Ok people, the bug has hit... S6 Avant

[o2bnme]

The realtor told us that we needed to clear out for the day. We had six showings at our townhouse today! So, once we finished cleaning the house we did a little grocery shopping and then eventually found ourselves at Leith Audi to look at the S6 Avant.

WOW WHAT A CAR!! (yes, I'm screaming.)

Mary was the salesperson who helped us. She's seems like a great person, and I commend her on her sales abilities. She did a great job showing us the car. From what I know about sales training I could tell she paid attention in class.

Ok, now for the review...

Cost: 60k. Yeah, it is an expensive car. We'll have to trade in the TT in order to get car & car insurance payments down with the new house. If Mary & I can find enough equity in the two cars we own (TT & Volvo V70R) we'll see what happens. The key is getting the monthly down to a reasonable number without going past a 5-year loan. I WAS expecting to keep the Volvo that long and really am willing to do so, but this would be an interesting option. ;-)

Exterior: I like the avant styling better than the S6 sedan. No TT, but I like the avant.

Interior: We found it more comfortable than the Volvo. The seats had very good support. I found the seats a little wide, but then again, I'm smaller than average.

The Tiptronic was ok. It is better than the Volvo shifting which is important. They have a D (drive) and an S (sport) and then Tiptronic. I figure if I want to be more aggressive I'd use S a bit more than the Tip...the Tip is nice if you want to downshift entering a turn I guess. It would take a little getting used to. I figure it is better than a straight automatic transmission.

We didn't turn the radio on. I figure it was the Bose upgrade, so it MUST be good. ;-) 8-speaker & subwoofer. The Volvo has ProLogic surround with no subwoofer... it kicked but actually (but could use a little more bass).

The door panels have some nice compartments to hold things. Nice touch.

Controls seemed to be pretty good... very flat buttons, so Alex would probably have to put some Braille on them to make it work for her. The gauges were cool. I really liked the aluminum trim on the gauges! ;-)

Alcantera roof too! Cool. Cup holders? yeah, it has them, but I won't be using those weak looking holders much. Biggie size it means you hold the cup yourself.

Seriously, the interior was very well done. I had no complaints about it worth mentioning.

Exterior: I prefer the avant body styling to the sedan for the A6. The S6 has subtle changes that make it more aggressive looking. I can't say I fell in love with the styling though. It sure looks better than my Volvo. ;-) This was the first Volvo that I liked the styling of (the R has some nice touches). I want to see a dark green or blank model. ;-)

Engine: The A6 cabin is too quiet to appreciate the engine while driving. This is a big change from my roadster with the lack of a muffler. ;-) Again, I'd have to get used to this in order to drive the Tiptronic properly.

Man, what do you say about having 340hp behind your little pinky toe? Wow! That car flies. A friend just pointed me to www.carstats.com. He said the S6 Avant came in at 6.1 for 0-60 and 14.4 for 1/4. Cool...it felt like it would do something like this. Ellen, watch out, this car is right on YOUR heels. ;-)

I didn't drive this car too much, but I drove it enough to know that I liked it ... a lot.

Some of you know the driving I do. I do more highway and distance driving than backroads. This car is a good compromise. If I need to go to one car payment and can swing putting some dough down on signing, I MAY be able to swing this car payment. I can see it now, Alex's entire paycheck would be going to pay for this car. ;-) ouch ...but what a car!

PS - I forgot to see if the windshield washer fluid gets sprayed above the drivers' wiper. ;-)

[CarTTman]

if you have the engine at any sort of revs.

[o2bnme]

I didn't get the feeling that it was anything close to a replacement for manual. I was suprised how poorly it performed actually, but I didn't have any reason to have high expectations either.

[CarTTman]

in a reasonable range iso always dropping down to below 2k rpms / 4th gear even if you only going 35.

[NexxTT]

Get the sports seats if they're available. More pocketed than the TT. Great feel.

[Lone Starr (Ivan)]

driving!. You know I am kidding. Your comment about Braille buttons made an image go through my head. I mean, with Braille NAV, who knows, right? It's the ultimate liberating feeling for the blind.

Please, I think it's clear I am just having fun but I did have 3 glasses of cab tonight.

S6 Avant is an awesome car. Awesome.

[o2bnme]

When I kicked it in, the 'S' setting was much quicker in down-shifting than the 'D' setting on the automatic. I found that was sufficient for highway driving.

I figure if I'm approaching a turn where I'll want to exit fast and NOT shift in the middle of the turn I'd kick in the Tiptronic. Of course I wouldn't do this in an area of town where I'm not familiar... I'd just leave it in S (or D if I wasn't in the mood). Wait, I'm always in the mood to exit a turn at 'proper' speed. ;-)

[o2bnme]

It would be fun to think of having the S6 Avant, but if I'm happy with the 3.0L or the 2.7T then I'd get those to save some dough. The REAL reason I'm doing this search is to lower car payments. If I end up with one big car payment instead of two smaller ones then what's the point.

It was something else to drive a non-turbo car again though... and to have 340hp behind the pedal was amazing!

[o2bnme]

Alex told me a good one the other day...

if someone asks her what her eye condition is she is going to say, "CSS." That'll baffle them... until they realize it stands for "Can't See ****." ;-)

Oh, and better a blind driver than a drunk one? ;-) hmm

[Laguna]

But I can't wait to get my TT back. We were considering the Avant, too, but for the money you can't beat the VW. Driving it has been exceptionally rewarding in handling, acceleration, braking and roadholding capabilities. The Tip makes it that much nicer.

On a side note VW doesn't offer 4 Motion without the Tip and a V6. I wonder why? Anyone out there know? Stick would be very cool in that set -up.