Audi A6 Avant long-term test

The car Audi A6 Avant Sport 45 TFSI quattro Run by Chris Haining, sub-editor

Why it’s here To find out whether an executive estate car can still cut it in a world that prefers SUVs, and to see if there's still a place for petrol power in these days of electrification

Needs to Soothe on a long motorway commute without costing the earth on fuel; be endlessly versatile without being annoyingly cumbersome

Mileage 1097 List price £52,280 Target Price £48,252 Price as tested £55,960 Official fuel economy 36.2 miles Test fuel economy 39.0 miles 

20 June 2024 – Putting the boot in

It was my ninth wedding anniversary in May, and as has become traditional, my wife and I celebrated with a long weekend in Glastonbury – a great opportunity to put my Audi A6 Avant through its paces on a long trip. 

Of course, with the A6 Avant being a substantial estate car, our holiday luggage was unlikely to make much of a dent in its luggage-carrying potential, and sure enough our soft bags, walking boots and wet weather gear (it rains in Glastonbury from time to time, you know), barely touched the sides. 

More of a test, though, was a Mk1 Ford Mondeo saloon bootlid. I had volunteered to pick this up from a local eBay seller and deliver it to a friend near Bristol, en route to Glastonbury. My diligent efforts at wrapping it for protection in transit served only to make it even bulkier, but manoeuvring it into the A6’s cavernous boot was childs play.

Of course, I had to fold the rear seats down (a cinch, thanks to the boot-mounted release levers), but this gave me a load bay that was virtually flat from the entrance right through to the front seatbacks. It felt like it might swallow an entire Mondeo, not just its bootlid.

Cargo secured, we got on our way, and as we drew closer to Bristol it was time to enter our target address into the A6's sat-nav. Rather than using the wireless Android Auto compatibility to access Google Maps, I elected to use the car’s in-built system, which has the advantage of placing full-colour 3D mapping on the 12.3in driver’s display in front of my nose, as well as on the 10.1in central screen. The only drawback I encountered was that inputting an address is a seriously long-winded process.

When parked up, you can use the keyboard that appears on the 8.6in lower touchscreen, its haptic feedback making every touch of an icon feel eerily like you were pressing an actual button.

You can’t do this, though, when you’re on the move. Instead, you have to enter one single character at a time by drawing it on the touchpad with your fingertip, and I found this tricky with my left hand, particularly when (as smooth-riding as it is) the A6 encountered bumps in the road. Fortunately, it turns out that the voice control works very well as an alternative, and my stress quickly returned to normal levels.

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