2026 Audi A6 Premium Plus

All right. Welcome to the Talking Cars podcast. I'm Alex and Isaac. I'm Ryan Piotlowski.

And I'm Jeff Bartlett. All right. So Jeff, you are the managing editor for Cars. You've been

with CR for over 20 years and you're joining us on the podcast, which is awesome. So yeah, welcome.

And today we're going to be talking about the 2026 Audi A6. We bought a premium plus for our test

program. And here's what you need to know about it. This has been, you know, Audi's longstanding

midsize luxury stand just redesigned. So full new generation. It competes primarily with the BMW

5 series and the Mercedes E-Class. There's other vehicles out there too, but those are really

direct competitors. And I think what we're probably most excited about here is it comes

standard with a turbo V6, which is pretty cool. The other two cars I mentioned do not.

So Jeff, I'm going to start with you. What did you like most about the A6?

Well, I think you kicked it off right there. It's really a powertrain vehicle. That turbo V6

defines the character of it. It's all about that performance, the smoothness. Almost anything

else you describe about the car almost comes back to that each and every time. The engine is its

real stand out. Yeah, totally. Yeah. I'm just excited. They're still making sedans, to be honest.

And this is like German sedans. Yeah, it's got the right shape. The right proportion is just like

it's a sedan. Yeah, but the turbo V6 is nice. I mean, like you mentioned, the E-Class and the

5 series we had were four cylinders and they were nice four cylinders, but kind of V6 with turbo

on it. So yeah, this is a kind of a car I think you want to go on a road trip with, you know,

get in the highway and cruise. It's got its issues, of course, here and there, but in general,

I think, yeah, like that's exciting that they're still doing that. The downside of the engine,

though, is the fuel economy. So it gets only 23 miles per gallon compared to 25 before. Of course,

it's on premium. Who cares? Yeah, you get your black card and you swipe it regularly. But then

the other element is the transmission, where we had some kind of mixed experiences. Yeah. So,

you know, it comes with this seven speed dual clutch transmission and we see issues with dual

clutch transmissions in mainstream cars. Yeah, the classic low speed stuff. I don't hate it as much

as it has issues. I'm not going to say it doesn't, but my goodness, once you get up to speed and

you're driving it in a little 40 manner, it shifts nicely. Yeah, this car is all about the fact for

me and we'll get into some of the other stuff when we talk about maybe things we didn't like so much.

Low speed is not where it shines, but you get it out on the highway, you start cruising and it

just starts gliding over bumps in terms of ride comfort and things like that. The engine is

really good at high speeds and transmission, all that stuff. It just really felt at home when you

were doing miles on the highway, right? Yeah, much more enjoyable driving distance than around town

for that very reason. Just all the special elements of the car that come to life at speed,

especially when you put it in sport mode. Yeah, sport mode helps, keeps the RPMs a little higher

gear changes are a little crisp. Yeah, and the dual clutches lend themselves to that,

that sportierness. I will say, I was on the A5 over the weekend, the past weekend,

you can get in both of those cars and from the inside out, you don't know the difference.

And that's a little bit upsetting, I think. It's just the interior lackluster is what I'm getting

at. Yeah, for that kind of money. What kind of money? What do we pay for that? 73 for us?

Yeah, that's like luxury SUV money, certainly. Yeah, I mean, the interior to me felt well

assembled as Audi's tend to be, but maybe not the best material choice, not the most interesting

to look at. It's just lackluster. Yeah. It's just kind of in the A5's way, but the A5's a bit less

money and it's supposed to be like a tear down or whatever, right? Right. This is their premium

sedan. I think they missed a point there, I think a little bit. Well, and one of the key points is

the use of the black plastic. Yeah, that's exactly what we're talking about.

Detest in cheap cars. And this is just mind blowing with the reflections and the propensity

to scratch. The interior looked a little more traditional to me than Mercedes and BMW which

have gone sci-fi with big screens and so much interior lighting. This doesn't go quite to

that extreme, but then just lose it on such a simple thing. Yeah, like the easiest thing.

They did the steering as well. I thought the steering was pretty good. It rides well. I mean,

it gets a little, some larger impact can come through, but in the powertrain we just talked

about it's great. I think it's the most enjoyable to drive out of the three cars here, right? In

terms of steering, it just, I don't know, you probably wouldn't traditionally say this, right?

We're talking about BMW by comparison, but it feels like the most driver focused of the three.

