bradc
02-05-2010, 12:08 AM
My boss went and bought an RS6 yesterday, and because I know about cars he had me come along and we went for a 2 hour test drive. The car in question is this one http://www.carupdater.com/cars/used/print.aspx?id=999155511
I'm going to start off with saying it wasn't as fast as I thought it would be. After a few squirts on the loud pedal I came to the conclusion that it felt just like Ryan's old Auto VR-4 with very similar acceleration levels. After I got home I did the numbers:
Stock VR-4 137kw/ton and 242nm/ton
Ryans VR-4 159kw/ton and 300nm/ton (old white VR-4 with boost control, exhaust, downpipes, intercooler)
Stock RS6 173kw/ton and 293nm/ton
Now the RS6 has it's 560nm all the way from 2000rpm to 5600rpm which is going to be over a wider range that Ryan's car, but I wasn't overly impressed with it's power output. Part of this is probably due to the longer gear ratios as well. Both cars have 5 speed autos, these are the speeds at 6000rpm in each gear.
RS6..............VR-4
65.5.............51.1
106.3..........94.2
155.4..........136.3
233.9..........193.7
290.9..........265.0
The one area where the RS6 excelled was that at 90kmh you would floor it, go into 2nd gear and rocket up to the redline at around 120kmh, or if you were at 110kmh already it would go into 3rd and just pull like mad up to speeds that I errrmmmm uhhh didn't go up to :D It felt like it pulled up the redline really hard, with no drop off in power at all, not surprising considering that max power is from 5700rpm to 6400rpm. Overall the engine power delivery was simply superb with about the same amount of lag as a VR-4 (ie virtually zero) and as above it pulled hard all the way to 6800rpm or so where it changed up. Overall it really did feel just like a VR-4 with a boost controller!
The gearbox is similar to the VR-4 but makes softer and smoother changes, yet they take about the same level of time to complete. Maybe the weight of the car helps mask the change, I'm not sure. With the 2 of us in the car it would have been around 2.1 tons! The paddles were a bit of fun, if the car is in Drive you can press one of the paddles and the car will then hold that gear for about 30 seconds before going back into Drive. If you make changes that are spaced less than 30 seconds apart it will stay in tiptronic mode. The car has a Sport position below the Drive position, in this mode it tends to keep the car in about 1 gear lower than in Drive. This is the one feature I wish the VR-4 had, or even an option to turn the overdrive off but still change between the first 4 gears automatically. The box on a VR-4 simply enters 5th too eary and it is annoying around town.
On to the rest of the car now. I've read a lot of people whinge and complain about the Audi cars - and in fact the entire VAG group cars that have very stiff suspension. Frankly I think that they are all empty complaints. We drove it on everything from smooth motorway to a small backroad heading down to Muriwai Beach which is a narrow road with plenty of bumps and undulations with a number of 35kmh sign posted corners. The suspension was simply brilliant. Sure it was a bit stiff but it was never uncomfortable at all. It felt very solid and at no point did it ever go over a bump and go up and down multiple times, it simply went over the bump and the car soaked up the bump nicely and did not oscillate up and down afterwards at all. At motorway speeds it was very smooth and very good too.
At slow speeds turning out of intersections and flooring it the traction and stability control came in very early and the car did not understeer or oversteer at all. The tyres were not squealing either and apart from being able to feel the tyres skipping a bit over the pavement it was very hard to tell the system was in operation. I didn't turn it off for the test drive, I figure I'll do that on Monday when we receive delivery of it!
The controls were a bit funny, the brake pedal and throttle were a bit hard to get used to at first, they did not require much movement at all to start working quite a bit, at least the brake required some effort though, the throttle on the other hand was very light and I found it a bit hard to drive gently, so if I'm honest I didn't spend much time driving gently ;) The steering wheel was surprisingly heavy. It was very consistant and straight away I felt at home and was able to turn into a corner and have no need to correct the steering angle. I would imagine that if you were going through a long section of windy road your arms would get a bit tired simply due to the effort required. It did not feel very nimble around the tight corners and weighing as much as it does, is clearly not a good car for narrow roads with tight corners, there are other ways to go much faster!
The seats are the same Recaro's that VR-4's have. They were done in a dark grey leather and were electrically adjustable and heated. I think I might just have to steal them for one of my Legnums :D The side bolsters weren't adjustable and I was slightly skinny for them, this isn't helped by the leather. I found I had to tense the lower part of my back in order to stop sliding around which frankly is a bit annoying on a car like this where you are going to be having a bit of fun with it. I'm about 5ft 8" and 75kg, so around average size. The rear seats are done in the same style and have Recaro printed on them and they are the best rear seats I've ever seen. The centre position is just about unusable due to the shape of the rear seats. It really is a 4 seater.
The dash layout did look a bit old. It doesn't have Sat Nav and for a NZ$220,000 car in 2003 I find that fairly weak. The original A6 in that shape was launched in 1997 and it feels a bit older than that, maybe from 94 or 95. The buttons are all rather large and square and the lighting is in red which makes it look quite old. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b307/Chobin/InteriorSmall.jpg It also had a cassette player! The sound system is very good, it has Bose badges all around the place on the speakers and I was impressed. The boot had speakers on both sides as well. The boot itself was very long and wide but not very high. I do not know what a Galant boot looks like in comparison, I've never owned one!
The car is ultimately all about the engine. For the same price it was possible to buy a 2007 A6 3.2 which looked and felt a lot more modern. Audi have created a fairly unique car as it is a fast german sedan with 4wd, something that isn't avaiable from anyone else. If I was looking for a fast long distance luxury tourer I would probably consider one, but I think for the same price range I would probably go to a Mitsi dealership and buy a brand new EVO X.
