Audi A6 Luxury Chateaux/Villas/Art Tour: Audi A6 Avant 50 TFSI E Quattro Hybrid Review
Audi A6 Avant 50 TFSI E Quattro Hybrid
What better way to test the Audi A6 plug-in hybrid than to take it 3500 miles across France and Spain visiting luxury chateaux, villas and sublime art exhibitions?
One rainy morning I set off, with the Audi A6 hybrid fully charged (39 miles range) and gassed up to the max, headed for Dover. The idea being to test the Avant over long distances for ease of use, mpg, drivability, handling, speed, space and comfort.
Looks-wise, the A6 Avant is pretty swish for an estate car. The side view is sleek, stylish and, like Dr Who's Tardis, appears smaller than it is. Front on is the best view: the bonnet is sharp with two razor lines that match up with the top of the chrome grille creating a beautiful symmetry. This is further complimented by the HD matrix headlights squinting menacingly ahead. The Chronos grey colour is suitably smart, but the lines stand out better in Ascari blue.
Audi's podium place as a luxury brand becomes clear when you open the door and slide into the front seat. The interior is spacious, with oodles of leg and headroom, both front and back. The cabin features soft contrast stitched leather, metal trim and even those parts made of plastic are hard-wearing and textured to great effect. Carbon fibre lines the dash and doors, complimented by chrome-lined black gloss surfaces. This is a superior, cosseting plush interior.
Angled lines, Audi DNA shapes, contrasting textures and colours envelop you in a marvellous fusion of wafting leather and advanced technology. This premium opulence makes you want to live in the car. Plus I had the extended LED Interior Lighting Pack with multi-coloured lights running along the panels and inside the footwells, that illuminate with a marvellous ambience at night.
Such solid, premium quality makes you feel powerful, and able to take on miles of touring with complete confidence. And I can assure you that after driving miles over UK, French and Spanish roads, the Valcona leather front seats with S embossing are extraordinarily comfortable and supportive, best in class. The back seats also lean back slightly so you don't get that awful upright position that kills all backs after a few miles and the middle seat is genuinely comfortable for a third person. And you can drop the central armrest for extra space and a double cup holder. Plus they fold down at the pull of a button so you can load a bicycle and the kitchen sink with ease. Boot capacity is 405 L expanding to 1,535 L with the seats down.
Mine had the Bang & Olufsen Premium Sound System which pushed out clean, crisp sounds that kept me going through wind, rain and blazing sunshine the moment I hit France. The bass is amazing!
There's a dual-screen 10.1" & 8.6" infotainment system with CarPlay, Android and system settings. Please note, the sat-nav is excellent, infinitely better than the phone that I usually use. The audio road directions are simply superb. I never use the car sat-nav, yet this one is so granular in the directions, precisely indicating the correct turn-off even in the most confusing situations. Particularly in Valencia, around the airport, where in the space of a few metres, you can cross 32 sadistically designed junctions at a time. I kid you not. Without the Audi sat-nav, I would still be there now. It cut navigational mistakes down to zero, meaning I always arrived on time.
So how did it fare on the journey? The performance is exactly what you would expect from a modern Audi. The drive is miraculously light, the speed adaptive steering is effortless and the 7-speed S-tronic gearbox changes are smooth and silky. Stick cruise control on, put your feet up and use the cruise control paddle on the steering wheel to accelerate and decelerate and the miles fly by. Foot pedals account for 90% of driving effort, so the future is all up on the steering wheel.
The Black Edition comes with lower suspension and a sportier set-up. I'll get straight to the point here, the ride is flawless, even with the boot packed to the gills with furniture, the A6 Avant just glides along. Case in point, in 3000 miles on French and Spanish roads I never hit a pothole. In the UK, the Audi was sorely tested every few metres, yet passed with flying colours. It does not like British motorways, sliced as they are into slabs, but then they were built with technology fit for horses and carts, not cars.
In Spain I parked on a very steep road up to a luxury villa, which shocked the gearbox, clunking slightly from first into reverse, but this was a brutal slope, so challenging for any car. Reversing is also a breeze thanks to the front, rear and overhead 360 cameras. Particularly useful in a car this length, a smidgen under 5 metres. All this comes with the Technology pack, including a heads-up display, which came in very handy when junctions got messy.
Being a plug-in hybrid the Avant benefits from extra acceleration provided by the electric motor. You get 299 PS which will get you from 0 - 62 mph (100 km/h) in just 6.3 seconds. While this sounds slow, the linear acceleration from the electric motor, plus the inline 2.0-litre 4-cylinder engine provides a lovely boost, so you can overtake with confidence and soar along the motorway. Braking is well tuned too, biting quickly, though I spent most of the time in cruise control, barely touching the pedals at all.
