January 3, 2007 - IGN Overlord and resident German Peer "Ja Kool" Schneider has been quite pleased with us lately. Peer's stoked that we've been cutting back on the JDM-only reviews in favor of DTM-tyte rides from his homeland. These days, it's hard for us to request anything but a German-made ride. The Germans build cars for driving enthusiasts, and as we like to consider ourselves driving enthusiasts, we like to think that the German auto manufacturers build these cars just for us.

We wanted to continue to sample the best rides Germany has to offer (all while staying on Mr. Schneider's good side), so we called up the peeps at Audi and demanded another car. Rather than hang up on us, which most companies do when we demand stuff, Audi said "sure thing" and asked us what kind of car we wanted.

We've spent enough time in German sedans and coupes. Being in L.A., too many a**holes drive these Teutonic two and four-door cars as a false sign of wealth, and we didn't want to be associated with them. So what vehicle type did this leave us with? Our favorite type: the wagon. We asked Audi for an A6 Avant, and boy did Audi deliver.

Rather than give us "just" the standard A6 Avant, Audi hooked us up with the A6 Avant Quattro S-Line. The $3,350 S-Line package gives the A6 Avant an aggressive look by adding 19-inch alloy wheels, high-performance summer tires, a revised sport-tuned suspension, special S-Line badges and other trim pieces. Our S-Line looks good, and it turns heads everywhere it goes. That said, our A6 Avant doesn't stick out and shout "look at me", meaning that we don't have kids in EVOs always trying to race us, nor do we have the po-po on our case at all times. Out of all the cars we've driven, this A6 Avant S-Line is probably the best car for driving fast under the radar. Who's gonna look twice at a station wagon?

But perhaps we're able to stay under the police (and boy racers') radar as our A6 Avant test car is equipped with the base 3.2 liter 255 horsepower V6. This engine was great in the A3 S-Line we drove a few weeks back, but the A3 is a full 507 pounds lighter than the A6 Avant, the A6 just doesn't feel as fast. 255 horsepower may sound like a lot, but when you stop to consider the fact that the A6 Avant's has a listed curb weight of over two tons, 255 ponies just don't seem like a lot.


Still, the 3.2 delivers a decent 242 lb.-ft. of torque, and as this engine is mated to Audi/VW's fantastic DSG six-speed automatic transmission, acceleration is decent. As with other DSG-equipped cars, the A6 Avant feels lethargic when in "full auto" mode. We swear that our car only starts off in second gear rather than first, and the computer upshifts early and often. Flicking the gear select lever over to "manual" and choosing the car's shift points for ourselves really allows the A6 to come alive. It still doesn't feel fast, but the car feels respectably quick "for a wagon".

With the 19-inch rims and sport-tuned suspension, the ride quality of the A6 Avant S-Line can be called anything but "supple". The 19s really do a good job of transmitting every bump and surface imperfection to the cabin - which is actually great for us, as we really like to feel connected to the road. The sport tuned suspension (plus the all-wheel drive) allows the A6 to corner very well. Even in hard turns, we really don't feel the car's weight nor do we feel its massive size. This wagon is really maneuverable in tight spaces, and it really likes being thrown into corners at speed. We may value cornering ability over everything else, but the luxury car-buying set - the set that is likely looking at purchasing the A6 - may find this car's ride to be too rough.


Okay, so while the ride may be a little too harsh for a "luxury car", the interior surely gets everything right. We've spent many paragraphs talking about the excellent fit, finish and overall design of German interiors, so let's just say that the cabin of the A6 Avant carries on that tradition. But if there is one word that can best describe the A6's cabin, it is this one: buttons. Never in our lives have we seen so many buttons in a car. Need to open the glove box? Look for the button next to the nav screen. Want to set the parking brake? Push a button. Need to turn on the heated seats? Look for the correct button, watch the menu pop up on the MMI screen, turn the knob - no, not the one that controls the MMI - go back to the knob by the heated seat button, and adjust. Repeat these steps to adjust just about everything in the car.

There are too many buttons - many of which are located around the base of the gear select lever. This means that we spend way too much time looking at the floor of the A6 and not the road ahead. Kind of dangerous if you ask us... Yeah, we ended up getting used to all of these buttons, but we can see this overuse of buttons being the cause for more than one car accident... We still haven't figured out how to make the push-button start button work without turning the key all the way over to the point that the key itself starts the car...


The cargo area of our Avant looks like the back of a pick-up truck in the sense that our Audi has adjustable tracks in the back. Attached to these tracks is a metal (aluminum, we guess) bar that just seems to get in the way of everything. The base of this thing is kind of fat, which pushes the bar out far enough to take up a good chunk of usable space. Yeah, we could take it out or something, but knowing us, we'd lose it. Then we'd owe Audi a lot of money (more money than we earn, anyway). We guess it will come in handy for those times it's needed, but we never needed it. Does anyone?

Minor nit-pick aside, we really enjoy driving the A6 Avant S-Line. It really is a fine driver's car packed with every feature we want - plus a few features that we didn't even know existed. But all of this driving pleasure doesn't come cheap; the A6 Avant starts at a pricey $48,000. Add things like the S-Line package, technology package (which has the navigation system), leather seats and convenience package and the A6 Avant S-Line comes to a sky-high as-tested price of $60,770. By contrast, a more powerful fully-loaded BMW 335i is priced at $49K - $10K less than the A6 Avant.

We're not sure if the extra size justifies an additional $10K, but we like the car anyway. We'd buy one if we had the cash.