Audi A6 2.0-Litre TDI Car Review

Facts At A Glance
Car: Audi A6 2.0-Litre TDI range
Prices: £26,250-£27,845 - on the road INSURANCE GROUPS: 15
Emissions: 151g/km
Performance: Max Speed 127mph/ 0-60mph 9.9s
Fuel Consumption: 38.7mpg (urban) 57.6mpg (extra urban) 48.7mpg (combined)
Safety: Twin front, rear & side airbags, ABS, ESP, EBD
Dimensions: Length/Width/Height(mm)4916/1860/1460

MANY HAPPY RETURNS

Our Rating: 7.4 / 10

Audi’s 2.0-Litre TDI Represents Affordable Executive Motoring And In Today’s Taxation Climate, That’s Exactly What Many Buyers Want. Steve Walker Reports…

The spectre of tax has never loomed larger over the heads of UK motorists. Fuel tax, road tax, company car tax, value added tax, cup-holder tax, twin exhaust pipe tax, the congestion charge… OK, some of those may or may not be actual taxes but you get the general idea – people with cars pay lots of tax. It’s almost as if the Chancellor has metamorphosised into some kind of latter-day Sheriff of Nottingham. Motorists can either pay up or abandon their cars completely, retreating to a simple life in the forests dressed in Lincoln Green. Fortunately, the tax burden has yet to reach an extent where car owners are practicing archery in significant numbers and there are still measures we can take to avoid the worst of the taxman’s wrath. Buying an Audi A6 2.0-litre TDI for example.

A full size executive saloon is not a type of car that most people would instantly finger as being particularly tax efficient. Big cars with big engines and a generous helping of desirable but heavy equipment usually attract big taxes. If you really want to pay out the bare minimum in tax, then citycars, superminis and family hatchbacks will always be the way to go but the A6 with its latest 2.0-litre TDI unit is a car that delivers true-blue executive motoring without the associated financial penalties.

It’s business users who get the most out of A6 2.0-litre TDI ownership. Unless you’re lucky enough to be on the receiving end of a particularly stratospheric salary, signing on the dotted line for a V8 executive saloon as a company car in today’s taxation climate would be tantamount to filing for bankruptcy. In the latest, facelifted A6 range, the 2.0-litre TDI produces 151g/km of CO2, far more efficient than a lot of petrol models out there.

Fuel consumption is another area where the 2.0-litre TDI looks a cost-effective bet compared to executive saloons with the traditional big petrol engines. Its 48.7mpg average economy figure is far in excess of the mileage you can expect from Audi’s petrol units. It sounds good but reading this, you’re probably gearing yourself up for some disappointing news regarding the car’s performance. Sure enough, it isn’t the executive express that every young go-getter dreams about as they struggle up the corporate ladder but, as we’ve explained, that kind of power comes with some fairly prohibitive bills. The 2.0-litre TDI makes a decent account of itself with 0-60mph acceleration of 9.9secs and a 127mph top speed. The engine doesn’t feel unduly troubled by the A6’s substantial mass with a nice slug of torque low down in the rev range translating into impressive in-gear flexibility. Engine noise is well suppressed.

If you look to Audi’s German rivals, you’ll have to pay more for an E220 CDI from Mercedes with similar performance and economy. BMW, on the other hand, have the 525d which is also more expensive but offers far better performance with only a slight fuel consumption penalty. In the case of Jaguar, a £3,000 premium will get you the 2.7-litre twin turbo diesel in an S-Type – a package that’s a match for the BMW in terms of power and parsimony. The upshot of all this seems to be that the Audi 2.0-litre TDI has affordability firmly on its side and buyers for whom cutting back on the tax they pay is the number one priority will find it hard to better. The majestic performance often associated with this type of car is largely absent but so are the monstrous running costs and that will be all that matters for some.

If we turn our attention to matters away from the A6 2.0-litre TDI’s engine bay, the product makes an even stronger case for itself. We might be looking at an entry-level model but you wouldn’t necessarily know it from sitting in the driver’s seat. Electronic