veedubmac

UPDATE IN POST 31 WITH THOUGHTS AFTER 10,000 MILES:

Hi Guys,

Finally took delivery of our new 2023 Allroad. Over the last few months this group has kept me sane during the waiting game. I hope some of of my experience and thoughts on the car help others who are in the same boat I was in just a few short weeks ago.

We recently purchased a home in rural CT and decided to get a second car as we'd been a single car household for a while. We are finishing up a big home renovation and the need for a more practical car to supplement our 911 was becoming more of a necessity as we started hauling larger items around. We looked at just about everything, from every European automaker and felt the A6 Allroad was the best of all worlds. We weren't crazy about the elevated height of an SUV and liked that the Audi was pretty much the best option in the sub-$100k market. Knowing how precious allocations were, we checked with every dealer in CT who all were willing to take deposits for an allocation they had no idea when they would get. We walked in to Audi of Greenwich and mentioned to the sales person we were interested in an Allroad and by some lucky stroke she said they had an available allocation which was still customizable. Note this was in August for an allocation which was in late October. We gave a deposit and specs that day. The dealer mentioned how in-demand the car was and thus was including a $10k ADM. We pushed back and were able to reduce that to $3k + AudiCare. We've never paid over sticker for any car in the past, but given the crazy market, we didn't think it was the worst thing in the world to get exactly what we wanted and not wait an undetermined amount of time. We placed the order for the following:

Prestige
Chronos Grey over Sarder Brown
Luxury Package
B&O Advanced
Dinamica Headliner

The car was built on-schedule, but sat at the port for a few extra weeks. The car arrived to the port in RI early January and we took delivery last Saturday. Compared to the many threads I have seen, this wait didn't seem so bad...

Thoughts:

The Good
-Looks: Absolutely love the look of the avant body style. We aren't fans of black-ed out anything and love how the matte silver exentuates the shape and though the skid plates probably don't protect much, they look great. We ordered the Chronos Grey seeing it only on a Q3 and are very pleased with the color. It really shifts quite a bit and fits the character of the car quite well. The light animation is fun, too!
-B&O: I consider myself someone who vaules a high-quality sound, but by no means an audiophile and I couldn't tell you the various attributes which make one system sound better than the next. That said, you can immediately here how crisp and clear the advanced system is and even with the bass turned up, it never gets boomy. Also, I love the silver grilles which up the ante on the interior looks/qualithy feel
-Headlights: At night these are fantastic. Really great light output and the auto high-beams seems to be programmed nicely. We live travel down quite a few dark, twisty, wooded roads and these headlights instill confidence.
-Ride: The ride quality of the Allroad is perhaps the best thing about this car. The tuning of the air suspension coupled with the thicker-side-walled tires give the car a super supple ride. We are coming from an S-Class coupe and this ride the same, if not better.
-Noise: The dual-pane glass of the Prestige package is well worth it. The car at highway speeds is super quiet, again, on-par or better than the S coupe.
-Seats: Seat comfort is great. The leather quality is very high and the heated seats work well. I am one of those people who have the heated seats on constantly and hate when they aren't super hot. Mercedes automatically steps down the heat from 3, to 2, to 1 within 15 minutes. It drove me nuts and I love that they stay hot on the Audi. I tried out the ventilated seats and give them a 7/10. The massage is also fantastic. I would rate these 9/10. Definitely better than the seats in an equivalent 5-series or any MB product including the S.
-Love how the car remembers the last settings/drive select options from the last drive vs. many others which default back to a "comfort/normal" mode.

The Meh
-Power: The car certainly isn't lacking and I haven't really pushed it since it's still in break-in, but I can already tell I like BMWs inline 6 better. I have a close family member whose fully-loaded 540xi I drive frequently, and feel that engine is smoother, sounds better, and has more grunt, even though it has less HP & TQ. Again, I reserve final judgement until I can really push it. I will give one caveat and say the last 2 cars we've had were V8s (MB S560 and BMW 750i) and a high output inline 6 (MB E53), so perhaps I am jaded by their more immediate power.
-Seats: While I love them (as mentioned above), the comparable 5-series offers more adjustment with the articulating upper back and they have power rise/lower headrest with the adjustable wings. We had the multi-contour seats in the E53 convertible and thought those were nice, but the Allroad is a bit better.
-S-tronic: Overall, the transmission works well and seems very smooth. That said, you can definitely tell it's a dual-clutch, and Porsche's tuning of their PDK is better and less clunky. Compared to any non-sport car, Audi's seems the most refined to me.
-Wish the pano roof slid back a bit further
-Overall quality: The car feels very well built and solid.
-Dinamica headliner adds a lot to the interior. We fought about selecting this as it seems over priced at $3k, but again, the last 4 cars we've had all had it and I think we would have missed having it. Don't regret ticking this option.

