Audi A6 C6 Estate buying advice

[kooky guy]

I'm considering replacing my B6 A4 with a C6 A6 estate so just looking for some advice to help narrow the search a bit.

Are there any strong opinions on the best engine/gearbox combinations? There seem to be a lot of Multitronics around, but having struggled for a year with a dying one in my A4 I'm a bit put off them now, although I do really like driving them (when they're working). Are they any stronger in the C6? I assume this is the only auto option unless I get a Quattro? Do the manuals have any issues I ought to be aware of?

I've never had a diesel before. Is there any reason not to consider one in this model? The economy figures seem to be quite good but are they just rattly and noisy? Any engines to avoid?

Most of the ones I'm seeing advertised seem to have quite high mileages. Is there any reason to be nervous of higher mileages? Presumably the oil burners last better than the petrols at higher mileages? My 2.0 petrol in my current A4 burns a LOT of oil at 143k which is a bit disappointing and something I'd like to try and avoid in the next one.

Anything else I should be looking out for? Any good options worth having?

[blueg33]

Lots of threads on this if you use the search, I have commented on most of them so won't repeat myself.

Multitronic has issues

Best engine/box combination is 3.0tdi with tiptronic, this is quattro.

LeMans spec cars are desirable and generally well equipped

Edited by blueg33 on Thursday 3rd July 10:47

[Maracus]

Check rear washer jet works - could be a disconnected pipe.

Check rear wiper works smoothly, mine failed at 72k/5 years old.

Bodywork repairs - I use APS in Brackley, they say most have had bodywork repairs, not a problem if done properly!

Check the tail gate for water ingress. When the tailgate is open, water will be seen dripping from the courtesy lights. This is caused by the inner tailgate cluster seal persihing.

Cooling fans. Switch the aircon onto 'Lo', you should hear cooling fan 2 come on. With a torch you check both cooling fans work ok. I've just had both of mine replaced @ £900

To me, it's all the car you need. I can't think of something for the money/cost/size that it could be replaced with. Except a B8 S4

[arfur]

I bought a A6 C6 estate a few months ago

Spec is:

S-Line
4.2V8
Silver
Auto-Tip
Quattro
Every toy
19inch 20 spoke
Upgraded leather
Auto tailgate
Auto towbar
90k miles
1 owner
FASH

9.5k£

Nothing has gone wrong, no squeaks etc .. very nice to drive

Overall getting 20mpg
Motorway at 80ish 25 mpg

Cant fault it really. I'll keep it a couple of years and then get a V10 RS6

cheers

[kooky guy]

Thanks for the info. Trying to work out what spec to expect now. They all seem to come with Cruise Control and 4 electric windows. Are Parking sensors and heated seats extra? How about Bluetooth? Can this be added if not present?

What is an Auto towbar, just out of interest!?

Should I be concerned about higher mileage examples? My budget is probably going to be 5k and they all seem to be over 100k miles at this price point, especially the nicer ones.

[arfur]

kooky guy said:

Thanks for the info. Trying to work out what spec to expect now. They all seem to come with Cruise Control and 4 electric windows. Are Parking sensors and heated seats extra? How about Bluetooth? Can this be added if not present?

What is an Auto towbar, just out of interest!?

Should I be concerned about higher mileage examples? My budget is probably going to be 5k and they all seem to be over 100k miles at this price point, especially the nicer ones.

Mine has heated front and rear seats, electic with memory on the front, MMI 2G High (I updated it using DVDs bought on ebay for 15 quid). Bluetooth is there as well

Auto towbar means you press a button for it to hide away

I bought mine with 90k on it ... I dont do much mileage these days (5k pa probably) hence the V8 and not caring about the fule consumption.

The car is a very nice place to be ... FYI mine is a 57 with the facelift. At 5k you will be looking at the pre-facelift I suspect.

You also need if possible to get MMI2G High and not Low ... there is a huge difference

[gizlaroc]

I had the 3.2fsi and adored it, I used to average around 28mpg from it, 36mpg on a fast run.
I then had the 3.0tdi, that averaged around 32mpg and 38/39 on a run, so a bit disappointing in that regard, doing 20k miles a year it saved about £5 a week at most.
Worse than that was my commute, in winter my 3.2 petrol was 26mpg for the 10 miles, the 3.0tdi was 25!! That was winter though.


The 3.2 was pretty much bullet proof, so refined when cruising around and revved nicely and came to life when pressing on.

Friend had the 2.0tdi leMans multitronic and he used to be amazed at the difference in mine, plus he only used to average 34mpg and was doing 30k miles a year.

Can't see the point of diesels in these, they are big heavy cars and they tend like a big petrol engine, 2.0tdi drinks as has to work hard and the 3.0tdi is just not that economical.
Plus the FWD version is not great.

[Maracus]

As for MPG, we see an indicated 43MPG on a motorway run, 4 up with a boot full in our 3.0TDI. On an a road run, mid to high 30s is attainable. I used to have a 2.0 TDI 140 A4 manual, never really saw anything above mid 40s on a run.

