2014 Audi A6 TDI

What luxury car leaps forward like a bracket-racing muscle car – you’ll swear you’re getting daylight under the front tires – but also gives you almost 40 MPG on the highway?

It’s the new Audi A6 TDI.

And it’s the future.

Efficiency – and performance.

The only catch is it’s not a cheap date: $57,500 to start for the TDI – vs. $43,100 for the standard (and gas-engined) A6 2.0T.

On the other hand, the TDI A6 is only about $2,400 more than the performance/power equivalent A6 3.0 T ($55,100) – and that slight difference up front ought to be made up for pretty quickly in the form of down-the-road savings.

And – if the fur flies in Syria – as seems imminent at the time I filed this review in early September – almost 40 MPG (and being able to burn diesel rather than gas) could become a lot more relevant overnight.

Even if the fur does not fly, this is still a magnificent piece of work. It’s a bullet compared with the base/gas-engined A6. And it’ll run right on the heels of the supercharged gas V-6… while running away from it when it comes to MPGs.

And in other ways, too – which I’ll get into now.

WHAT IT IS

The A6 is Audi’s mid-sized/mid-priced luxury-sport sedan – in the same price/size class as the BMW 5, Benz E, Jaguar XF and Caddy CTS.

But, of these competitors, only the BMW (2014) and the Benz currently (or soon will) offer diesel engines – so that winnows the field down by half.

Base price for the A6 TDI (which also includes Quattro AWD) is $57,500 – vs. $43,100 for the base A6 2.0T with FWD and $55,100 for the supercharged 3.0 Quattro (AWD).

The current Benz E-350 Bluetec diesel starts at $53,105.

The almost-here (scheduled launch date, fall 2014) 2014 BMW 530d’s MSRP was not available at the time this review was written but will probably fall somewhere in between.

WHAT’S NEW

The star attraction for 2014 is the addition of a turbocharged 3 liter diesel V-6 to the A6′s roster of available powerplants.

The A6′s base 2.0 liter gas engine also gets more hp (220 now vs. 211 last year).

WHAT’S GOOD

Muscle car acceleration (5.4 seconds to 60).

Economy car MPGs.

More than two seconds quicker to 60 than Bluetec Benz – and 6 MPG more fuel efficient.

A gorgeous – and classy – car.

WHAT’S NOT SO GOOD

2014 BMW 5 diesel will reportedly be available with a manual transmission – and may outdo the Audi on performance or economy. Maybe both.

Higher price of diesel fuel vs. gas eats away at some of the diesel’s over-the-road economy advantages.

Additional hassle/expense of urea (Adblue), a fluid that must be replenished every once in awhile to keep the car’s emissions control system working as designed.

UNDER THE HOOD

About two years ago, something very significant happened – even if not many noticed its significance: Mid-sized luxury-sport sedans began to shed their standard sixxes in favor of much smaller – but turbocharged – fours. Prior to about 2011, there wasn’t a single car in this class that came with less than 3 liters and six-cylinders. Now both the Audi A6 – and one of its main rivals, the BMW 5 – both do.

For the same reason – the increasingly urgent need to satisfy ever-upticking federal fuel economy minimums (set to reach 35.5 MPG less than two years from now) while also satisfying customer performance expectations – both Audi and BMW are now also offering turbo diesel engines.

Benz got their first, of course – but the E350 Bluetec looks pretty unimpressive compared with the new stuff. It’s only so-so efficient (21 city, 32 highway – which, incidentally, is slightly less than the new A6′s 2.0 turbo gas engine gives you) and its performance is subpar for a car that starts at $53,105: Zero to 60 takes 7.8 seconds, about the same as a four-cylinder Toyota Camry or Honda Accord that costs half as much and also gets about the same gas mileage.

Now check out the specs of the A6 TDI.

The 3.0 liter turbo-diesel produces 240 hp (30 more than the base 2.0T gas turbo) and – here’s the real deal – an incredible 428 ft.-lbs. of torque at 1,750 RPM. This number needs to be put into perspective. One of my favorite muscle cars – and one of the strongest classic-era muscle cars ever made – was Pontiac’s 1973 SD-455 Trans-Am. This high-performance 7.4 liter V-8 – one of the biggest V-8s ever made by an American (or any other) car company – only made 390 ft.-lbs. of torque. And didn’t make it until 3,600 RPM.

The ’73 SD-455 Trans-Am could run a high 12 second quarter mile – and lay rubber for 100 yards on the way down the track.

And the A6 TDI has 38 lbs.-ft more torque – available at just over half the engine speed.

