Twice a Four-Cylinder, Twice the Abundant Space.
In The Past, Dear Children, We Used to Test Large Luxury Station Wagons Instead of SUVS. And those Didn’t Have A Plug; They only Tok Gasoline. Nowadays, that Doesn’t Happen Anymore. Or well, Almost Never. Fortunately, There’s the New Audi A6 Avant, which can Still Challenge A BMW 5 Series Touring.
The New Audi Face Suits It Well.
While Most of Audi’s Attention is Focused on Rapidly Electrygying the Fleet, There’s also a Completely New Audi A6 With A Gasoline Engine. And for those who missed it, the name is Quite Surprising. Audi had planned to give its gasoline models an odd number and its an even number. As happened with the a5 – no longer a coupe but as a sedan and station wagon the successor to the audi a4. But Audi realized that this was an extremely confusing strategy, so the new avant on these pages is not called a7 but a6. And with that, it is Delivered Alongside the Equally Completely New A6 E-tron. And that stands – Unlike BMWs i5 – On a Completely Separate platform: The Premium Platform Electric, Just Like the New Porsche Macan and Audi Q6 E -tron. The Gasoline A6 in this test stands on the new premium platform Combustion. Althegh, New … it’s a child of Further Development of the MLB EVO Platform that we alreaDy Knew from the Previous A6.
It’s nice that the car is available as a station wagon in addition to the sedan, because that body style is Becoming Increasingly Rare. The Car’s Delivery Program is QUITE Limited in the Netherlands. For example, you can order a 2.0 tdi and 3.0 v6 tfsi elsewhere in the world, but not with us. Besides the 2.0 tfsi that is available, there will also be some versions, also with four cylinders. Audi Limits itself because air suspension and four-wheel steering are only available on the versions with quattro four-wheel drive. And the entry-level model is not supplied with that.
At bmw, that’s different. No, you can get xDrive on the 520i, but you can get an adaptive chassis with dynamic shock absorbers and four-wheel steering. Our test car has those options on board. And also a 2.0-liter four-cylinder with turbo, just like the audi. In The A6, This has More Power, 204 HP Against 190 in the BMW. But that bmw gets support from a small electric motor, which makes it a mild-hybrid. The Motor Itself Delivers 18 HP, the System Power Increases to 208 HP, Just a Little More Than the A6. It is striking that audi does not deliver a mild-hybrid version of its 2.0, because they do have the technology in house. The Audi has a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic for its four-cylinder, bmw uses its familiar eight-speed automatic. And it should be known that all the power at bmw goes to the rear wheels, while the audi is a front-wheel drive.
Noticevy More Physical Buttons in the BMW, which also looks a bit more high-quality.
How do the audi a6 and bmw 5 series drive?
In Terms of Driving, The Audi Feels Familiar. The A6 Lies Like A Block On The Road, With Somewhat Distant Steering and Nose That You occasionally Have To Force Around The Corner A Bit. As a result, the first kilometers are always a bit disappointing. But as you make more kilometers, you notice how good the road holding is. How the Body Doesn’t Startle from Faster Tasks Undulating Highways, How Quiet It Stays Inside When It’s Raining Hard Outside. Do you drive 50,000 km per year or more? Then this is a damn nice car to do that with. We could have written it about an a4, sorry a5, as well; It’s what makes Audis Audis. That does mean what we know that would be better with extra chassis techniques. Quattro, Four-Wheel Steering, and Especial Dynamic Dampers Lift the D-And E-Segment Models of Audi Above Themselves, and the Fact That A6 Does Not Have Thisfore A Loss. The High Build Quality and Good Road Holding Remain, But You Miss the Refinement and Keep the Disadvantages of Front-Wheel Drive. Because in this segment, that detracts from the experience.
The BMW HAS It Easy in this part, Partly because of that. The Car Already Drives Well by Itelf, But It Does Have That Aforementioned Chassis Magic (And then The Optional Active Stabilization of More Expensive Versions is Still Missing) That Makes It Even Better. The 5 series drives great because of its feedback and feel, but in the meantime also sacrifices more comfort than the audi. This makes the gap in Driving QUITE LARGE. The BMW GRABS YOU AS A Driver and Offers GT Vibes in A Sedan, Without Much Power or A Chassis That Rattles Passengers Around. You really Melt Together with the car. The powertrains also contribute to this. The extra Torque of the Electric Motor makes the BMW Very Smooth, also because the good old automatic is one of the best on the market. Only when you are going to squeeze all the power out do you also miss some power, but with normal smooth driving, the 5 is always extremely ready. In The Audi, that is not the case. The Engine Lacks The Smooth Pulling Power of the BMW at the Bottom, but the automatic is also a bit cranky. The Engagement of the Double Clutch Ensures that you either have to drive away Quietly at the Traffic Light, or that you immediately Have Wheelspin. In The BMW, you have already left with distinction and support long ago. In this segment, these child of things matter, and the powertrain, Therefore the biggest weakness of the audi.