In my opinion, I don't know what you guys think. I thought the Mercedes had the better steering

of all of them. It had different, it had the summer tires on it, which kind of doesn't have a story,

but yeah, the BMW, the driving machine, right? Not in this case. Yeah, this was much more,

so I would say. And then they put that motor in there and that gets you going. You know,

that gets your excitement going. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, the engine, it really does,

like you said, Jeff, come back to that every time, like the turbo aspect of it, right? And

they actually have the turbo in the valley of the engine, right? So like, just, it responds

really quickly. If you just ignore the transmission for a second at low speeds, of course. Yeah. But

yeah, it, I wish I heard it more, not gonna lie. That was when I got into it, I was like, oh, sweet,

V6 compared to the other two, this is going to be great. Speaking of hearing it though,

probably the right choice, but it is quiet. Super quiet. Super, super quiet. I was, I was

impressed with that. I mean, these should, it should be all three of them are and should be,

but this thing is quiet, impressive, which adds to the gives you a little more of that

luxury feeling or that what you paid for, right? When you shut the door and it's like, oh, okay,

I'm in something solid, you know, that's a good thing. But the wind noise was, and I think,

you know, we're talking sedans here. So you just have less frontal area than a SUV. So it just is

moving less air. Right. And I don't know, I just really appreciate that. You're not getting any

weird like whistling or turbulent sounds over here or whatever it might be, but it just adds

again to that, it's a great highway cruiser aspect to it, right? Visibility, I found it to be

really good. And again, I think simple sedan, simple styling really lended itself to that.

What'd you guys think? Yeah, I agree. However, I will say the couple cars I've,

lower cars I've been driving lately, there's a lot of snow here and there's no banks everywhere.

And I have like anxiety because I can't see over and I'm driving, I've been driving a tire test

truck for tire testing, breaking the tires. So I've been up high and now I'm getting these cars

and I love being in a car, but I'm also like, you get used to being up in the air. It's like,

but aside from that, yeah, you can see out the rear windows, nice and big side windows,

you can see up over the hood. Well, driving position in the car is great for me. So yeah, yeah.

Yeah, the inherent design helps, especially with the fairly thin pillars for this type of car.

Yeah, definitely. Don't really expect that. But yeah, I kept coming back on a lot of the

kind of critical items of it, thinking, why if this was an SUV?

Oh, he's been swayed by the SUV. Yeah. But this car is really a turning point for me,

where I kept thinking, is this as luxurious as I expect? Well, I'm like a little more elbow

room. I'd like a little more visibility, which is seeing over snowbags. And I hate to admit it,

but as I'm looking at the low sales figures for it, and I'm thinking of my own personal

bias, which is just now developing. Well, geez, for $73,000, I could buy a pretty nice SUV,

and then it's easier to get in and out of, got a little more elbow room,

it addresses some of those things. Yeah, I mean, I mentioned earlier, I love that they're still

making these German sedans, or any sedans, right? But yeah, you've got to be someone

of an enthusiast, because you could just go get a really nice SUV that you can see it better out

of rides better, maybe. You know, it does other things better. Yeah, you're not getting into this

by mistake. Yeah, right. This is sort of like an enthusiast thing a little bit in a way. Like,

this is like our new sports car, maybe? I don't know. What is that? I don't know. Yeah. Well,

and I think it speaks to their strategy a little bit here, right? They're just offering

everything for everyone in some way, right? I mean, you got the A6 each. I mean, we have

how many Audi's around the garage right now that they're redesigning, right? And so, they've got

the EV version, if you want that in both sedan and SUV and gas and all that stuff, right? So,

I don't know, maybe the Q7 as it rolls into the shop, probably sooner, right? Well, that's

why I kept thinking over, we just drove the Q5. But yeah, I think you made a good point, right?

This is becoming more of a niche product, more tailored towards something, which makes

the idea of like focus on performance and power train smoothness. You pick some attributes that

can shine on that maybe an SUV can't, and that's where you'll find the audience. Yeah, definitely.

Yeah, it doesn't necessarily have to be everything to everyone in the way that,

of course, you know, SUVs are kind of filling that spot, right?

Well, that would be boring. We'd have just one car for sale with everything, right?

So, it's kind of nice to still see this stuff. Seats, I've found to be,

Audi definitely tends to have a nicer seat, as you would expect, right? $75,000 car, right?

So, just configurable, comfortable, firm at first, but again, long distance

found to be, it held up for me. I don't know what you guys experienced, but yeah.

