Test drive Audi A6 2001 - 2004 sedan

Rings for the Lord

The representative Audi-A8 has a competitor of the brand ... Audi. The new A6 business class model is now almost inferior to the flagship either in the solidity of the appearance or in the luxury of the cabin.
 



Reincarnation
She is especially good when she appears unexpectedly, abruptly emerging from somewhere out of the turn. A huge trapezoidal grille of the radiator, in two cutting the bumper integrated into the facing of the front line. The edges, emblem rings, reflectors of the headlights, and in the middle are black density shine with metal. The contrast of reflection and absorption ...
 

No, there are no cars for ordinary citizens with such faces, and here the Italian designer Walter de Silva knew what he did, the new A6 would say about the respectability of his owner before he got out of the car.
 

The previous Audi-A6, a car with a representative, solid appearance, nevertheless lost to arrogant competitors from Stuttgart and Bavaria. There was not enough instantly recognizable family line, like a nostril of a BMW or a narrowed tail of a jaguar, without which it was not to get into a high society.

And get there oh how you wanted. After all, Audi in general and A6 in particular in Ingolstadt consider the clients of respectable and outstanding people. Indeed, you need to be a very wealthy master in order not only to pay 50100 thousand dollars for the car, but also to allocate $ 5002,000 per month for transportation costs. The latter is easy to calculate, knowing that in three years the six will have to be sold for $ 2030 thousand.
 

Then why not make it attractive to the potential buyer A8, who loves to drive the car yourself? After all, personally to twist the steering wheel at the Moveton luxury class, the owner can confuse with the driver. But Audi-A6 is universal in its status. For example, on weekdays, the head of the company is carried on it, which on weekends itself gets behind the wheel. For a 120 mm, a new six -sided Audi, as well as the eight, grown into the subtleties of the protocol, will not be able to catch the difference in length of less than 3%.
 



For the driver ...
For acquaintance, we chose a very expensive car with a 3-liter 218-horsepower engine, a 6-speed automatic, all-wheel drive and an additional option for $ 73,000.
 

I go to the car, and the door automatically unlocks the antenna caught the signal from the key in my pocket. The key can be used in the old fashioned way, turning the larvae of locks, as you like. I sit behind the wheel and immediately understand that this audi, remaining one hundred percent recognizable, has become different. The first is the chrome frame on the steering wheel, which contains a proprietary emblem. She repeats the drawing of the radiator lattice, hinting at the glorious racing traditions of four rings. These were the lattices of super-powerful and excitingly quick auto unions that won the Grand Prix in the 30s.
 

However, this dash is designed for a few gourmets. The other parallel is by no means historical much closer and more distinctly. Taking advantage of the fact that the BMW designers made the front panel of the new five banal flat, the stylists in Ingolstadt, on the contrary, slightly deployed the central console to the left a la BMW: everything is here in the name of the driver and for the good of the driver. Even the glove box now for its convenience opens the button to the right of the display.
 

However, in Audi they did not want the interior of the car to look revolutionary, unusual. The location and design of devices, keys, switches in a traditional, corporate identity, and brand fans will feel at home here.
 

Just do not think what traditional means old -fashioned. What was not in the former six at all is a multimedia interface (MMI) with a control panel between the front seats. As soon as you begin to configure something: whether the stereo system, the climatic installation, the heating temperature of the seats or something else instantly falls on the color display in the middle of the dashboard. And additionally on a small display in a combination of devices to be less distracted from the road.
 

Talking about MMI in details is pointless to it is attached a thick, almost kilogram book. However, if there is time, you can master the on -board computer and without instructions, this exciting toy is subordinated to iron German logic and communicates with you in English.
 

Here we go? The key is still in my pocket, crush the brake pedal and then press the engine start button twice, which is to the left of the automatic transmission selector. The fact that the motor has earned, you only feel the brake amplifier on the pedal slightly squeezes it a little. I transfer the selector to the drive, add a gas, it is a handbrake here an electric self -growing, and the machine is moving in motion.
 

Almost imperceptibly sorting through the transmission of the machine, Audi silently swims along the road. What is happening outside the windows resembles the underwater world through the eyes of the crew of Batiscaf. He stopped at the traffic light. On the right on board KamAZ with a concrete mixer. The whole vibrates, enveloping himself with a smoke. Probably there, outside, hot, noisy and smelly ...
 

So, it can block the driver from the surrounding world with a wall of sophisticated comfort. Now let's try to check how fair the promises of the designers were to endow A6 outstanding, highly dynamic road manners.

