jyang7788

Hi all,

I am happy to have rejoined the Audi A6 family after previously owning a C6 A6 3.2 and most recently a BMW 335xi. I also spent some time with a Range Rover Sport, but let's not talk about that one...

Anyway, I just took delivery of a CPO quartz gray 2014 A6 3.0T Premium Plus with Sport package, 20" wheels, and driver assistance package. I cross shopped with the W212 E350, new W213 E300, and F10 535xi. Just wanted to share some thoughts and also had a couple of quick intro questions I was hoping someone could help with.

Engine: I love this 3.0T, it is extremely smooth and plenty powerful. Having owned the inline 6 3.0L turbo from the 335, I have to say that the Audi engine is even smoother, compared to either the 3 series or 5 series application. The E350 was nice and also smooth but the car felt definitely slower and the E300's 4 cylinder was nowhere near as refined, but had some pep to it if you really step on it.

Transmission: ZF 8 speed, if i am not mistaken, smooth just like in my previous 335. The mercedes 9 speed is interesting, but I felt it lagged a slight bit as it "hunted" for the right gear to jump into.

Steering: Way too light, even in dynamic mode. Easy when parking, but I definitely feel disconnected. The Mercedes steering was also light, but I felt like I had some more feel. BMW remains the best of the 3, but is nothing compared to their older cars (have driven E60, E90, E46).

Handling: Pretty great with the sport pack and 20" wheels, very competent and inspires confidence in the bends. I would say that it is pretty good compared to my M-sport 335xi, particularly given the larger size. The E classes, and F10 were both quite floaty-boaty, although I hear with the adaptive dampers on the F10, this can be improved.

Ride: I would say that with the 20" wheels and sport pack, it is probably comparable to my M-sport 335 with 18" wheels when it comes to potholes and uneven surfaces, but on smooth roads, the longer wheelbase definitely leads to a better ride. The E classes and F10 were, again, more comfortable and softer.

Exterior: I loved my C6, and I love this C7, classic looks that stand the test of time. In fact, I see some C6s once in a while and they still look good to me. The W212 E class looks a bit strange post facelift, and the new one looks great to me in luxury trim as I like the traditional hood mounted star. The F10 is also quite timeless in my opinion. I think it comes down to personal preference 100%.

Interior: I do feel like some interior finishes and quality took a step down from the C6 but overall its a great layout and I am pretty comfortable. The seats could be better but so far I have no major complaints. I feel like the F10 had higher quality materials but the design is dark and quite boring. The W212 is pretty boring design wise, and while the W213 e class is amazing to look at, it just felt cheap. Contrary to what all the car reviewers have been saying, I think the new mercedes interiors are gorgeous, but the materials quality is quite terrible compared to other premium brands. They look high-end, but when you feel them or knock on them, everything felt fragile and hollow. Its a real shame as design wise, they look extremely good to me.

Tech: MMI has improved significantly since my C6 days, but I still think iDrive is a bit easier to use. COMAND is definitely the least user friendly interface amongst the 3, but the touch sensitive pads on the steering wheel on the new W213 was great. The touch pad on top of the normal scrolling wheel in the center console, however, was not. I felt like I had to contort my hand in an uncomfortable way in order to use the scroll-y wheel.

Driver assistance package is awesome! I enjoyed the ACC and will definitely never buy another car without it! Lane keep is fun as well, and makes long highway trips perhaps slightly better but I don't intend to use any of these systems in-town.

I am happy with my decision and look forward to many long years of happy driving with my new C7. That said, I've got a couple of questions for you guys:

1. Do all C7 A6's w/HID headlights have some sort of colored headlight glass? It almost feels like they're slightly tinted as mine are not yellow (like what you see in some older vehicles), it almost looks like there's a layer of yellowish grayish film on top. I asked the dealer and of course, they said that they were all like that, it's an A6 thing. Sure enough, browsing online, many other classified ads show cars with a similar "tint" to the headlight glass. In fact, I compared with a couple of new 2017 A6s on the lot with LEDs and those also seemed a bit darker than normal. Very strange, but it causes my xenon's to look more yellow vs white when looking directly at them...

2. I am experiencing longer cranks when the engine sits for longer than 3-4 hours. It's not absurdly long, but I think it's probably in the 2 "Mississippi" range. Not getting any CELs or anything, and the car seems to start up normally after. However, the crank is definitely longer than what I'm used to after my 335xi. Is this normal behavior? My C6 A6 had the 3.2 and it also cranked a bit longer sometimes, but it also had 75k+ miles vs 30k on this car.

3. I heard a bit of a metal clattering sound after starting this morning. It doesn't happen every time and seems like it only occurs if the car has been sitting for a while. It was very short in duration, unlike the much-feared clattering you got in the C6s which meant the tensioners were going...Any ideas what this may be?

4. Does anyone have any suggestions for a good winter setup? We don't get that much snow in Central PA but I'd still like to run something better than stock summer tires in the winter...I haven't decided if switching to 20" all seasons makes sense or getting a dedicated set of snows.