Yeah, and Germans are always known for having seats that are a little bit firmer,

with the idea of that it'll support your body over a longer period of time. They're really soft.

You tend to sink in and it causes postural problems. I found this really comfortable.

It accommodated my frame and the way I sit in it, at least up front. The back I was less

enamored with. Yeah, yeah, I can't really argue there. So, all right, so we're going to move

into what we don't like, but before we do that, we haven't talked at all about controls, which

is kind of indicative of where we're going, but before we get to the negatives of it,

are there any positives that we found with the controls? I mean, there's some physical stuff

left here, maybe not a lot, but there are some things left in this car. Yeah, not a lot.

The shifter was okay. Yeah, the shifter's not bad, but yeah. I struggle with controls these

days. I mean, they overcomplicate these cars. It's got four window switches, at least.

Yeah, that's good. No, it's just, but it's a car that, for me, it's about driving, right?

Like, if this was an SUV, it's like, now the controls matter more. They don't matter as much

to me just because I'm driving the car. I want to enjoy that part of it, but it's still like,

why are we overcomplicating these things? Yeah, no, and that's fair. Sometimes it seems like,

just because they can. With this focus on just larger and larger screens, there's so many things

hidden in there that you have to chase down. But to me, at least among its peers, the screens were

one of the more positive things because I favor a car that has a more traditional looking dash,

whereas some of the ones we've been driving recently, they're just a screen all the way

across like it's a billboard. So this felt a little more designed, and also that center

infotainment screen was close, so it was very easy to reach and read. So that was helpful,

of course, interacting with it. That's a different topic. Yeah, it's responsive,

it feels high quality, and it's response and the graphics, all this stuff. And yeah,

they still use a pretty simple black background, good contrast, right? So you can see the stuff,

right? Maybe it's a little cluttered, right? With all the graphics and information and buttons and

all that stuff. But yeah, all right, so let's go into what we don't like and maybe the rest of

the controls are somewhere to start. But Ryan, I guess I already touched on it. The interior is

just lackluster, a lot of black plastics for this price. And like I said earlier, literally in the

IA5, like if you were in both cars, you were just teleported into each one, you wouldn't know which

one you were in, I don't think. They signed something. There's nothing that makes distinguishes

the A6 or something better than that. So it's kind of a letdown for me, but you can look past it

eventually. I didn't pay for the car, so maybe that's why it's easier. I mean, if you're coming

from your, maybe you're an Audi customer already, you're coming from your older one,

you're getting into, you're just upgrading your A6, like you're probably going to be happy. But

yeah, I think yeah, you're right. Like if that A6 customer wanders into an A5 or a Q5 in the

showroom of like, wait, hang on, this is the same thing. It's the same thing. Yeah, I get they're

going to carry over some parts, but it's just, this should, I just thought there should be a

little more frill in there just because that much money is an A6. Like it's their premium. Yeah.

So yeah. I think the design would be pretty striking to a previous A6 owner in terms of

exactly. Yeah, these cars like their peers have gone from, you know, very conventional

setups and with the German luxury sedans, pretty business-like and kind of, you know,

mannered and serious to now it's more like a kid's iPad with those screens everywhere and just

a little less special. Yeah, everybody can do two big screens now, right? So it doesn't distinguish

you and they are. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And it's the execution ultimately of the controls that

make the difference. And to me, in this, it felt like there were too many operations I was trying

to do where I would start something like, say, making a climate change. I know just where on

the screen I'm looking, I'm back to driving, and then I want the next step, which may be adjusting

a fan or, you know, seats or whatever. Yeah. To be in a similar area on the screen and it's not.

Yeah. So you're kind of poking around and chasing it, which takes your eyes off the road and with

this car, I mean, you want to focus on the driving, not the playing with the iPad.

Yeah, absolutely. And they've got touch-capacitive controls in a few places, right? The volume is

a slider on the steering wheel, which, full disclosure, at the time of this recording,

they announced that they are going to make some changes to a lot of these Audi models. I think

one of those is a volume roller on the steering wheel. Thankfully. They had the perfect, it was

a roller back in the day. Remember that? Well, not back in the day, it was no longer, I guess.

