Audi'ya beat that!

Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England), April 29, 2005

Byline: By John Murdoch

New estate to boost UK sales, already outstripping BMW's

Audi's star is definitely in the ascendency. The German prestige car maker seems incapable of putting a foot wrong.

Its models are heavily in demand and for the first time its sales have beaten those of rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz in the first quarter of this year in the UK.

On the back of this success comes the latest model ( the new A6 Avant.

The Avant, or estate, is set to give yet another boost to sales. The sharp styling gives it far more presence on the road and despite the understated elegance it is now very much an eye-catcher.

The A6 Avant is now the largest estate car in the executive class and one of the most practical, thanks to the interior space and partly to Audi's new luggage fixing kit.

The kit is an optional extra but if you buy an estate you usually do so for practical reasons so an extra pounds 125 is money well spent for a system which ensures you can transport virtually anything safely.

The kit comprises of a telescopic bar which locks into place in tracks on each side of the luggage compartment so you can safely enclose your breakables rather than have them sliding about.

For more difficult shaped objects you use a system like a seat belt.

Under the luggage floor there is a waterproof well for wet coats or muddy boots.

In the cabin there have been major changes, with a dashboard re-vamp and the moving of a number of switches to the much bulkier transmission tunnel. These include the navigation system control, radio and CD controls and information control switch.

The transmission tunnel comes in an anthracite colour as standard with the option of wood inlays for an extra pounds 350, including door inlays. On V6 and V8 models you can specify all round adaptive air suspension so no matter what load you are carrying the ride will be level. You can select an automatic setting so the system thinks for you or you can set the suspension manually to suit your driving.

Only six and eight cylinder engines will be available initially, petrol and diesel, although the four cylinder, two-litre TDi engine will be on sale from May 1. In fact this engine is expected to be the best seller. It is the most powerful four cylinder diesel the German car maker has yet produced and has 140bhp. It comes with a manual six-speed gearbox although no performance figures are yet available.

The initial engine choice is from a 2.4 and 3.2 FSI petrol V6, the blisteringly quick 4.2 V8 quattro or either of the two V6 diesels, the three-litre and 2.7. All but the 2.7-litre diesel are available as quattros.

On the road both petrol and diesel models display the refined power delivery that is making Audi the tour-de-force that it has become.

After trying out four different engines, it would be easy to extol the virtues of the V8 because of its performance, top speed 150mph, 0-62mph in 6.2 secs, but there is not one engine I did not find satisfying.

Prices for the new A6 Avant start from pounds 26,510 on the road all the way up to pounds 47,270.