I'm going to start off with saying it wasn't as fast as I thought it would be. After a few squirts on the loud pedal I came to the conclusion that it felt just like Ryan's old Auto VR-4 with very similar acceleration levels. After I got home I did the numbers:
Stock VR-4 137kw/ton and 242nm/ton
Ryans VR-4 159kw/ton and 300nm/ton (old white VR-4 with boost control, exhaust, downpipes, intercooler)
Stock RS6 173kw/ton and 293nm/ton
Now the RS6 has it's 560nm all the way from 2000rpm to 5600rpm which is going to be over a wider range that Ryan's car, but I wasn't overly impressed with it's power output. Part of this is probably due to the longer gear ratios as well. Both cars have 5 speed autos, these are the speeds at 6000rpm in each gear.
RS6..............VR-4
65.5.............51.1
106.3..........94.2
155.4..........136.3
233.9..........193.7
290.9..........265.0
The one area where the RS6 excelled was that at 90kmh you would floor it, go into 2nd gear and rocket up to the redline at around 120kmh, or if you were at 110kmh already it would go into 3rd and just pull like mad up to speeds that I errrmmmm uhhh didn't go up to :D It felt like it pulled up the redline really hard, with no drop off in power at all, not surprising considering that max power is from 5700rpm to 6400rpm. Overall the engine power delivery was simply superb with about the same amount of lag as a VR-4 (ie virtually zero) and as above it pulled hard all the way to 6800rpm or so where it changed up. Overall it really did feel just like a VR-4 with a boost controller!
The gearbox is similar to the VR-4 but makes softer and smoother changes, yet they take about the same level of time to complete. Maybe the weight of the car helps mask the change, I'm not sure. With the 2 of us in the car it would have been around 2.1 tons! The paddles were a bit of fun, if the car is in Drive you can press one of the paddles and the car will then hold that gear for about 30 seconds before going back into Drive. If you make changes that are spaced less than 30 seconds apart it will stay in tiptronic mode. The car has a Sport position below the Drive position, in this mode it tends to keep the car in about 1 gear lower than in Drive. This is the one feature I wish the VR-4 had, or even an option to turn the overdrive off but still change between the first 4 gears automatically. The box on a VR-4 simply enters 5th too eary and it is annoying around town.
On to the rest of the car now. I've read a lot of people whinge and complain about the Audi cars - and in fact the entire VAG group cars that have very stiff suspension. Frankly I think that they are all empty complaints. We drove it on everything from smooth motorway to a small backroad heading down to Muriwai Beach which is a narrow road with plenty of bumps and undulations with a number of 35kmh sign posted corners. The suspension was simply brilliant. Sure it was a bit stiff but it was never uncomfortable at all. It felt very solid and at no point did it ever go over a bump and go up and down multiple times, it simply went over the bump and the car soaked up the bump nicely and did not oscillate up and down afterwards at all. At motorway speeds it was very smooth and very good too.
At slow speeds turning out of intersections and flooring it the traction and stability control came in very early and the car did not understeer or oversteer at all. The tyres were not squealing either and apart from being able to feel the tyres skipping a bit over the pavement it was very hard to tell the system was in operation. I didn't turn it off for the test drive, I figure I'll do that on Monday when we receive delivery of it!
The controls were a bit funny, the brake pedal and throttle were a bit hard to get used to at first, they did not require much movement at all to start working quite a bit, at least the brake required some effort though, the throttle on the other hand was very light and I found it a bit hard to drive gently, so if I'm honest I didn't spend much time driving gently ;) The steering wheel was surprisingly heavy. It was very consistant and straight away I felt at home and was able to turn into a corner and have no need to correct the steering angle. I would imagine that if you were going through a long section of windy road your arms would get a bit tired simply due to the effort required. It did not feel very nimble around the tight corners and weighing as much as it does, is clearly not a good car for narrow roads with tight corners, there are other ways to go much faster!
The seats are the same Recaro's that VR-4's have. They were done in a dark grey leather and were electrically adjustable and heated. I think I might just have to steal them for one of my Legnums :D The side bolsters weren't adjustable and I was slightly skinny for them, this isn't helped by the leather. I found I had to tense the lower part of my back in order to stop sliding around which frankly is a bit annoying on a car like this where you are going to be having a bit of fun with it. I'm about 5ft 8" and 75kg, so around average size. The rear seats are done in the same style and have Recaro printed on them and they are the best rear seats I've ever seen. The centre position is just about unusable due to the shape of the rear seats. It really is a 4 seater.
The dash layout did look a bit old. It doesn't have Sat Nav and for a NZ$220,000 car in 2003 I find that fairly weak. The original A6 in that shape was launched in 1997 and it feels a bit older than that, maybe from 94 or 95. The buttons are all rather large and square and the lighting is in red which makes it look quite old. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b307/Chobin/InteriorSmall.jpg It also had a cassette player! The sound system is very good, it has Bose badges all around the place on the speakers and I was impressed. The boot had speakers on both sides as well. The boot itself was very long and wide but not very high. I do not know what a Galant boot looks like in comparison, I've never owned one!
The car is ultimately all about the engine. For the same price it was possible to buy a 2007 A6 3.2 which looked and felt a lot more modern. Audi have created a fairly unique car as it is a fast german sedan with 4wd, something that isn't avaiable from anyone else. If I was looking for a fast long distance luxury tourer I would probably consider one, but I think for the same price range I would probably go to a Mitsi dealership and buy a brand new EVO X.