5. Aside from google maps and slow 3G wifi, is there any reason to sign up for Audi connect? I don't need either but was wondering if there were more features that are unlocked with this subscription.

Thanks in advance for the help!

dc2002

Get a freedompop sim card and after your first month downgrade to the totally free plan. You get 200mb/month which should be plenty for mild/moderate use.

I paid $2 with free shipping at the time...it works great...just can't use the audi connect app to send addresses to the car from my phone...for free data I can live with that...all other data functions work.

shadowcar

2015 CPO owner here.
1. My xexon's look white.
2. I've got 40K and crank is very normally very short.
3. Don't know, haven't heard anything like that.
4. I tried all-season Conti ExtremeContacts this winter as I'm in the same snowbelt as you and thought that I didn't really need dedicated snow tires. I'm extremely pleased with them in both dry and wet conditions and they were very good in moderate snow depths (6"). I've got 18" wheels, so you might have more issues in snow than I did.

I've got 1 1/2 years to go on the warranty and this is going to be a hard car to move on from, but I've learned my lesson about keeping German cars past their warranty period.

a44mark

2012 3.0T Prestige owner...

1. My xenon assemblies do have a tinted look to them. I'm assuming it's normal. I haven't really paid attention to whether it affects the light being cast
2. short crank time (1 sec). I've got almost 80k miles.
3. don't think I've heard a rattling sound at startup before
4. I have 18" OEM wheels, which I put snows on last winter (Michelin X-Ice). I just bought a set of aftermarket 20" wheels and put Conti DWS 06 on them. I might eventually go pure summer, but in Colorado we have such wild weather swings that it might be 80 one weekend and 4" of snow the next. The snow setup was amazing though.

FYI, I do my own maintenance and my A6 is 2 years out of warranty. No issues, so I plan to keep it a long time (had my '02 A4 for 12 years and almost 200k miles). My feelings might be different if I had a lot of initial issues...

-Mark

thephantom

Curiously, did you test drive a W212 Sport or Luxury? I had a Sport and it handled like a well planted tank - very solid. I got rid of it because the Sport pack was killing my back and neck. I also felt the interior is on the smaller side.

I have LED headlights and it does have a yellowish tint, which drives me nuts! The LED high beam is white, the driving lights are white, and the daytime running lights are white. The LED headlight in my W212 was awesomely white and bright.

I had my seatbelt tensioners replaced for they were noisy but partially non-functioning. When you start driving you'll notice the doors lock (if you opted in in MMI) and a squealing noise from the tensioners. It should lightly tug your seatbelts tight at the same time as the doors locking. W212 had a more noticeable tug, almost choking-like pull.

I did pay $199 for Audi Connect... It's OK. It give you unlimited data so I don't mind streaming music or a movie for my daughter. As of a couple of weeks ago, the send address to your car via Audi Connect function went down. It was down for a while and not sure if it's up again. Google map overlay is useless. I wish it had the street view feature. Weather info - useless. Local attractions - useless. Gas prices - useless. But $199 per year for unlimited data... Fair.

jyang7788

hmmm thanks! I'll look into this for sure since it's free, but it seems like the Audi Connect features are meh in general.

jyang7788

Thanks! Yea I think we live in an area where a good set of all seasons should be ok. But like you said, the 20" wheels may make that more difficult.

jyang7788

Thats exactly what I thought it was on my headlights...a thin layer of tint, which I know some people like to put onto their cars. Very weird decision for Audi to do it this way right out of the gate.

Since you also have the xenons, how noticeable is the adaptive feature? Coming out of BMW, which has a very noticeable turn when you turn the wheel, I can't reallly tell with the A6. I don't think it's malfunctioning since there is no headlamp error light but I literally can't tell if the lights move or not in the bends. Thinking back to my C6, the motion was also small but more noticeable, driving on the same roads.

As for tires, I'm tempted to throw on a set of good 20" all seasons but they're pretty pricey! I feel like I could get a set of 18" or 19" rims and winter tires for just a bit more.

jyang7788

I was testing the w212 and w213 in luxury trim, perhaps that is what caused the more floaty ride? I have read that the sport has a bit of a firmer suspension though.

Interesting on the LED headlights part, do your headlamp lens/glass look like they're slightly tinted? They do for some of us, which makes me wonder why they chose to do that. I'll try to get some pictures of it when it's nice out and I can get a good light to show the tinting effect or I'll try to find some on the internet classifieds.

hmmm, I'm usually alone driving so it's beginning to sound like the Audi connect features aren't super desirable and that I should be fine without it. I'll just keep using waze or google maps. Do wish we had apple CarPlay though, like in the new A4s.

fEArmE

For #3, check the thread below. There is a TSB for it. I have similar sound intermittently but not bothered by it.

https://www.audiworld.com/forums/a6-...atter-2907031/