The roller, it's like, what's wrong with that? It's perfect. Nothing. Like Mercedes has that

slider. I despise it. I can't stand it. I have a big thumb. It does not work. Okay. It's just not

a place or anything like that. Or it will show nothing to blasting your eardrums out. You know,

it's totally, you just can't control it well. It's like, why, why? I don't know. Yeah, it kept,

you know, driving the car, hands on the wheel, go figure and having the volume

muted or whatever and you make a turn and then all of a sudden you're trying to have a conversation

and then there's music happening and you're just like, this is not it. You know, I guess you could

bump the roller, but the roller is easy to just pull back or like get back in, you know. It had

detents. It would roll. It was like, what's wrong with that? I don't know. Yeah. Then you got the,

all the controls on the door, which is not unique to day six. They're putting in all the

outdies, right? But that they're combining like headlights and mirror controls, memory seats,

and other stuff too. I'm probably not remembering, but it's just a lot packed into that one thing,

you know, down there on the door. And you really have to look to the side to see it.

Yeah. Yeah. Only look down under the wheel a little bit. The closer things are to your

regular field of view, the easier and safer it is. Right. Right. The black plastic, not to harp

on it too much, but it just makes me laugh. Like everybody else has kind of moved on, it feels like,

and for some reason, I don't know, Audi's got a warehouse full of it. But the one in front of

the passenger, right? Because you can get a passenger screen in a lot of these cars and we

did not. It feels like the 2026 version of a blank switch. It's just like, yeah, right there in your

huge thing of black plastic. It's kind of crazy. Instant regret. Yeah. I will say the black plastic

is trimmed well. Like it's like put together well, put in there well, but it's like it's still,

it could have been something else, right? Different material. I mean, you look at the,

like, well, the Mercedes, the interior, that was beautiful, right? They're classic for that.

They have a whole other slew of issues, but the BMW, but like they just,

didn't they benchmark these together? Just be like, well, we got to step this up a little bit.

They didn't seem like they did that. Yeah. Some other small things that I didn't necessarily get

along with too well is like the storage in the inside. It never quite felt like I had the right

place to put stuff. I mean, there's cup holders and whatever, but like the center console is

adjustable, for example, right? For the height, which is great, but that's really your only covered

storage place. So you're just dealing with the latch every time you want to put something in

and out. And it's small. So I don't know, just not a dealer, but not the best.

Yeah. No, I agree. And that has, that armrest stays up, like it.

Yeah. Which that in and of itself, you know, I'm here for, but.

Yeah. But, but like if you put your wallet or something in there and you leave, that thing

stays up, right? You can see through the side of it. So it's like it's not private anymore,

kind of a thing, which I don't, like the A5 has that. And it's like, because I would get

by myself putting it all the way down when I get out, because I like to have it up a little bit,

because it's kind of like sloped down a little bit. So yeah, I agree with you on that. I mean,

but going back, I mean, there was no time when there was like almost no, no storage in these

things. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Germans.

I filed this under, yeah, it's no SUV.

All right. So Jeff will be on the, the next Audi SUV podcast, whatever it is.

I'll be completely overwhelmed by that. There'll be no negative section.

Around the coups. We were talking about, I really were talking about ride a little bit.

I'll say, I think it was, in general, the body control is great. It's very steady. Stay steady,

but naturally it's got, you know, it's a lower profile, sportier tires on it, and it does,

some impact will crash into the car a little bit. Yeah. Not bad, but, and the car still feels

really nice and solid when it does happen, but I think it kind of just comes with the territory.

It's a little bit sportier in a car, so. Right. It's one of your expectations.

Yeah. Right. Yeah. Exactly. Do you want a cushy cruiser? Do you want a Buick or do you want a,

you know, a European sports sedan that's really engaging and that you can talk your wife into

getting is a sensible choice and go out and enjoy it instead of having a sports car. That's all

how you look at it. I guess, yeah, this is something I don't like. I think they blended

that fairly well. Yeah. I think it was just the, for me, it was a slower speed. If I'm hitting

like a pothole driving around town, that's where I was like, whoa, okay. Sure. That's where I went.

You know, which, you know, not too unexpected, but yeah, oddly enough, the five series I think

is probably the cushiest, at least at least. Yeah. Which is different. This exhaust was

the kind of sporty. This was like a weird flip flop there. Yeah. Yeah. A little bit.

So the transmission, we talked about it a little bit, but maybe come back to that because it's not

perfect, right? Good at speed. Nothing's not so much at low speeds, right? Yeah. Just low speed

clunks here and there, that, you know, that jerkiness that it's engaging the clutches. I mean,

there's literally some mechanics are happening, right? So, but I tell you what, once you get moving,

it shifts like, it just glides right along. It bangs into gear like nicely. It's great. I like

that. I've always been not so hard on dual clutches because they do have that sportiness to them.

