2008 Audi S6 Test Drive

The Six Gets Serious

The Audi S6's huge engine, well-appointed interior and understated appearance make for an ideal high-speed cruiser.

Interior

My tester was loaded with a serious array of options, as press vehicles tend to be. All together, they tacked on about $10,000 to the $72,350 base price. I’ve found that tons of needless options only serve to further impress parents, even if they are confused by what the options actually do.

But if you’re going to drive something so indulgent, you might as well go all the way.

The front sport seats are supportive and seemed almost custom-fitted for my tall, narrow frame. In customary Audi fashion, they are also quite firm, especially when compared to the lounge chairs in the BMW M5, one of the S6’s competitors. All of the important controls fall right to hand, and outward visibility is excellent.

The rear accommodations, while wide enough for three, are really meant for two, as indicated by the bolstered semi-bucket seats at the outboard positions. There’s a seat belt in the middle, but the unlucky center passenger has to saddle up on a short, flat leather perch between the two real seats.

The interior trim is impeccable in design and implementation. A Leather Dash Package was probably the most superfluous option on our test vehicle, but with its delicate grain and contrast stitching, it evokes the sophistication of a finely tailored suit.

Exotic carbon fiber abounds due to a $400 option package, with expanses of gray checkerboard on the center console and door trim. In a car of this caliber, it feels like just the right amount of decadence, and certainly beats the wood veneer plastered gaudily on the insides of so many luxury cars. That being said, wood trim is standard in the S6, although I can't comment on its level of gaudiness.

Storage in the cabin was ample. There’s a bi-level console between the seats, a pair of unobtrusive cup holders that are close to hand yet away from the electronics, an overhead sunglasses holder and a glove compartment that automatically falls open once a cryptically labeled button on the dash is pressed. This strange functionality can be attributed to Audi wanting to remove all hard points, such as metal latches, from the front of the glove-box door, which would contact a passenger’s knees in a frontal collision.

With 15.9 cubic feet of capacity, the trunk reminded me of a cave. It’s so deep that I could barely see the back wall, even in direct sunlight. Split-folding rear seats help accommodate long or bulky items.

A full complement of safety features is standard. There’s the obligatory electronic stability program (ESP), which is augmented by anti-slip regulation (ASR), which work together to keep the car stable if any wheels lose traction. The S6 also includes the latest two-stage airbags, front-side airbags and side-curtain airbags for all passengers.

The S6’s in-dash navigation system worked well. Sure, there are only about three roads between New York City and Lake Placid, but on the way back I took a detour through suburban New Jersey on a route I had never traveled and let the computer lead the way.

It worked flawlessly. I was never a big fan of navigation systems on account of the way they distract the driver and complicate the beautiful simplicity of a well-designed map, but the S6’s is good enough to make me reconsider. It even has certain brands of gas stations listed, which can be handy when you’re traveling through a rural area and one wrong turn when you're low on fuel can leave you stranded.

The thing that controls the navigation system, Audi’s MultiMedia Interface (MMI), was simple to use without consulting the manual. Even though it has several buttons and a scroll wheel, it’s much more intuitive than BMW’s one-wheel iDrive system.

The MMI also operates the radio (a Bose system that sounded great in the quiet cabin), climate control (likewise easy to use) and seat heaters (didn’t need them at the time).

I was too much of a chicken to try out Audi’s Adaptive Cruise Control, which depends on sensors in the front of the car to gauge traffic and regulate the car’s cruise speed accordingly — I didn’t want to risk crashing before my vacation even started.

I was more than happy to make use of the Advanced Parking system, however. When the car is shifted into reverse, a camera positioned above the rear license plate transmits live video of what lies directly behind the car so that you don’t accidentally bump into anything that’s too low to see in the rear-view mirror. This is especially helpful on the S6 because it’s a long car.

Finally, a remote Advanced Key system lets drivers start and drive the S6 without putting the key in the ignition. You would think this option only applies to contestants in the World’s Laziest Person competition, but after a few days with the S6, I wondered whether it might be possible to retrofit an Advanced Key system for my apartment.

The S6 tends to warp one’s perception of the world.