Test drove a few Audis this weekend
 

Local dealer happened to get an A6 Allroad in stock so I asked if I could drive it (I was procrastinating by randomly looking through their inventory on Friday and noticed it) I think I've only ever seen 1 of these in the wild so they're quite rare.

Was going to go myself but wife and kid decided to tag along at the last minute. Ended up really liking this car. Ride quality is unbelievably smooth (tried it over potholes, railroad tracks, speed bumps, etc). This particular one was silver which isn't my favorite color, but its fine. Good power too with instant (sometimes too instant) throttle response and steering that I could live with good on-center feel and weighting (better than some A4s and Q5s i've driven in the past as well as that X5 i considered). Kinda cool that it has a DCT trans since it shifts quite fast (not sure why they can't pair a DCT with the same engine on the S4/5). More backseat and cargo room than both my RRS and the X5! Beautiful interior design with really nice matte wood trim. Only letdowns were the incredibly tiny storage in the center console, touch screens for everything UI, and the base seats weren't all that comfortable (supposedly the upgrades seats available on the prestige trim are night and day better).

My wife really fell in love with this car and wanted to buy it on the spot. That's just not my style-- I need to overanalyze everything and probably put in a custom order to get exactly what I want. Sounds like it'd be about a year to get a custom order though...that being said I'm not really in a rush. She is now pestering me about it despite having almost no interest previously. :)

Also they happened to have a q4 etron available to drive. Was kind of curious about it now that i've driven a bunch of other EVs. Liked it much better than the related ID4 (and the big etron) that I drove about 6 months ago. This one had the AR heads up display which i'd never tried before..that was cool. But I just can't see paying 66k (this one was a loaded prestige model) for what is essentially a q3 with a battery.

What’s the power plant in the Allroad these days?

The Audi corporate V6 turbo with 48v mild hybrid system (believe its similar to my RRS and Mercedes in that they use it to help spool up the turbo quicker)

You might just do a national search for the car you want. We always seem to have some in ATL. Looks like we only have one right now, but I have seen more at any given time:

https://www.jimellisaudi.com/new/Aud...df0657ef69.htm

Or you could step up to the RS6 Avant:
https://www.jimellisaudi.com/new-inv...nchor-model-23

Or wait for the M5 wagon...

Nice find- that's almost exactly what I want (other than slight preference for brown vs black interior). I guess it wouldn't hurt to reach out and ask. Assuming shipping to west coast wont be cheap (and I dont really have time for a cross country drive). Often the cars marked "in transit" are already spoken for.

As for the RS6 and M5 wagon- those are both way outside my budget. Plus I dont think I'd really want something like that as a daily driver. Sure it'd be cool for cars and coffee and I love the way the RS6 looks but those high performance or "super wagons" don't really make sense to me unless you live in Germany and can regularly do high speed autobahn runs.

[EDIT: turns out that one is already spoken for]

So, I continue to lurch toward buying an A6 Allroad. It's now a 2024 model and will likely arrive by end of year. One unfortunate change is that they've removed the 5 spoke wheels from the black optic package...still think i'll keep it because i prefer blacked out trim to the aluminum. Still can't find anything else that I like better overall (that doesn't cost over 100k). But, after seeing some recent pics on an Audi forum, I'm starting to question my color choice. I"d specced "manhattan grey" because it blends with the painted wheel arches (which are the same color w/ the Black optic package), but I so slightly prefer the blue. Just not sure how I feel about it with the grey wheel arches (they are both dark colors so am concerned that its sort of halfway between a contrast and a full match...meaning that it may kind of clash). What do you guys think of the blue vs the grey? (and, yes, I full appreciate that several of you will feel that both these colors are boring and possibly so close as to make no difference... but I like conservative colors on cars like this).
grey:
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.aud...344f3263f9.jpg
blue:
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.aud...7ce218757.jpeg
Another shot of the blue that brings out the contrast more:
https://photos.smugmug.com/Cars/Pers...DSC2522-X3.jpg

The blue reminds me a bit of BMW's carbon black which is one of my favorite colors.

The last blue pic is really sharp. The 5 spoke wheels add a lot. The grey 5 spoke looked better to me compare to the middle plus pic

Yeah im bummed they’re ditching the 5 spokes.


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I’d definitely do the blue, but then again that’s not a surprise. Those 5 spoke wheels are *fantastic*; I’ve never seen those before. Do you mean you can’t get them at all anymore?

Yeah - up through MY 23 the 5 spokes were included with the black optic package. For 24 they’re no longer included (nor can you spec them a la carte). Very disappointing- no idea why they did that.


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