Be sure to make sure that the tyre pressures are correct, I saw a marked improvement in economy by checking them more often

[The Stiglet]

Maracus said:

Cooling fans. Switch the aircon onto 'Lo', you should hear cooling fan 2 come on. With a torch you check both cooling fans work ok. I've just had both of mine replaced @ £900

What symptoms did you get before checking? I bought an S6 a few months ago and the AC doesn't get cold immediately, it takes a while and I thought it might need regassing or it could be the compressor. Going to France in August so will need to address it.

[Maracus]

The Stiglet said:

Maracus said:

Cooling fans. Switch the aircon onto 'Lo', you should hear cooling fan 2 come on. With a torch you check both cooling fans work ok. I've just had both of mine replaced @ £900

What symptoms did you get before checking? I bought an S6 a few months ago and the AC doesn't get cold immediately, it takes a while and I thought it might need regassing or it could be the compressor. Going to France in August so will need to address it.

Yours sounds more like a regas issue, hopefully.

Ironically, I heard my first symptoms in an underground car park in France in April. There was a graunching type noise from the radiator area of the car when manoeuvring. I thought it was the echoing of the car park. A couple of weeks after coming home home I had one of the EML warning lights come on, 3 of the codes pointed to Cooling Fan 2. When it was being changed at APS in Brackley, they advised that Fan 1 was on it's way out. I thought I'd have it changed for no additional labour as we're planning on keeping the car for sometime. Also had the auxillary belt changed as well. Oh, and a major service

[kooky guy]

arfur said:

Mine has heated front and rear seats, electic with memory on the front, MMI 2G High (I updated it using DVDs bought on ebay for 15 quid). Bluetooth is there as well

Auto towbar means you press a button for it to hide away

I bought mine with 90k on it ... I dont do much mileage these days (5k pa probably) hence the V8 and not caring about the fule consumption.

The car is a very nice place to be ... FYI mine is a 57 with the facelift. At 5k you will be looking at the pre-facelift I suspect.

You also need if possible to get MMI2G High and not Low ... there is a huge difference

Umm, pardon my ignorance but what do you mean by MMI2G High? Is that the central display thingie? I've noticed that some seem to have colour displays on the instrument panel and others just have the red and orange ones too. Is that related? Is there an easy way to work out which one a car has?

Hmm, interesting comments about the fuel consumption. I had kind of resigned myself to diesel, but quite interesting to hear the petrol consumptions (although I think the V8 might not be suitable!). I have seen a 2.0T FSI that looks like a good mix of performance and consumption, although it's not a Quattro.

Are Quattro models really worth the extra cost in terms of running costs?

[Maracus]

MMI 2G is the colour 5 digit postcode Sat Nav, although you can search down to street level. I used it when in France and Italy recently and it was excellent for an 'old' design.

The quattro versions are IMO so much better in terms of all round driving. No scrabbling for grip, good stability in the wet and not having to have a multitronic gearbox

I'm not sure where Dr G is? He's your man for all thing a4/A6 quattro

Dr G

[arfur]

Maracus said:

MMI 2G is the colour 5 digit postcode Sat Nav, although you can search down to street level. I used it when in France and Italy recently and it was excellent for an 'old' design.

The quattro versions are IMO so much better in terms of all round driving. No scrabbling for grip, good stability in the wet and not having to have a multitronic gearbox

I'm not sure where Dr G is? He's your man for all thing a4/A6 quattro

Dr G

MMi2G High is indeed the multi changer, boot mounted amp and colour screen/nav ... It works well and also supports the addition of USB connection (which cost me 200 quid and very sore fingers). The Low is not colour and you cant add aux/usb

[arfur]

kooky guy said:

Umm, pardon my ignorance but what do you mean by MMI2G High? Is that the central display thingie? I've noticed that some seem to have colour displays on the instrument panel and others just have the red and orange ones too. Is that related? Is there an easy way to work out which one a car has?

Hmm, interesting comments about the fuel consumption. I had kind of resigned myself to diesel, but quite interesting to hear the petrol consumptions (although I think the V8 might not be suitable!). I have seen a 2.0T FSI that looks like a good mix of performance and consumption, although it's not a Quattro.

Are Quattro models really worth the extra cost in terms of running costs?

I was actually looking at the 3 litre TDi initially and had a spin in a couple. they just didnt do it for me as I was coming from a Subaru Forester with over 320 bhp. I then looked at a 3.2 fsi and that really felt slower than the diesel ....

I then looked at the V10 S6 but as I was really wanting the RS6 I thought I'd always just be cross that I didnt save for the RS in the 1st place.

then this V8 S-Line came up and it looked and felt perfect .. Totally different car to the S and RS, so I'm happy for now.

