Our Fleet Test Drive: Audi A6 Avant - 2nd Report
Date:
01 December 2011
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Author:
Our long-term Audi A6 Avant delivered editor Paul Barker across the Welsh border with pleasing ease
The British round of the World Rally Championship took place in Wales earlier this month, which meant a trip down the M4 and into mid-Wales to hang around in damp foggy forests for a few days.
As I had to be in Builth Wells for 9am, I set off from Sussex at the unearthly hour of 5am. Funnily enough, the traffic was pretty light at that time of day.
The big Audi's ability to comfortably and quietly ease me to the border was pleasing, certainly more so than having to pay the £5.70 to cross the Severn, while upon diving off the M4 onto smaller roads, the 204hp 3.0-litre TDI provided plenty of surge for overtaking slower traffic. Across the round trip, with decent motorway progress and a couple of hours of twisty single-lane roads, we averaged just under 40mpg.
The digital radio worked deeper into the valleys than I was expecting, and the satnav was generally spot on, if occasionally lacking postcodes.
A fellow A6 Avant driver has put one quibble to the front of my mind, though, and that's the seats. The Milano leather looks great, but after a bit of time at the helm, they're not as comfortable as some rivals. We recently had a Volvo S80 at the office, and with hindsight I wish I'd stolen its excellent driver's seat!
Audi A6 Avant 3.0 TDI 204 SE Multitronic | Mileage | 3048 | Claimed combined consumption | 54.3mpg | Our average consumption | 39.2mpg | Forecast CPM | 79.2p | Actual CPM | 81.5p |
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