The Audi (Below) is Noticevy More Spacious for the Legs, But We Are Also Sitting Fine in the BMW.
Interiors and Multimedia of the Audi A6 and BMW 520i
Inside, The Audi is a Sleek Whole. Partly in this Version, It is Beautiful and High-Tech, with Two Screens That Merge Into Each Other and An Extra Touchscreen For The Passenger. The Virtual Cockpit with Digital Counters Gives Exactly The Info You Need To Have. The Multimedia System is Clear, Although the Operation Could Be Just A Bit Smoother and Faster. In Terms of Materials, Audi Does Not Drop Any Stitches in these classes. Just in the Places that are not immediately eye-catching and in the back seat, it is all excellent. Nice that Things Like Drive-Select Can Be Operated Imediately With A Button. The Seats are good and sacrifice support, and there is Enough Storage Space. In The Back, The Space is also Great. It is a real family car where adults can also endure a long vacation. The Nicely Sloping Roofline Does Not Have Much Impact on the Headroom. The Trunk is slightly narrower than that of the bmw, but this is not a breaking point. If we follow the same route in the 520i the other way around, we also find a very nice back seat in the 5 series, even if it sacrifices less space than in the audi. In The Front In The BMW, It is NoticeXky Much Warmer Than In The Audi. It feels a bit less high-tech, but we see beautiful shapes and details, such as the speakers in the Door. Unlike Many of the Cheaper BMWS, we still have the fine control button of the iDrive System on the center tunnel here, who mainly shows what a loss the absence of it is in other models. Despite The Fine Operation, The System Itself is Still QUITE UNCLEAR.
For Example, in Addition to ‘Sport’ and ‘Efficient,’ We also have a relax, Expressive, and Personal-Driving Fashion. With the latter, BMW Means “Comfortable.” Per fashion, you can adjust things again, but Sometimes not. And your consumption on your display does not work again in the relax stand. No shortcuts, no Rotary Knobs on the Steering Wheel. As a result, you search to death in the many menus. Curious How the New Idrive System of the Neue Class (Without Rotary Knob !!!) Will be at the end of this year.
The trunks do not differ much, Both are Nicely Spacious.
Prices of the Audi A6 and BMW 5 Series
The prices of the cars differ slightly, but that is mainly because the bmw is a bit more loaded with options. And then we are talking about the 520i sedan with which we did the test, not equally about the 530e touring loaded with m-performance parts that we use for the photos (see Below!). The Sedan also has Things Like An M-Sport Package with Many Visual Goodies, A Truly Excellent B&W Audio Installation (For ‘Only’ € 662), A Glow Exterior Package, An Innovation Pack With, Among Other Things, Adaptive LED Lighting and More. Only the adaptive chassis or € 2,153 REAXLY MAKES A DIFTERCE FOR THE TEST JUDGENT; You can leave out the other extras without it having made a differentence for the result. And with that, the cars are not very different in price. The Audi is basically a bit cheaper, but here too, it can get frighteningly out of hand quickly with a few checkmarks on the option list. You want to drive premium or not, you should think.
We are still reminiscing about the time when there were blissful 3.0 tdi v6 and six-in-line diesels in both models, but that time is really over. Or is it not? BMW is just as stubbornly holding on as the infamous gallic village in Roman Times when it comes to diesel driving and still has a 540d xDrive on the price list. That will cost you well about a ton equally before the option list. If you want more power in the audi, then you have to go for the yet to be released plug-in version: the audi a6 avant e-hybrid quattro still has a four-cylinder as well.
Sedan & Touring
Oh, and pay Attention! It was not possible to arrange a 520i touring for this test. So we have extensively driven a dark gray 520i sedan. You can also see the cockpit of this car on these pages. For the other photos, we have put a light gray 530e touring next to the audi, so that the station wagon part is also nicely in the picture. This Touring is full of Exensive M-Performance Parts, But It Plays No Role in this Test in Terms of Content Except for Space.