TL:DR version - it's a great car and one of the last big powerful diesel estates available in the UK. I'd recommend it. It can do relaxed, it's surprisingly fun driven enthusiastically, I saw bests of 160mph and 57mpg. I said I'd keep it forever, but forever is a long time. I did nearly 60,000 miles in it over 3 years, though I anticipated doing 90-100,000 over that time frame when I bought it. That's actually part of its downfall - had I reached 100k I'd have wanted to keep it but after moving house my mileage was more limited and I thought a hybrid could replace a diesel.
Generally there's not much, if anything, which can do the stuff the Audi does. I bought it because I was never fully happy with the Allroad it replaced; I loved my first Allroad so much and this second one didn't quite feel as perfect. So when offered £10k off a new S6 Avant for delivery within a couple of weeks, and a very good trade-in offer, I jumped on it. It was ordered by the dealer to be a demo car so had the options I wanted (the Tour pack with adaptive cruise, and the extended leatherette pack) and a few things which were nice to have like B&O. The seats and the leather used on them were particularly nice, and there were some Alcantara panels on the doors for contrast. I like the design of the interior but it's not as high quality as the preceding C7 model; there was a rattle from the dash almost from day one and some of the plastics lower down were harder and felt cheap. And while there was stitching everywhere (door tops, dash, centre console sides etc) it was in fake leather so didn't give the same classy feel in the flesh as it does in pictures. The big screen was a massive upgrade from the C7 screen though; very useful. And the adaptive (intelligent) cruise made my motorway commute as stress-free as possible as the post-COVID traffic returned to the roads.
I'm going to list the dislikes next, and there are probably quite a few but they're only niggles:
- The day I picked it up I was going to a show in Malvern on the way home and therefore drove it back in the dark while unfamiliar with it. All the screens inside were too bright and distracting. Turned down the brightness as quickly as I could find out how to do so.
- Also on the first day I kept finding the glovebox open. It didn't like staying shut unless properly slammed closed. Still found it open occasionally three years later
- The adaptive cruise was good but no better than the 2018 Volvo I had. The speed limit camera was also very keen to read side road signs.
- Mine was a chip shortage car so it didn't have the matrix headlights. After having them in my Volvo and turning them off, I didn't mind but I've since got used to them in my MX5 and the fact that the dipped beams didn't turn with the steering felt a bit cheapskate.
- Being a diesel there were random journeys where the economy was sub-30mpg because it decided to do a DPF regen, which is just annoying.
- All UK S6s should have the larger fuel tank which is 73l. I never managed to get more than 66l in, even going about 10 miles past zero range remaining. So the actual practical range per tank was about 600 miles rather than the 700 which the economy and tank size should have achieved. AdBlue tank was a decent size though; only had to refill that once in my ownership.
Overall it is one of those immensely satisfying cars which you'd happily jump in and drive to Italy or to the chip shop. I was wooed by something else but I always am; I haven't done as many miles in a car or owned a daily driver for as long as the S6. Since it was about to turn 3 years old I also did man-maths; my service pack had run out, the MOT was due, the Cross Climate 3 Sport tyres would need swapping for summer tyres (they gave it a softer turn-in and I'd highly recommend sticking to the original Conti Sport Contact 6s in Audi spec which I got through two sets of), I'd have wanted to extend the warranty and do a gearbox service and things like brake disks and pads were bound to become necessary. All just routine stuff but all due at once. I also got pissed off with the Audi dealer when simply trying to book the car in for its MOT; Audi dealers generally are not as good as BMW dealers in my experience.
It did what I wanted, it made me feel good and it didn't cost much to run. So far the M5 is doing what I want, making me feel even better and isn't costing much to run. So I don't regret the change but I'll look back at this in a year or two and see if I still feel the same.