I did actually get 26.2 on the M25/A12 at 70 mph a couple of weeks back !! Where speed allows, 80=25mpg, 90=21mpg and over 100 probably means you need to tow a shell garage. Just doing the station run is sub 15

[kooky guy]

arfur said:

I did actually get 26.2 on the M25/A12 at 70 mph a couple of weeks back !! Where speed allows, 80=25mpg, 90=21mpg and over 100 probably means you need to tow a shell garage. Just doing the station run is sub 15

I know the feeling. I ran my 4.6 Range Rover as a daily driver for a few years and even with an lpg conversion it was a bit painful. So that's relegated to toy status now and I need something reasonably economical as a daily.

[blueg33]

I always though the average mpg in the 3.0 A6 was ok at 36 and up to 40 o a run, having just got 40.5mpg in my Evora on a run ti Manchester I am not so sure. At the speeds I did the A6 would have been at about 36-38mpg

[shtu]

blueg33 said:

I always though the average mpg in the 3.0 A6 was ok at 36 and up to 40 o a run.

That's the kind of numbers I've been getting for years, without really trying.

[istoo]

i went from a B6 A4 avant (2.5 tdi quattro sport) which we loved, but couldnt live with the lack of rear leg room to C6 A6 avant 2.0 tdi lemans. Never got on with the A6 neither my missus not I. We had an E60 530d mSport in between which was a far better car sorry to day. Prior to the A4 had a C5 and a C4 A6/100 both of which were fantastic, just never was happy with the C6 for one reason or another.

I did drive a C6 A6 3.0tdi quattro last year post selling the 2.0 tdi, which would be my pick if I had to buy one. The FWD cars are just too big and heavy now. The quattros suit the chassis better imho.

[blueg33]

istoo said:

i went from a B6 A4 avant (2.5 tdi quattro sport) which we loved, but couldnt live with the lack of rear leg room to C6 A6 avant 2.0 tdi lemans. Never got on with the A6 neither my missus not I. We had an E60 530d mSport in between which was a far better car sorry to day. Prior to the A4 had a C5 and a C4 A6/100 both of which were fantastic, just never was happy with the C6 for one reason or another.

I did drive a C6 A6 3.0tdi quattro last year post selling the 2.0 tdi, which would be my pick if I had to buy one. The FWD cars are just too big and heavy now. The quattros suit the chassis better imho.

Interesting, I went from an E60 530tdi to the an A6 (C6) 3.0tdi and found it to be way better. Nether I or the missus liked the BMW and living with it for 2 years felt like forever. Expected to keep the A6 for 3 years and kept it for 7

[Kell]

blueg33 said:

istoo said:

i went from a B6 A4 avant (2.5 tdi quattro sport) which we loved, but couldnt live with the lack of rear leg room to C6 A6 avant 2.0 tdi lemans. Never got on with the A6 neither my missus not I. We had an E60 530d mSport in between which was a far better car sorry to day. Prior to the A4 had a C5 and a C4 A6/100 both of which were fantastic, just never was happy with the C6 for one reason or another.

I did drive a C6 A6 3.0tdi quattro last year post selling the 2.0 tdi, which would be my pick if I had to buy one. The FWD cars are just too big and heavy now. The quattros suit the chassis better imho.

Interesting, I went from an E60 530tdi to the an A6 (C6) 3.0tdi and found it to be way better. Nether I or the missus liked the BMW and living with it for 2 years felt like forever. Expected to keep the A6 for 3 years and kept it for 7

We went from a B6 A4 2.5 TDi SE (manual) to a BMW E61 530d Msport (Auto) and now the C6 A6 Le Mans 3.0TDi quattro (auto).

Of all of them the A6 is by far the most complete car. We did look at the 3.2 V6 but it felf slow in comparison, despite having more power on paper.

I think the big diesel suits the car, but my experience of all three above is that big diesel engine don't much like town driving. The A6 will do 17mpg around town if you boot it, 22-23 if you're gentle. The BM wasn't as bad, but not much better - and I never saw more than 40mpg in the BM, yet I can do it in the Audi. The lowest instant figure I ever saw, however, came from the A4 when I saw it drop to 8mpg during some spirited country lane driving.

Finally, like the comment above, I found the rear leg room in the A4 terrible - which is why we went up a class size. We went for the BM (in 2007) because we were always being told just how good a car/engine the 530d was and because at that time, C6 A6s were too new for us to afford a one SH.

However, elsewhere, I've written at great length about all the problems we had with the E61, which is believed to be the most fragile of all recent 5ers. So I'd avoid them like the plague. In fact, our experience of what was then a two-year old car has so soured my attitude towards BMW that I'd never buy another one.

As for the C6, when the BM was in for one of its many faults, we had a 2.0TDi C6 A6 as a courtesy car and I found it awful. It dragged itself through corners where the quattro feels pretty neutral.

Having driven ours through country lanes, I'd say it needs more brakes rather than more power.

Edited by Kell on Friday 4th July 15:49