 
     
The rear sofa can be folded entirely or in parts already in the basic configuration A6

A CD changer is located in the glove box


Pretty winding suburban highway. Here it is just that you can check whether the A6 is really the most sports in its class, as the creators assure. The gas pedal to the floor and the car picks up, like a sailboat with a hurricane. Audi prescribes a snake as on rails, which, of course, is undoubtedly the merit of not only an increased track, it is now the widest in business class, but also a dense suspension.
 

The engineers had to pretty much to conjure with her. In front, the design has not changed, and aluminum is still widely used in it. However, the axis itself is shifted 83 mm forward, and the suspension kinematics are revised. But behind a multi -link design appeared, already familiar from the flagship A8. Moreover, its components are not made of winged metal, but from high -strength steel.
 

All these measures were called upon to provide large, sports rigidity. Which was successfully achieved. Indeed, on our no ideal autobahns, the suspension of the new A6 seems harsh. However, about the Sama itself, let me politely disagree. Yes, this audi, like not one of its predecessors, is very flattering the driver with an aggressive appearance, a more clockwork, driver interior, and more noticeably collects himself in vihi. Nevertheless, first of all, it remains a comfortable business class car.

 
  
Durable steel body with crushed zones The basis of high passive safety A6. Frontal, front side (in seats) pillows and inflatable curtains are installed in standard configuration


Another example of this is an impeccable steering electrolyter for maneuvers in the city. However, on the highway I would like the steering wheel more to feel better than one and a half tons of mass of the car. The hydromechanical machine is also sharpened for comfort and, when you begin to actively pedal, as if asking for a driver, taking a small pause before executing the order. By switching the selector to the sport mode, you can significantly improve the dynamics, receiving in the appendage and the sports sound of the motor at high speeds.
 



... and for the ruler
However, the head of a large company to waste nerve cells on the streets clogged with cars is more likely, he will find a hired driver for his rings. And he will sit, for example, on the right, where you can configure the individual climate control channel, warm up the pillow and back of the seat or rummage on the air in search of your favorite music. The leather mansions from the back, of course, are not separated from the driver with a partition, but in any case, the long interior of the six will feel like a solitude and calmly work with the papers or just take a nap.
 

The summer start of the new Audi in the Russian market did not allow us to demonstrate the celebration of all -wheel drive in this test. But where will it go, Russian winter? And we are from the experience of the previous A6, from which the current inherited all the best, we know what the moments of the triumph are! Some kind of crowned feed with a star or propeller creeps in front of your hood on the snow porridge. And why does it wash it from side to side? I'm tired of all! Having impatiently, you go around the attribute of luxury and prestige as an annoying obstacle. When your four rings are hidden in the darkness of snowfall, the orthodox adherent of the classics will remember, it would seem, indisputable: everything is the image! And sad ...
 
How much is Audi for the people?

The most affordable A6 is front-wheel drive, with a 2.4-liter V-shaped six in 177 liters. With. Equipped with climate control, 6th Air Bages, a stereo system with a CD, an electric packet, xenon headlights, a fabric salon and a 6-speed manual transmission, it costs $ 49,564, and with a stray CVT variator $ 51,706. A three-liter A6 with a leather salon, variator and variator and variator and a variator and The front wheel drives will cost $ 61,354. With a 6-speed automatic and all-wheel drive $ 64 210. And with a 224-horsepower diesel engine $ 73,448. The most expensive version with an 8-cylinder 4.2-liter engine with a capacity of 335 liters. p., 6-speed automatic and all-wheel drive, R17 wheels and a decorated salon costs $ 90,424.
 

All prices are given excluding options, but, as a rule, dealers are more expensive for $ 320 thousand, since they are supplemented by equipment that customers most often order: a radio curtsy of the door and unlocking of doors, a tank of 80 liters, a hatch in a roof, protection of a crankcase, etc. . P.
 
PER

A solid appearance, a comfortable interior, a powerful engine, all -wheel drive, a highly intellectual on -board computer, an abundance of the offered options
AGAINST

Excessively powerful at high speeds of the steering wheel, high price
 
Audi A6 3.0 Quattro

common data
 
Body (number of places/doors)
Sedan (5/4)
 
Equipped mass, kg
1525
 
Length x width x height, mm
4915x1855x1459
 
Base, mm
2843
 
Speed, km/h
241
 
Acceleration time 0100 km/h, with
8.5
 

Fuel consumption, l/100 km highway/city
8.3/16.0
 


Engine
 
Design
gasoline, 6-cylinder, V-shaped
 
Working volume, SMZ
2976
 
Power, L.S. at rpm
218/6300
 
Torque, kgsm at rpm
29/3200
 

Chassis
 
Transmission
Automatic, 6-speed
 
Steering
rhealo type
 
Brakes
disk, in front ventilated
 
Tires
205/70 R17
 
Anton Utkin, photo of Alexander Sadovnikov

 
 

Source: Magazine buy a car [15/2004]