Audi RS6 Avant review

Cars like the C6-generation A6 built Audi’s interior reputation as the standard-setter of the German big three and beyond. Around this sort of time, Porsches were too plasticky, BMWs seemed to be trimmed in hides from an elderly rhino and Mercedes will still deeply in a ‘frumpy with a side of polished wood please vicar’ phase.

Audis had the crisp click from the buttons, a driver-orientated but still welcoming architecture, neat dials (which do the trademark needle sweep when turned on) and a deep sense of material solidity. Put simply, it’s a lovely place to be – a credit to the separate production line Audi turned RS6s out from in Neckarsulm, south-west Germany.

RS6s with the bucket seats are seen as more desirable now, but in truth they’re not super figure-hugging and have been known to make the RS6 more attractive to thieves.

The driving position is loftier than we’re used to these days, and of course the infotainment screen is quaintly dated – forget CarPlay, you’ll struggle to even plug your phone in at all. But there’s also a refreshing sense of maturity in here – that this is how Audis were designed and built when grown-ups were in charge, before the era of screens, capacitive buttons, cost-cutting and homogenisation. So much knurling!

And what about practicality?

The rear seats are big enough for the children both when they’re growing up and after they move home and sponge off mum and dad. The boot offers a massive 565 litres of space with over 1,600 available once the rear seats are folded not-quite flat.

If you’re in the market check to see if your car had the load management system – the floor-inset rails wand sliding, detachable luggage fences are very useful when you’ve got 572bhp shifting your shopping all over the cargo bay.