Audi A6 Ultra economy impresses
THERE’S something rather satisfying about filling up our Audi A6 Ultra Black Edition at the diesel pump and then getting back in the car to see that you won’t need to do the same again for another 725 miles.
What a range.
Perfect for a visit to Cumbria to see my wife’s family. In fact, we could get there and back on a single tank such is the long legged nature of this Audi A6 with its Ultra fuel efficiency (think lightweight body, fuel saving technologies, and high-efficiency transmissions).
It wasn’t that far back that I remember driving up to Cumbria and needing to refuel at Penrith after just 300 miles. Now, the Audi can go all the way…and back.
My average is 45.7mpg, which for a big saloon with 190PS is pretty good – that’s a good combination of long distance and around town driving.
What is the Audi A6 Ultra Black Edition S tronic?
- The Black Edition is based on the S line model but includes these upgrades:
- 20 inch 5-arm Rotor titanium-look alloy wheels on 255/35 R20 tyres
- Bose surround sound system
- Black styling package (radiator grille frame and radiator grille struts in high-gloss black, grille in matt, window capping strips and side profile roof trim strip in high-gloss black
- Privacy glass – dark-tinted rear and rear-side windows
- Interior inlays in Piano black finish
- Our version is the S tronic seven speed automatic
- P11D value – £38,470
- Company car tax band – 23%
- Benefit in kind value – £8,848
- Company car tax payable – £1,021 (20%)/ £2,042 (40%)
- Official economy – 64.2mpg
The driving experience is enhanced by the cosseting nature of the interior. There’s heated Black Valcona leather sports seats, which are unfailingly comfortable, and can be raised (for wife) or lowered (for me) depending on your preferred driving position, as well as reach and rake.
The media centre is controlled by the MMI system – put Desert Island Discs podcasts on from your mobile phone, listen to DAB digital radio, whatever you fancy – from the brilliant Bose speakers that come as standard with the Audi A6 Black Edition.
Your mobile phone sits in the central armrest where it is connected via a USB that charges the phone. In fact, Audi has designed a special place for your mobile to sit: called the Audi Phone Box, it’s a rubber mat on which the phone sits to create a ‘wireless’ connection to the car for improved reception quality, hands-free facility and voice control, reckons Audi.
The standard MMI Navigation Plus with its large colour screen (part of Audi’s technology pack) guides you to your destination with good rerouting ability. Pretty handy just about every time I journey up the M1 at the moment it seems…
Among the option packs fitted to the car are matrix LED lights (LED lights are standard). Autosensing, so you don’t have to worry about when you should or should not turn them on, the lights allow you to use full beam – useful around those dark Cumbrian country roads – without dazzling oncoming drivers.
The lights also turn with the steering wheel so you always have good illumination: the farm entrance to my sister in law’s house is never illuminated, neither is the access track that winds around the house…so handy on all counts for that extra visibility.
But it’s not only that cosseted luxury feeling from within, the Black Edition A6 looks great from the outside, with its dark privacy glass from the door pillar back, black highlights (if that’s not oxymoronic), the angular chrome exhaust surrounds and the brilliant five-spoke rotor alloy wheels which are finished in dark graphite colour.
If you want a classy company car that’s definitely different, this is it. And with company car tax starting at just £85 a month, the Audi A6 Ultra Black Edition is as lightweight on its tax as it is in its construction.
Cumbrian express: long-legged comfort for London to Cumbria lope
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A great review, although As with many of these new generation cars with low emisions, the reality as you have shown is a lot less than official figures. Combined MPG for this car should be 67MPG, which falls short by around 30% when you drive it in the real world as you have.
I drive a BMW 520SE Estate with official figures (combined) of 62mpg and the reality of 44mpg under the same conditions as you