2005 Audi A6 Test Drive

One Mystifying Ride

The new Audi A6's handsome exterior and powerful V-8 are offset by confusing controls that undermine its appeal.

From The Driver's Seat

As BMW's byzantine, frustrating iDrive multimedia interface has been the butt of joke after joke in the automotive press, we have been surprised to find that Audi's Multi-Media Interface system has not met similar derision.

OK, so MMI is less complicated than iDrive — but only marginally so. Both units use a display screen, a controller and buttons mounted on the center console, and both control functions such as audio and climate settings. If you want to, for example, adjust the stereo's bass in the A6, you'll need to navigate a series of menus and click several buttons — all the while taking your eyes off the road for a dangerously long time.

The pedals feel like the controls in the A6: a bit too electronically assisted. Unlike the Phaeton's pedals, which have a nice heft to them and avoid feeling over-assisted, the A6's brake and gas feel a bit light and a bit unnatural, especially the brakes. We have written in these pages that Audi's brakes have a problem: No matter how smooth you try to be, they emit a little jolt right before the car comes to a complete stop — and Audi owners have reported to us that they experience the same thing. The new A6 suffers from this problem.

This is not good. People used to buy German luxury cars because the tactile feel of the cars — how the pedals work, how the doors sound when they close, how the buttons feel when you push them — was so excellent that buyers forgave the poor reliability and premium prices of the vehicles. Now that the pedals feel weird in Audis — and in Mercedes-Benzes — we have to wonder what exactly justifies the high sticker prices.

One of the main justifications is horsepower. While premium Japanese brands such as Nissan Motor's Infiniti subsidiary are shaming the Germans with superior reliability and more reasonable prices, they haven't quite captured the public's imagination by offering ridiculously high-powered cars — not yet.

Perhaps the strongest asset of the A6 4.2 is its 335-hp, 4.2-liter V8 engine — particularly when coupled with the superior traction of the car's four-wheel drive system. A 255-hp V6 is also available, but we strongly recommend the V8. You have to rev the V8 a bit high to reach its power peak (6,500 rpm), a characteristic that is better suited to a cheap, Japanese performance car than a German luxury sedan — but you can't argue with the sheer amount of horsepower. Although the A6 is not a sports car, the V8 engine option makes the vehicle extremely sporty.