Category: Executive 
Price Range: £24,900 to £39,370
Class-leading space and a marvellous cabin, off-the-scale quality, five star score in EuroNCAP crash tests, sharp-suited Avant estate brilliant for practicality.
Not the most sporting car in the class, evolutionary styling quite conservative.
Great space and a terrific atmosphere in the cabin make the A6 an absolute must for the executive shopping list.
To create the best possible crash protection, the A6 starts with a structure that is 34 percent more torsionally stiff than the previous model. It has scored the full five stars in the Euro NCAP crash tests for occupant safety, plus four for child protection (with Audi's approved child seats) though just one star for pedestrian protection - a disappointing result in that test. On the passive safety front, there are dual-stage airbags that inflate according to the severity of the crash, two side airbags for the front seat occupants and 'sideguard head airbags' for the front seat occupants. Side airbags for the rear seat occupants are an optional extra. In addition, the seatbelts have pretensioners to snug them down during and impact, as well as 'load limiters' that ease some slack into them to prevent belt-stress injuries as the crash progresses.
To minimise injuries from a rear-end collision, active headrests move forward to reduce the backward acceleration of the head. And there is a whole raft of technology that can intervene to prevent a crash from happening in the first place, including electronic stability control to prevent the car sliding off its intended cornering line, traction control, anti-lock brakes, brake force distribution and hydraulic brake assist for panic stops.
One safety feature we thought worked particularly well was the adaptive headlight system. Basically, the A6's optional xenon headlights can be specified with a system that follows the steering inputs to 'look around corners'. We experienced the system through some long tunnels and it worked brilliantly. We did, though, wonder whether a car understeering with lots of steering lock applied on a wet road would end up pointing the headlights the wrong way.
Another excellent safety detail is the LED brakelights, which activate noticeably quicker than conventional bulb units. And another - the glovebox release has been moved up to a position high on the centre console. That not only makes it easier for the driver to open the glovebox, it removes a potentially knee-damaging piece of hardware. An advanced engine immobiliser is standard.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Audi A6 Avant
wrote on 03 01 2008