Upgraded from an Octavia to a 2023 A6: 12 pros & 9 cons post 22,000 km

Overall, a very satisfying 1.5 years, and in the near horizon at-least, I am not looking at changing the car, not till 2027 for sure.

BHPian sawnilrules recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

22,000 KMS update

22,000 kms on the ODO, (16.4K) with me after 1.5 years of ownership. As I am spending more and more time with the car, can’t help but observe finer details about the car, which are impressive as well as, somewhere I feel, Audi could have some things better.

Impressive Things

• The looks, I think the way Audi has designed the car, it will keep looking fresh even after years to come. It already is a 6-year-old design and still looks fresh. This I believe is a trademark of any VAG group car.
• Child Lock is an important feature especially if you have kids around in the car. And with German Cars, the problem is, even if all the four doors are centrally locked, anyone can open the door from behind. Kids tend to be mischievous and playful in the car, whether in Taigun or my Grand i10, I always have the child lock on especially on the passenger door directly behind the driver. This becomes a pain while getting off the car, as every time, I have to get out of the car and open the door. However, I was pleasantly surprised that there are actually individual child lock-unlock buttons on the door pad. This is such a small but significantly important ease to use functionality especially with kids on board. Now it’s easier for me to conveniently have the child lock on or off basis the use case.

• I have a habit of switching off the headlights if I have just arrived at the signal and the signal is say 120 or 140 seconds long. In the A6 the lights button is not a rotary knob, but a button which activates/deactivates lights related features on every click. In the A6, side marker lights on deactivates the headlights. A simple but thoughtful thing that Audi has done here is, moment the car is set in motion, and it crosses 10 kmph, the headlights come on automatically. Such a cool feature to have as one need not fiddle with the lights switch again.

• In continuation on the lights, the front cabin lights are pressure sensor lights and can be dimmed or brightened basis the need. Also, another cool feature here is, basis the door, which is open, the cabin light in that section come on. So, for example, if you open the rear passenger left hand side door, the cabin light of that sections comes on and so on so forth

• Both the touch MMI and Climatronic Control screens can be customized for touch and feel. If you are from the blackberry era and if you remember the Blackberry Storm, both the touch MMI Screen and the Climatronic screen have the same haptic feedback. However, if you are from the iPhone era, and love the sleekness of the new screens, in settings, you can switch off the haptic feedback and now the same MMI Screen becomes and iPhone screen, with same level of finesse in touch, look and feel.
• Coming from Octavia, where we were used to 2 dim ambient lights emitted from small bulbs from the sunroof panel, getting a car with ambient lights for us is a different experience. However, the lights can get jarring to the eyes if overdone. Point in case, when I drove the C Class during late evening hours, I found the overly done lighting in the car creating unnecessary glare to the eyes and distracting. Thankfully in the A6, the lights are subtly done, and they are present in the form of lines and surfaces. Surface light is kind of a diffused light and lines light is more of in-your-face light coming from edges. Even in their brightest mode, I haven’t experienced distraction while driving.

• The resolution of the virtual cockpit and the amount of detailing that Audi has done here is top notch. There is a certain crispness to the way the screen comes to live and the sharpness of data on display is phenomenal.

• When you unlock the car every time from outside and open the driver door the car has a Welcome Sound which is similar to Audi’s trademark audio that they have at the end of every advert.

• MMI Screen of Audi has icon-based layout, and the good thing is, individually icons can be moved basis your preferences, simple but effective thing to keep your most used icons immediately at your disposal while driving.

• A rear camera washer, and headlamps washer, both these are extremely handy during road trips especially during monsoons.

• The cabin of A6 tends to be eerily silent if there is no music playing in the background. It’s a perfect place to relax after a long day at work.

• For a car which almost weighs 2 tons and churns excess of 200 bhp, is giving me a fuel efficiency of almost 12.5 kmpl during my office runs with moderate traffic and around 9 kmpl with heavy traffic.

Things that could be better

• Audi has jumbled up the software leaving it to be more confusing rather than being user friendly. For example, even after 1.5 years, it is a real struggle to find out which menu has the settings for example to find wiper service position.

• Odometer is something that should be constantly shown to you as a driver is my fundamental belief. However, in this virtual display, you get to see the ODO only if you are in the trip menu of the virtual display. Moment, you switch to any other display, say maps or music or phone, the ODO meter disappears. I found it silly.

• Wireless Apple CarPlay is a sore miss, but what is more of a miss is the positioning of the USB slots, they are just behind the wireless charger and not at-all wire friendly. In continuation, of the wireless charger, I am facing issues of phone heating up on the wireless charging dock leading to the suspension of wireless charging. I tried solving this issue by keeping the armrest open to allow the cool cabin air to pass in, but it does not seem to work.

• Practically there is no place in the car to place your phone safely. The only slot is inside the arm rest which houses the wireless charger.

• A VAG group car, does not have a ticket holder on the screen, like in Skoda cars. Ticket holders are handy, especially if you don’t want to stick the parking stickers on the glass, just placing them against the ticket holder does the job. But the A6 does not have one. Thus I am forced to keep the sticker on the front speaker grille.

• Occasionally that I have sat in the rear seat, I found the backseat too upright for my liking. The recline angle could have been better, especially for a car designed for rear seat occupants.

• While the front row has touch sensitive lights with intensity control, however at the rear, Audi has given regular on-off switches for the lights, looks medieval in today’s day and age. Ideally a touch sensitive lights could have been given at the rear too.

• U-turn in general is a pain on single lane roads, the length of the car aggravates the pain, may be Audi could have given a rear steering axle, like the one in the global A6.

• “Vorsprung Durch Technik”, is what Audi is famous for, lights are one area that Audi truly excels amongst its competitors, especially the drama and character they bring to the car especially while unlocking or locking the car. But in Indian versions sadly, there is no such drama, its simple lights on and lights off with coming home function. So much in the name of cost saving. Thus in India, why "No Vorsprung Durch Technik" Audi?

These are some of the observations that I have had as I am using the car.

Overall, a very satisfying 1.5 years, and in the near horizon at-least, I am not looking at changing the car, not till 2027 for sure.

Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.