The Bad
-The lower dash plastic is subpar and feels super cheap
-Door pockets should be lined in a felt or something soft to help keep rolling objects from making noise
-The center console compartment is laughably small
-Wireless charger isn't great

Questions
-Have any of you found a rubber cargo liner which doesn't cover the built-in rails? I intend on buying the accessories which work on these tracks, but would like to also have a cleanable mat.

Planned Mods
I don't normally mod cars, but like to do a few OEM adds. We've already ordered the stainless pedals and are considering the Euro cupholder (should I be worried about removing the center console and getting creaks?), the stitched-leather airbag cover, and brushed-aluminum mirror covers.

I apologize for the less than stellar photos, but I tried to capture the different looks of Chronos. If anyone has a specific questions, let me know!

Zombie5150

Beautiful car, congrats!

PartsByTopher LLC

First off, congratulations! Absolutely beautiful spec!
I would advise looking into the Canvasback Cargo Liner. They offer a tailored solution that does not cover the rails in the trunk load floor. Canvasback Cargo Liner. Works perfectly with the cargo organizing system as shown.



Welcome to the area as well! Westchester County Resident here

Jonathan S.

I was confused at first by the complaints about the drivetrain, but then I noticed the 911 refence -- you're setting a high standard there to meet!

Central console is indeed small, and ironically so for those of us who ended up with the wireless charger delete, since we're losing space to a missing feature.
Be sure though to take advantage of the space to the left of steering wheel, which is downright cavernous, almost too big!

I'd never thought about a cargo liner that allows access to the rails. My vehicle came with the cargo tray already installed, so once I got around looking underneath, I saw the rails, then looked underneath that and saw the tie-down inserts. Oh, neato! Except I can't use them with the cargo liner, hmm.
The linked cargo liner shows it extending across the rails. Is the idea that you can simply fold it up so that the rails are accessible?

Ganjulama

I think you can order the Canvasback either way. Mine cover the rails. I wanted that because little bits of stuff can get in the rails. I had the attachment points already in the car that go into the rails, I thought there were standard? I don't have those strap things.

At any rate, you can use the accessory rails by folding back the liner. Bonus because the liner still folds down over the unused part of the rail.

PartsByTopher LLC

That is correct. If you send them an e-mail with your request, they can tailor the liner to your specifications as desired. For example, creating a partition in the middle to allow entry into the compartment storing the cargo rail organization pieces.

Unfortunately the tensile strap and adjustable barrier are omitted from the US & Canadian market vehicles. Fortunately, they can always be added after the fact.

Turboale

Congratulations and what a well thought out and thorough review. I have to say I agree with you on just about everything. I think the DSG is the Achilles heel of the drivetrain. This car should have a ZF8 for many reasons, overall luxury feel and confidence being one of them. They went too plush with the tuning and a lot of the benefits of DSG go out the window IMHO. Currently nobody has cracked it so no TCU tunes are available yet. I will be first in line to try it out should it become available.

It's not a total game changer but I absolutely use the sunglasses holder that replaced the oh poop handle on the driver's side. They are cheap on Amazon. If you are interested and can't find a link let me know and I'll dig it up.

I absolutely suggest canvasback coveres. I have had them on my last three vehicles and I suggest them to anyone, especially if they are dog owners. Something to note though is that they do a great job of protecting the car but will not contain spills like the factory mat will. I simply used the lines in the factory mat as a guide and cut holes to allow access to the slides and that has worked great for me.

Whatever you do make sure you are feeding that magnificent sound system good audio. Most streaming services downgrade when not on wifi. Check that your settings are set to the highest quality or subscribe to spotify HQ or Tidal because you will absolutely hear the difference and will never want to listen to the garbage bitrates XM provides ever again.

Ganjulama

Wow, Audi thinks *very* highly of this accessory! I'd love to have them but I personally can't justify them at that price point.

rich_r

In doing some more research on this, it sounds like Audi uses the DSG as part of their "Ultra" version of quattro - which does not use the traditional torsen style center diff. Instead it uses a multiplate clutch (similar to a Haldex) that (along with a dogleg clutch in the rear diff) can fully decouple the rear wheels for better efficiency. They still use the torsen style diff along with a ZF8 speed in their S and RS cars (even with the same v6 engine such as the S5). I follow their logic of wanting to provide better efficiency in their regular cars and i guess this setup allows for this. But yeah, I do think a ZF8 speed is a generally a nicer automatic for a daily driver than a DSG. Not entirely clear on why the ultra system only works with DSG although VW do use a similar setup in their transverse FWD cars (including Audi A3) so maybe Ultra in the longitudinal MLB platform cars is adapted from that design. If you google Quattro ultra system you can find some pretty interesting and in-depth articles on how it all works.

veedubmac

Agreed, but I think they may be worth it. I've already noticed stuff sliding around which you can here from the driver's seat. Porsche has a very similar system in their SUVs, though I don't know if they supply the accessories which click into the rails or not. Funnily, with Porsche, if you want the customized carpet (you can choose color, leather binding, etc.) you cannot get the Cargo Management System rails. Not sure why someone who is very organized wouldn't also want a nice carpet...HAHA