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From YourSITE.com Reviews & Road Tests June 2008
Literally it was black as night, but our 2007 Audi S6 has its share of figurative stripes. Six months with the V10-powered uber sedan was neither perfect no or easily financed at the pump, but the foibles weren’t enough to cool us on the car. And, like the navy blue Yankee stripes, this onyx Audi rewarded us with impressive performance and much more attention from others than we expected to receive at the wheel of a dark, business-class 4-door. From the very beginning, there were some nit-picking details we didn’t like about the car. The ride was harsh for a luxury sedan – a trade-off for making something this heavy so light on its feet. Fun in the corners, its performance over Chicago potholes, Pennyslvania post-winter concrete cracks or Georgetown cobblestones was definitely a nuisance. Throttle too was high-strung – making it hard to pull away from a redlight sans lurch even when you didn’t have the car’s Tiptronic 6-speed transmission in the optional Sport Mode. Our six months with the car also wasn’t trouble free. While there was nothing serious, we did experience some bugs like a mis-reading fuel gage showing empty, an inoperative window switch and, just as we were about to turn it in, a trunk shock that only held the trunk lid partially open. All of these were but a nuisance as each was fixed under the car’s warranty. Knowing how this sort of thing can add up though, we were glad that our S6 was enrolled in Audi’s Certified Pre-Owned extended warranty coverage.
One thing not under warranty was a temperamental HID headlight. Oxidation on the bulb meant it worked some, but not all, of the time. Since bulbs are wear items, this wasn’t covered under either warranty. A fix would have been over $300, and we never had a time when we couldn’t activate the light by toying with the headlight switch, turning it from off-to-on-to-auto and back before both sides would light up within a few seconds. For this reason, we elected to let the light go as the S6 was about to make its departure from our 4 Seasons fleet anyway. Also pricey was the cost of maintenance and the tally for fuel. Subjecting the car to more around-town driving this last month, we only averaged 15.59 mpg – some of the lowest we’ve seen during our stay with the car. In addition, our only paid service with the S6, including full tire rotation and a belly full of Mobil 1 at full dealer book rate, was a hair over $800. Buying our own oil or keeping a set of winter wheels would have definitely saved us some money here and would have likely paid for the extra wheels.
But then there were those stripes. Audi’s generally been the more subtle German car brand compared to BMW or Mercedes. Certainly not new to market, the S-version has even been around a while, but the S6 shouts more than Audis of old and the general public hears the call. More conservative purist Euro snobs amongst our readers or staff may scoff at chrome V10 badges on the quarter panels or look-at-me LED lights now a trademark on all Audis, but the amount of attention these two elements brought to our S6 was undeniable. Notes during the last month of driving include everything from an A6-driving cougar shooting the crazy eyes at one contributor across a lane of bumper-to-bumper traffic to a guy knocking on the window at a Pennsylvania Turnpike rest stop and asking about the car. We may boast that we think the whole European de-badging trend is cool, but at the end of the day our staff almost unanimously appreciated the extra attention brought about by the lights and chrome boasting. When we closed the vault-like doors, caressed our fingers along the leather-and-stitched dash, fired up the ten baritone cylinders and found our favorite iPod play lists on the car’s Audi Music Interface, the fixation continued. Yes, we were sucking down enough gas to inspire the ‘baby’ in the GOP’s ‘Drill baby drill!’ mantra, but the torque and the sound that came with it were absolutely intoxicating.
In the end we suspect, like many cars in its class and price range, if you’re worried about the cost of operation then you’re likely not the right buyer for an S6. Audi’s more frugal 3.2-liter V6 will get gas mileage that won’t offend, and a smaller and lighter car might be faster. However, if you’ve made it and you’re looking to reward yourself, you would do well with an S6… though maybe a later-build might be a bit less buggy - ours, it turns out, was a very early production car. Early build date or not, any S6 feels nearly as opulent as an Audi A8 or Mercedes S-class on the inside, and offers more than enough speed and torque to keep the circulation in your lead foot flowing. Yes, depreciation and cost of operation are more than we’d prefer, and that’s one reason we’re happy we went with Audi’s Certified Pre-Owned program on this car. A quick scan of Ebay shows similar cars can be found $20K below sticker on the virtual CPO lots of online Audi dealers and, in our minds, that’s a performance bargain.
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