Now, the A6 won’t run a 12 second quarter – but it is extremely quick: Zero to 60 in 5.5 seconds, which blows away the Benz E350 BlueTec (0-60 in 7.7 seconds) and also magnificently fuel efficient – which a ’73 SD-455 was not. How’s 24 city – and 38 highway – strike you?

Stack that up against the Benz: 21 city – and just 32 highway. That was excellent – class-best, in fact – efficiency last year. Not anymore.

The wild card is the soon-to-be-released BMW 530d. Preliminary stats say 255 hp (15 more than the A6 TDI) and 413 ft-lbs. of torque (less than the A6, more than the Benz). No word – yet – on either 0-60 capability or MPGs.

One thing, though, that is known is that BMW will offer a manual six-speed transmission with the diesel. The Audi – and the Benz – both come with automatics only, though the A6 one-ups the E by coming standard with an eight speed automatic while the Mercedes has a mere seven forward speeds. The A6′s unit features standard and Sport modes, with an additional driver-selectable manual mode controlled via paddle shifters on the steering wheel.

As mentioned earlier, every A6 TDI comes with Quattro AWD. It’s optional on the rear-drive Benz. No word yet on whether the ’14 BMW 530d will be RWD or AWD (standard or optionally available).

ON THE ROAD

Cars – in general – are now so good overall that when one rises above the rest, it’s a real achievement.

The A6 TDI is such a one.

I can’t say enough in praise of the turbo-diesel engine. It’s an almost no-downside deal. Muscle car performance when you want to hustle. Off the line, it will literally snap your head back if you’re not ready for the bracket-racer thrust of all that torque. The mid-range is even better. A light downward pressure on the accelerator pedal and – like that – you are at 80. Or 90. Or a lot faster than that. And because the engine is a diesel, it hardly revs to get you there. It doesn’t need to. At 70 MPH in top-gear eighth, the RPMs are about 1,800 – a fast idle, really. This is why, incidentally, the TDI Audi is such a fuel miser on the highway. A gas engine would turning higher RPMs – and burning a lot more gas. Just look at the A6′s other engine – the 3.0 liter supercharged V-6: 18 city and 27 highway (and 5.2 seconds to 60).

The TDI turbo-diesel gives you almost the same acceleration potential – with the actuality of much better economy.

And, in real-world driving, the TDI’s power curve is arguably preferable. Yes, the supercharged gas V-6 will move the car down the line even more rapidly than the turbo-diesel. But, you’ll need to work it harder. Both its peak hp and its peak torque happen way up there in the RPM scale – relative to the TDI. It can be fun, no doubt, to spin a high-performance supercharged engine to the redline. But it’s nice to not have to – and enjoy very comparable forward momentum. Indeed, is it not the essence of luxury to move very rapidly with no apparent effort?

That’s what the TDI does.

And – at the time of this review – no one else does it better.

Or even close, for that matter.

AT THE CURB

Some people want a luxury car that bellows – look at me, I have a lot of money!

Audis speak more softly. There is a quiet, self-assured elegance about the A6′s exterior styling  that’s very appealing – to me, at least – in a world of often belligerent, nouveax riches garishness.

In fact, Audi has arguably taken over the slot formerly occupied by Jaguar as the brand for people who wanted a really nice car for its own sake, not to make an issue of it for the sake of other people.

But, these are subjective observations. Let’s consider some of the objective ones.

Audi – like BMW, like Benz – adopts a parking brake 180 when it comes to packaging a diesel version of a given model for the US vs. the European market. Over there, the diesel engine typically comes in the lower-trims, with less equipment – at a lower price – with the object being to make the car more affordable to buy as well as to drive. Over here, the diesel-powered version of a given car will typically come loaded – at or near the top-of-the-line – with the object being (apparently) to make the diesel engine more attractive to people who are not used to them – or who may have bad memories of them. You’ve got to keep in mind that – as a rule – the American experience with diesel powered passenger cars has been limited – and often, unpleasant. Noisy, smelly – and slow. No doubt this helps explain why my test car had TDI CLEAN DIESEL emblazoned in huge black and red lettering on each door.

And, no doubt, it explains why the A6 TDI comes with almost everything you can get in any A6 already included in the package – including all the stuff that comes in the 3.0T Premium Plus (18 inch wheels, LED headlight “underbrows,” HD radio with Audi’s Multi-Media INterface (MMI) mouse input, GPS with real-time Google earthview-topographical mapping (more on this in a moment), in-car Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, HD radio … well, you get the picture.

My test car had the

HE REST

THE BOTTOM LINE

xxx

Throw it in the Woods?