touchscreen. In particular the jog dial to zoom the navigation map. Looking down to do a two-finger zoom for that is frankly mental. How anyone could argue that's as safe I do not know.

Overall I think the A6 is better and more luxurious, but there are some silly things left out.

 

[elan2s]

Not gone from A4 to an A6 and have had Avants for the last 5 A6's, however to give a persepctive onsome of the points you raise. I have kept woith the Avant primarily because on the occassions I need to take stuff the council recycling centre or take an adult bike somewhere, it is just easier to load the car with the tailgate rather than a boot lid. .

I agree it is odd that the Sport does not have sport seats in the way the A4 does, but remember the Sport is the entry level fo rthe A6 in the UK, so they would have no option with standard seats if they included Sport seats standard. Not sure why they do not have the control in the rear for the AC like the A6. What is odd is that in the US, what we refer to as 2 Zone AC seems to be sold as 3 Zone, yet there is no rear seat control (that I can see on the pictures at any rate). Problems shutting doors om the A6 is a well documneted issue, drove me mad when I first got my car, but it is down to the car being so well sealed that air pressure stops the doors shutting. I found after about a year of using the car I had either got used to it or the seals had softened sufficiently to make it less of an issue. That said I now have a new A6 and back to square one again!

The A6 Avat does have a motorised boot so no differnet to the A4 and likewise the A4 saloon does not have a motorised closure either. The new A4 is no better than the A6 when it comes to touchscreen, indeed I would say it is worse because you have to strtech to reach it. Plus the mounting for the screen seems very flimsey. I rarely have the need to manually zoom the screen while driving. I just leave it on auto zoom. You can always look at the map and zoom it in the istrument panel, even on cars without the techpack

 

[Mkay315]

Not gone from A4 to an A6 and have had Avants for the last 5 A6's, however to give a persepctive onsome of the points you raise. I have kept woith the Avant primarily because on the occassions I need to take stuff the council recycling centre or take an adult bike somewhere, it is just easier to load the car with the tailgate rather than a boot lid. .

I agree it is odd that the Sport does not have sport seats in the way the A4 does, but remember the Sport is the entry level fo rthe A6 in the UK, so they would have no option with standard seats if they included Sport seats standard. Not sure why they do not have the control in the rear for the AC like the A6. What is odd is that in the US, what we refer to as 2 Zone AC seems to be sold as 3 Zone, yet there is no rear seat control (that I can see on the pictures at any rate). Problems shutting doors om the A6 is a well documneted issue, drove me mad when I first got my car, but it is down to the car being so well sealed that air pressure stops the doors shutting. I found after about a year of using the car I had either got used to it or the seals had softened sufficiently to make it less of an issue. That said I now have a new A6 and back to square one again!

The A6 Avat does have a motorised boot so no differnet to the A4 and likewise the A4 saloon does not have a motorised closure either. The new A4 is no better than the A6 when it comes to touchscreen, indeed I would say it is worse because you have to strtech to reach it. Plus the mounting for the screen seems very flimsey. I rarely have the need to manually zoom the screen while driving. I just leave it on auto zoom. You can always look at the map and zoom it in the istrument panel, even on cars without the techpack

I Think the reason why the A6 doesn't have controls at the rear is based on the WLTP emissions testing. It sucks that only the Vorsprung model and the hybrid models has the controls at the rear.

 

[elan2s]

I Think the reason why the A6 doesn't have controls at the rear is based on the WLTP emissions testing. It sucks that only the Vorsprung model and the hybrid models has the controls at the rear.

Agree that the WLTP tests, plus Audi's own policy of reducong the number of options on offer to drive cost and production effiicency is why we don't all get the option of 4 zone CC. That said I probably have rear seat passengers in my car less than 5% of the time so not really an issue

 

[Random467]

Not gone from A4 to an A6 and have had Avants for the last 5 A6's, however to give a persepctive onsome of the points you raise. I have kept woith the Avant primarily because on the occassions I need to take stuff the council recycling centre or take an adult bike somewhere, it is just easier to load the car with the tailgate rather than a boot lid. .

I agree it is odd that the Sport does not have sport seats in the way the A4 does, but remember the Sport is the entry level fo rthe A6 in the UK, so they would have no option with standard seats if they included Sport seats standard. Not sure why they do not have the control in the rear for the AC like the A6. What is odd is that in the US, what we refer to as 2 Zone AC seems to be sold as 3 Zone, yet there is no rear seat control (that I can see on the pictures at any rate). Problems shutting doors om the A6 is a well documneted issue, drove me mad when I first got my car, but it is down to the car being so well sealed that air pressure stops the doors shutting. I found after about a year of using the car I had either got used to it or the seals had softened sufficiently to make it less of an issue. That said I now have a new A6 and back to square one again!

The A6 Avat does have a motorised boot so no differnet to the A4 and likewise the A4 saloon does not have a motorised closure either. The new A4 is no better than the A6 when it comes to touchscreen, indeed I would say it is worse because you have to strtech to reach it. Plus the mounting for the screen seems very flimsey. I rarely have the need to manually zoom the screen while driving. I just leave it on auto zoom. You can always look at the map and zoom it in the istrument panel, even on cars without the techpack

Interesting about the door closing being a common gripe. For the map zoom, I often find the nav routing to be sub-optimal, or plain stupid in London so I don't follow it blindly on the default quite zoomed in view. Sometimes it sends you down roads that may look two way on a map but in reality due to parking are only wide enough for one car, and so on. Consequently I use it in map view with North at the top and occasionally when I'm on an unfamiliar drive I zoom out to see how I'm being routed. Doing that was so easy with the jog dial. Now not so much.

 

[JohnNW]

Agree that the WLTP tests, plus Audi's own policy of reducong the number of options on offer to drive cost and production effiicency is why we don't all get the option of 4 zone CC. That said I probably have rear seat passengers in my car less than 5% of the time so not really an issue

It is odd and rather frustrating that Audi have stopped offering so many options on their cars and whilst it might be in the name of 'efficiency', I don't see BMW, Mercedes or Land Rover/Range Rover going the same way, nor VW for that matter!

 

[elan2s]

Read an article earlier today. Apparently from 1sf Jan 2021 every car manufacturer has to be assigned its unique CO2 rating and this can even change depending on what brand of tyre is fitted. It can mean that the car ends up being certified with a different rating than expected when ordered and could bump the customer into a higher tax band. Not sure if this the reason but Mercedes no longer has any options other than colour for each trim level. Of course it may be that in other countries they don’t tax vehicles in the same way and hence Audi will continue to offer a wide range of options.

It looks as if Audi are in the process of changing specs for cars in the UK as it seems you can no longer configure a Vorsprung spec for most models on the online configurator.


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