Audi A6 Avant 2025 review – BMW 5-series rival looks good but lacks guts
Audi’s traditional big estate car keeps its usual name but has lost some useful engine options
I’m not sure how they manage it but with each passing generation of Audi A6 Avant, that tailgate gets more and more sloped back. This new one doesn’t even look like an estate car from some angles. Regardless, the A6 - now in the C9 generation - is better looking than the current BMW 5-series, though that’s not exactly difficult.
You could be forgiven for thinking the nose of the A6 carries a level of aggression above its station. It’s almost as if the nose of the A7 has already been grafted on, as it was in the last generation for the full-fat RS6 super estate. That’s because not so long ago, this car was due to be called A7 in saloon and Avant form.
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It was all part of Audi’s plan to badge its combustion and hybrid cars with odd numbers and its electric cars with even numbers. The release of the new A5s (that replaced the old A4s, rather than the old A5 coupe) and the confusion it caused loyal Audi customers, made Ingolstadt quickly reverse course. The new A7 was swapped back to A6 perilously close to its reveal.
Now it’s here and the glaze of extra upmarket sporting flavour in its styling is all that remains of the old plan. So much the better, this is a great-looking car. Even with its odd split lights at the rear.
Engine, gearbox and technical highlights
- 2-litre petrol and diesel engines
- PHEV on the way
- Air suspension only available on the diesel
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The new A6 rides on an extended version of the same Premium Platform Combustion architecture as the new A5 and Q5 family. It also gets the same range of petrol and MHEV diesel powertrains, with a plug-in hybrid petrol due in the lineup later this year. Unlike in older generations of A6, which used everything from 3-litre diesels to 4.2-litre petrol V8s, the entire A6 range now uses 2-litre four-cylinder engines.
That swooping body pays dividends in terms of drag. Audi claims the A6 Avant to be the slipperiest combustion Audi estate ever, with a drag coefficient of 0.25. That slipperiness should also help make the A6 the most refined yet in terms of cabin noise, the air gliding over its bodywork rather than crashing into it.
NVH has been a big area of focus for Audi’s engineers. New materials, revisions to the engine mounts and a new design for the gears in the transmission work with the A6’s low-drag form to reduce cabin noise by 30 per cent, so claims Audi.
Further to the end goal of refinement, and unique for the A6 over the A5, is the option of adaptive air suspension to improve the ride and performance. It can drop the car by 20mm in Sport mode and 30mm in Dynamic mode. It can lower the car at speeds over 75mph for efficiency and raise it on uneven or snowy terrain.
Unlike the A5 range with the S5 the new A6 range didn’t launch with a hot S version to top it, though there is an all-electric and mechanically unrelated S6 available should you want it. A new RS6 is set to join the range, pairing a familiar twin-turbo V8 with a plug-in hybrid system to add some punch, but that will also inevitably add some weight. It’s expected to match or exceed all the figures, weight included, seen on the new BMW M5’s spec sheet.
Performance, ride and handling
- Weedy powertrains offer limited performance (for now)
- Powertrain lineup lacks variety of BMW 5-series and Mercedes E-Class
- Adaptive air suspension adds to exceptional refinement
If the A6’s powertrain lineup looks limited on a specsheet, it feels limited behind the wheel. If 201bhp felt just about adequate in the smaller A5, it feels a little lost in the A6 - likewise the 295lb ft that the MHEV Plus 48-volt diesel makes do with between 1750 and 3250rpm. The instantaneous response the mild hybrid generator adds is perceptible but the powertrain as a whole is quickly out of puff in the A6 Avant - a car which weighs some 2.1tons so-equipped. You just pine for the gutsy six-cylinder lumps of old. Happily the diesel does have the party trick of limited low-speed electric-only driving thanks to its 1.7kWh battery – useful in traffic and 20mph zones. Only the MHEV diesel gets quattro all-wheel-drive, too.
The on-paper figures are 0-62mph in 7sec, on the way to a 147mph top speed. For the 201bhp and 251lb ft petrol, that’s also in the region of 200kg lighter, 62mph arrives in 8.3sec, on the way to a 149mph top speed. We’ve yet to drive the mild hybrid but the extra power and torque (295bhp and 332lb ft) could well be what the A6 needs, even if it weighs a couple of hundred kilograms more.