My biggest concern before the tour was the length of the car, I worried it would be awkward on French country roads or in towns, but it could have been a two-seater for all I noticed the rear. It corners differently, but the suspension does an impressive job of keeping it level, with little roll. Audi's legendary four-wheel drive was sure-footed at all times, confident even in the torrential downpours that saw me off and greeted me on my return to the UK.
What about the mileage? Well, that's a slightly tricky subject. Most car companies list the mpg measured in the first 60 miles. Now as the car delivers 39 miles on electric, they just measure the last 21 miles, so a figure of 217 mpg is provided in the stats. That probably needs to be changed as it is misleading. They all do it, as it's the legal standard, but ... So, over 3,500 miles an average of 39 mpg is what I achieved, though I was driving huge distances with very few opportunities to recharge the battery. All in all, impressive for an estate car, particularly as Spain allows for a much higher top speed than the UK. Speaking of which the Audi 50 TFSIe will hit 155 mph.
A hybrid is the way to go for the moment if you are going to be driving many miles regularly. The freedom of being able to tour long distances without the worry of recharging whilst still getting decent miles per gallon in such a large-capacity car is fantastic. My arrival time was always exactly as predicted by the sat-nav 12 hours before. And my stop-over times were always under ten minutes.
The Audi A6 Avant 50 TFSI E Quattro PHEV is a tremendous luxury tourer that will transport everyone and anything in comfortable style. An opulent family car, working vehicle and family tourer in one. Audi excels at matching lush interiors with easy driving, it's what they do best. Safe too, NCAP awarded it the maximum five stars.
Drive 3,500 miles in this lavish carriage and arrive feeling like you’ve just watched a couple of movies on the inflight entertainment. Well, If the movies were directed by a self-indulgent auteur who focused solely on gorgeous landscapes across Europe, accompanied by a film score composed of all your favourite tracks. Riveting nonetheless. Spain and France have the most exquisite scenery and the average view from those perfectly surfaced roads is always enchanting. I arrived feeling more refreshed than when I left, listening to great sounds and enjoying the scenery.
A6 Avant 50 TFSI E Quattro 299PS Black Edition S Tronic Hybrid
RRP: 71,635.00 GBP
https://www.audi.co.uk/uk/web/en/models/a6/a6-avant.html
My first stop along the tour was at the Chateau Cendrillon to stay with the owners. This is a stunning French chateau for rent in the Loire Valley. It is a privately owned family chateau and the owners could not have been more welcoming. We spent the evening building a large bonfire in the grounds to keep warm and telling stories. The whole family were charming, kind and great hosts with a marvellous British family history that goes back many centuries to William the Conqueror.
In Spain, I stayed at the Villa Utopia, a marvellous luxury Spanish villa for rent with huge grounds and a large private pool, in El Portet, a small but beautiful Spanish fishing village just south of Valencia.
On my return to France, I lodged next to the Chateau de Chaumont Sur Loire with the celebrated musician and artist Robert Mann. Brad Pitt’s favourite photographer and composer. An old friend, who is not only supremely talented but profoundly wise and kind. It was a blast exploring the local area and the mesmerising artists’ exhibition at the Domain de Chaumont Sur Loire.
The Domain de Chaumont-Sur-Loire is famous as a significant historic and heritage site including landscaped gardens, garden festivals, historic chateau, medieval interiors, grounds and stables. The Centre of Arts and Nature stands as a beacon of cutting-edge design, seamlessly blending contemporary aesthetics with the timeless beauty of its surroundings. Visitors are treated to a symphony of artistic expression, with special commissions brought to life onsite by visionary artists. Experts recognise it as the largest indoor and outdoor art centre in France.
Furthermore, the Domain holds several certifications, including Remarkable Garden, Tourism Quality, and Cultural Meeting Centre. It has also been awarded 3 Michelin stars as a cultural event, solidifying its status as a premier destination for cultural enthusiasts and travellers alike.
The numerous exhibitions on show during my stay were the finest I have seen anywhere in the world. Some were permanent, others in temporary residence. A remarkable showing of the leading global contemporary artists including; Grégoire Scalabre, Denis Monfleur, Klaus Pinter, Lee Fan, Lionel Sabatté, Bob Vershueren, Anne et Patrick Poirier, Quayola, Alison Stigora, Sheila Hicks, Zoé Vayssières, Stéphan Guiran, Sarkis, Andy Goldsworthy, Mathieu Lehanneur, Nicolay Polissky, Gabriel Orozco and Pascal Convert.
I highly recommend a visit to all art lovers.
