Gadgetory

the Audi six is kind of a bread-and-butter car it's neither the high-end nor the low-end but on this one it's the fast end let's take a run in the 2013 Audi s6 and check the tech an s6 takes a standard a6 and adds a whole lot of very real performance improvements a much hotter bigger engine of the hood that we'll visit in a minute a sports air suspension that's adaptive around all four corners and as you can see a lot of different body cues spot one of these guys by the curling lower lip in front the bar across the grille instead of a full depth cowcatcher and these satin finish mirrors but to my eye out YZ s cars are a lot less overt than the M cars of the AMG s there's less machismo it's kind of an Audi thing okay now when you have an S car you've got kind of a gluttonous engine I mean who does big v8s anymore well midsize v8 4 litre direct injection twin-turbo v8 under the hood of this s6 the numbers are nice 420 horse 406 foot-pounds of torque 0 to 60 for this 4,400 pound car not exactly spelt happens in a trim 4.5 seconds while still delivering pretty good 17:27 MPG drivetrain one choice you're going to have a 7-speed dual-clutch automated manual what they call a DCT going out to quadrille all-wheel drive exactly identical to the Audi s7 the cabin tech in this f6 is virtually identical to that in the s7 we recently took a detailed look at let's revisit that for a moment how DS navigation system is one of the best out there I like the way it presents almost everything in terms of operating still the same MMI interface for zones here mapped to four buttons down here around the controller notice on this car we've got the Google Earth services built in so it's got Google Earth satellite imagery once you get out to let's say this level here 3/4 mile view along with that Google Earth imagery you've got local search to find destinations and all that's done through this little SIM card connection right here you don't need to pair your smartphone to this guy to get connected now let's talk media system on this car lots of choices they start back here into the sneaky door alongside the sim you've got two SD card slots I don't find that tremendously interesting more interesting your bluetooth streaming for which on my Android phone I'm getting good meta tag information that's quite a win on Android now the one that's grayed out here that would be your Audi media interface it lives here in the console the reason it's not connected is because as you can see here we've got the old-style 30-pin dock connector now getting away from infotainment the cabin tech really takes off with driver assistance tech in this car first of all we have adaptive cruise control which is where you set the speed and the follow distance but on top of that it's got stop-and-go technology if you get into stop and go traffic the car will come to a stop and then when traffic starts again it will automatically resume after the radar in the front sees that happen and the camera up here behind the mirror scans for pedestrians first Lane Assist technology on this car is active if this same camera which can read not just lines but colors of lines detects that you're drifting and your signals not on in that direction it uses the electro hydraulic steering rack to steer you back and also give you a stick shake on the wheel if you set it that way that same camera also looks out there for speed limit science and can read them and puts those on the interface of the car to let you know what the speed limit is here now I'm really sad our car does not have the night vision with pedestrian detection and head-up display that is something I want to check out in the real world on these Audi's and finally we have parking assist technology we've seen this in a lot other cars that cost a lot less than this one for example but it will get you into a parallel parking spot as long as it is at least 31 inches longer than the car is like driving any out in one respect it's dead-ass smooth the s cars have an adaptive air suspension unlike the standard 7 or 6 for example so we've got a car that can change personalities dramatically especially with this Audi Drive select those modes we see on the screen there are dramatically different it's not one of those placebos where you kind of see a difference and kind of don't here it's like you bought three cars when you're cutting it up on a nice little country road like this and getting into it of course Quattro basically makes you look like a hero not to mention all the usual adaptive controls and the power on this car just never stops that 420 horse and deceptively low 406 foot-pounds of torque are actually way more than you need this thing is like a locomotive oh by the way this car has cylinder deactivation which I don't think we had in our f7 I don't recall that it'll shut down cylinders two three five and eight when it's loafing at cruising speeds I never detected it it is so perfectly smooth it's wonderful now all this said you'd think it's the perfect car right but when I've compared BMWs and Audi's even the hot versions head-to-head I often come away feeling like the BMW has a clear edge as a street fighter if that's your priority I feel like this car is more of a sporting car than it is one to be absolutely hammered like a Demi track car I feel like it comes apart a little bit at the real ragged edge but as a car I would own I absolutely love the combination of the power of the smooth delivery the really useful technology and the understated lines and elegance okay let's price our little sporty friend with the identity crisis you're gonna start off around seventy two seven let's call it almost seventy three for an S six delivered if you want to get seen that style in a hurry get the innovation package for around fifty five hundred bucks that's gonna roll in the night-vision detection the head-up display adaptive cruise the stop-and-go technology you're gonna get surround cameras blind spot detection that active lane departure and a lot more do it all with all those options you're in about eighty six for a car that is in the mid ground but I'll tell you what you'll love driving it every day