Happily, Audi were right to trumpet the refinement of the A6, for very little vocalisation of the engine’s struggles to hustle the big Avant up the road reaches the cabin. Our car, being an Edition 1 Plus, came equipped with the Adaptive Air Suspension which we can report is an outstanding addition, if you want your A6 to be as comfortable, cosetting and refined as possible. Actually, it’d be even more refined without the stylish but huge 21-inch Audi Sport wheels. Still, these are near A8/S-Class/7-series levels of relaxation behind the wheel, minus anything like the performance reserves you’d expect for cars in that higher class.
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Switch the A6 into Sport or Dynamic and the platform tautens, the air suspension sucking out some of the pillow-soft slack. We’re not talking about the levels of control and composure of the RS6’s amazing optional interconnected dampers but the A6 acquits itself respectably along a varied road at hustling pace.
The steering is accurate and intuitive through sweeping turns, if not representative of the rest of the car in terms of weighting. Like in the A5, there’s also a trail-off in accuracy further through the rack, leading you to initially underestimate the level of input needed for tighter turns.
Interior and tech
- OLED screens are crisp
- UI is responsive
- Design a bit copy/paste
Audi’s cut-and-paste digital stage cabin has been stretched to new limits in the A6. There’s still a premium feel to it, with the crispness of those OLED displays but the vast expanses of buttonless piano black trim do have you wondering. There’s certainly a bit more design flair to the cabin of a BMW 5-series, with its sci-fi ambient lighting. Likewise the cabin of a Mercedes-Benz E-Class is a little more plush.
That said, the Audi is intuitive, its MMI user interface being quicker to make sense of than MBUX. The software is responsive and easy to navigate and your phone connects and mirrors seamlessly.
I only wish the driver’s display could be better-arranged in terms of how it displays engine speeds, with the rev counter a small numbered line. Given how refined the A6 is, you can sometimes find yourself in the wrong gear when in manual, only noticing the tiny rev display after the distant hum that is the engine over stressing.
As it should be given its larger size, the A6 is vast inside. Drivers and front passengers of all sizes won’t struggle to find their ideal driving position. There was an airiness in our car thanks to the optional panoramic sunroof, though we could see cars without it feeling a little hemmed in thanks to the slim glasshouse. Boot space is down by comparison to rivals from Mercedes and BMW.
Price and rivals
Those rivals are the BMW 5-series and Mercedes-Benz E-Class, as they always have been. All are facing the challenges of a changing market and motoring landscape and while a plug-in hybrid is coming, the Audi’s is a limited powertrain lineup to be wading into battle with – probably its biggest weakness.
In terms of pricing, Avants are generally around £2k to £3k more than the equivalent saloon. The petrols are the cheapest, with diesel adding around £4k extra and the PHEV being a hefty £10k more expensive spec for spec.
You can get into a TFSI A6 Avant for £52,780 OTR, though this is for the entry-level Sport model. S-Line spec starts from £55,310 and adds bigger 19-inch wheels, sport suspension (that’s lower by 20mm but passive in terms of ride height) and the sport leather steering wheel with shift paddles.
Edition 1 spec is the all-singing, all-dancing A6, with 20-inch wheels, the black exterior design package and the MMI passenger display. Even though it starts from £60,210, it doesn’t get as standard the adaptive air suspension, which curiously, is also only available on the diesel. Instead, that’s a £1755 extra. The 21-inch wheels (£1195) are extra too, as is the panoramic roof (£2400) and Bang & Olufsen premium sound system (£2650). It’s easy to see how the as-tested price of our car rose to £79,255…
Still, it’s cheaper at almost every level than the Mercedes E-Class, which can be as pricey as £72,400 (without options) for the top-spec Premium Plus E220d. Want the big powerful V6 diesel E450d? That’s £83k, minimum.
The BMW 5-series range is broad and well-priced. An entry-level 520i with just a four-cylinder petrol engine starts from £54,535, but prices rise from there for M-Sport spec and the PHEV 530e and 550e – the latter offering a six-cylinder petrol engine. For the £79k price of our A6 test car, a 550e M Sport Touring would be awfully tempting.
