Audi RS6 Avant review

As you’d expect for such an expensive, top-end car, the RS6 gets pretty much everything you could want as standard – the 12-way electrically adjustable sports seats are a particular highlight. Broad-shouldered and heavily bolstered, they keep you securely in place even in track use, and offer enough adjustability for you to get comfortable even on very long journeys.

Seeing forwards out of any A6 is easy thanks to the tall, wide windscreen and relatively thin front pillars. It makes placing the car when parking or threading it through busy urban traffic that bit easier, too. The front side windows are similarly well proportioned.

Your over-the-shoulder view isn’t quite as good due to the thick rear pillars, although visibility is no worse than in rivals such as the BMW 5 Series Touring. In any case, you needn’t worry too much, because Audi’s Parking System Plus is standard, which includes front and rear parking sensors, reversing camera and automatic parking system.

The RS6 gets an 8.0in colour screen, which rises from the dash (or can be retracted) to sit high up on the dash top in easy view. Control is via a rotary controller and four shortcut buttons, which allow you to hop easily between the many different functions, which include sat-nav, DVD player, 10gb hard drive, Bluetooth phone and audio streaming, and two USB connections. It’s an easy to use system but one that is starting to look dated compared to newer systems found elsewhere in the Audi range. It also lags slightly behind the class-leading BMW iDrive system if only in terms of a few usability niggles; ultimately this is an infotainment system that’s still better than many out there. The only options you may want to add are Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, or the Bang and Olufsen stereo.

Audi has got cabin quality well and truly sorted. That’s clear from its small cars such as the A1 and A3, but the interior of the RS6 is something really special. The materials, build quality and attention to detail are faultless throughout, and given that the RS6 comes with carbonfibre trim and quilted leather seats as standard, the overall ambience is right up there with Audi’s pricier A8 luxury saloon.