From the April 1995 concern of Automobile and Driver.

Should you crave a refined German sedan however have prayed for a worth lower as deep because the Mariana Trench, salvation could also be yours. Audi calls it the A6. Ours had Audi’s famed Quattro four-wheel-drive system, now attractively packaged as a stand-alone characteristic costing solely $1500 over entrance drive. All instructed, our take a look at automobile wore a base worth of lower than $33,000 delivered—a financial savings of $12,000 in contrast with the 100CS Quattro it replaces.

The A6 badge tells us that is Audi’s “huge” (okay, higher mid-size) sedan with the “small” engine. The two.8-liter V-6 provides solely single overhead cams, two valves per cylinder, and a modest 172 hp. For landed gentry requiring a considerably bigger and extra excitable herd of ponies, Audi’s alu­minum A8 with a 295-hp 4.2-liter V-8 could quickly thunder over with a high velocity of 155 mph and a worth of, oooh, $70,000.

Within the early Eighties, the forebear of the A6 arrived because the slick 5000. The primary digit stood for its five-cylinder engine, although the automobile was revered for its main inno­vation, which was including “aero” to the dynamics of a sedan. (Alas, within the late ’80s, Audis with automated transmissions had been wrongly accused of “unintended acceler­ation” by addled folks who simply couldn’t appear to drive and push pedals on the similar time, hitting throttle as a substitute of brake.)

Audi, dealing with rivals with newer and fewer dear fashions, has polished its merchandise and pared costs. It is carried out that with elevated productiveness and by juggling fea­tures. Together with commonplace energy steering, air con, and cruise management, base A6s get twin entrance airbags, anti-lock brakes, an adjustable steering wheel, energy for the locks, home windows, sunroof, and driver’s seat, plus rear defroster and wiper. So the A6 is considerably inexpensive than the previous 100CS Quattro, which admittedly got here with extra stan­dard luxurious options.

Audi’s enhancements feel and appear greater than sheetmetal deep. Form of like liposuction and aerobics that zing the physique electrical however by no means buzz your bones. Start­ning with the wedgy hood, recent fold-over nostril, aero lights, blended trim and bumpers in physique colour, and refined fender flares, the physique wears a brawnier but slicker look—tough to drag off.

The ellipsoid headlights present Audi’s enlightenment. To chop drag, fog lights are fitted within the glossy headlight housings. The headlights are uniformly white. The low-beams have a crisp higher cutoff. Excessive-beam protection is now so huge and vivid that drivers coming as much as go typically gradual sharply whenever you change to dim as they go on by, an eye-opening reminder that they are most likely overdriving their lights.

For drivers who desire a hand within the energy supply, Audi provides a selection between a four-speed automated or the five-speed guide gearbox that we examined—and cherished. Its feathery clutch and shifter make it as easy as a deft automated, simply pretty much as good at flowing away from stoplights and slipping by metropolis site visitors and alongside interstates. Its buttery heel-and-toe motion for matching revs whereas simulta­neously braking and downshift­ing makes it simply pretty much as good for swooping alongside sinuous byways.

To take a look at the V-6, you’d suppose it was a big-block V-8. It wears blocky beauty trim of the kind BMW popularized on its motorbike and sports activities­-sedan engines. If the V-6 ran as huge because it appears, Audi would not want the V-8. However Audi promotes its easy V-6 for gasoline financial system. It averaged 20 mpg regardless of our throttle abuse, and even then offered a cushty 400-mile vary from the 21.1-gallon tank.

The A6 Quattro, partly burdened by its further driveline elements, weighed 3627 kilos. Hampered by its innate reluctance to interrupt the tires unfastened—its finest characteristic on slithery roads—it turned in a modest 0-to-60-mph run of 8.3 seconds. But we blasted to a governor-limited peak of 127 mph (sufficient to make us marvel what it could do with two little turbos).

Audi’s four-wheel discs and ABS professional­duce good braking really feel, however all-out stops from 70 mph required a mediocre 191 toes. The A6’s all-independent suspension han­dles nearly all the pieces properly, and the all­-weather treads of the smallish Goodyear Eagle GAs produce an inexpensive 0.79 g on the skidpad. This sizable sedan may flip in a circle of lower than 35 toes, and its longish tail gives a 17-cubic-foot trunk that additionally comprises a pass-through to the rear seat with a watertight ski bootie.

The cabin appears surprisingly darker than we have come to anticipate from the hotter, lighter colours glowing inside most up-to-date Audis. Then once more, perhaps the extra somber leather-based and wooden swimsuit the deep metallic inexperienced of its shell, which exhibits the perfect a part of its reflective spectrum in delicate daylight. The sweeping sprint­board and sizable console are triumphs of effectivity, and the seats are nice for cruis­ing and supportive sufficient for brisk romps. Footroom within the rear cabin, nonetheless, continues to be lower brief by the entrance buckets’ low-­hanging position-adjustment motors.

The A6’s optionally available sound system is a cooperative effort between Audi and Bose, which can not dwell as much as a lot fanfare as soon as you have heard it by the audio system. As a result of it prices $620 and the CD changer within the trunk provides one other $790, chances are you’ll need to hear earlier than you leap at bumping the underside line that a lot. Elective leather-based seats added one other $1460, and a $1000 bundle of consolation and comfort objects (see specs) plus related luxurious tax helped bloat the full to only below $37,000. That is significantly greater than the rela­tively low base worth. However at this degree of sophistication, the A6 Quattro’s abilities qualify it as blissfully cost-effective.

The Quattro points a year-around invite to propel your self nearly wherever distant as a result of it is liable to retaining its toes planted—a assist to drivers who know what they’re doing, and a godsend for many who do not however want to dangle round lengthy sufficient to study.

If the beefy A6 appears much less, um, “B9” than its predecessor, it is vitally benign in the best way it drives. That is a excessive compli­ment for a glossy sedan that, presuming you have got a really feel for refined dynamics, can also be an actual sweetie to drive.