Sure. So. Yeah, there's a little hesitation at low speeds. Yeah. In a way, it almost feels

like it's the car conveying. Yeah, this really isn't my thing. You want to run to the grocery

store, take your other car. You want to go out on the highway, have some really, you know,

fun miles, hit some curvy roads. Yeah. Put me in sport mode. Let's have a great time.

That being said, though, I mean, we have had, we've had BMWs in the past that were not dual

clutch. I forget what the name of that transmission is, but this sport is, yeah, this super sporty,

like it doesn't have the low, it's a normal tradition, transmission. So it doesn't have the

low speed, you know, clunks or whatnot. And then it's perfect up like. Yeah, the five series we're

talking about. So we know it's possible. We know it's possible out there. Yeah, it's just wonderful

usually you'll see all else the same of some kind of fuel economy benefit,

perhaps going for the DCT. Yeah. So that's not in this one. Yeah, it's a weird choice,

but they're putting it in all their models, right? Even the Q5 has got a DCT in it. So

it makes more sense maybe in some of their models than it does in others, but maybe there's some

kind of connection. If they bought a, just a volume of transmissions, they get all the black

plastic they want for free. Maybe it's some scalability thing. It's gotta be. I think we're

onto something. All right. And then I think, you know, the last thing that, that I'll say is just,

and maybe it's seemingly obvious, but just access, right? And, and I think a little bit in the rear

seat too, getting in and out to low car. And then for me, these mid-sized sedans, five series

E-class, this thing, I guess I would expect maybe naturally to have more space in the rear seat.

And that's just not necessarily the case. It's, they're a bigger car, but it's not,

you're not getting this limousine like experience in the middle.

No, you got to go up another model. Yeah, right. So, yeah, it's funny, you mentioned the access,

like there was a time when we were used, this, these were good, great access cars,

because that was normal. There was no SUVs. We're used to SUVs. The bars appear now for access.

And that's just the nature of the bees too. You're not wrong. Yeah. But yeah,

it's got the duck down a little bit and crawl into it, but it's not terrible.

It is a fair bit of compromise for the price. And I get, you know, kind of our expectations

evolve over time. But getting in, the rear doors don't open quite as wide as you might like,

the footpath. And so, you know, as you step in, you know, how you navigate your,

your boot around the seat and tuck it in is a little tricky. You got a duck, you know.

I was surprised at how much I had to bend and kind of contort to get inside.

And in a way, thinking back to my SUV comment, you kind of size up, like, oh, I don't want to,

you know, I know they don't make the A4 anymore. But when they did, I don't want an A4 and I don't

want any, I want something bigger because I need all the space and so forth. And then you don't get

it. So it kind of renders it, is this for a family, you know, a couple of adults in the front,

a couple of kids in the back, or you running out with your coworkers at lunch and just going,

I'm sorry. Yeah, I should have gotten an A8.

Slide this front seat up a little bit. Yeah, we're not talking the back seat of a

Mustang or anything like that. Your head's bouncing off the glass, but it's,

it is a smaller space than you might expect, right? But I think it goes to the sense that

with so many great SUV options out there, like we're saying, you're not getting into

this car by accident. So you got to kind of want it. But if you do, for the most part,

you're ending up with something that's, that's pretty nice and good driving car.

And ultimately the key for any car buyer is to know what you want and then make sure you're

getting it. For some people, this is going to be absolutely the right thing. But raising some

of these concerns, I think may have you thinking, well, there might be other choices.

And we can help you find those choices. There are other choices.

So we're going to move on to audience questions. And of course, you can submit your own questions

to TalkingCars at iCloud.com. And today we have a question from Elliot and he's writing from

Annandale, Virginia. And he says, I have a 2014 Prius V with 103,000 miles I bought used about 10

years ago. Last summer, I used the Dr Prius app to check the battery state 62% of capacity.

The mileage is falling off as the engine runs around 40 MPG in 65 to 90 degree temperatures,

a bit over 30 miles per gallon in winter weather and gets driven about 8,000 miles a year at the

most. The question, is there a battery state rule of thumb for when one should either trade for a

hybrid vehicle or dump a few thousand into a new battery, water pumps, new plugs, etc.

So great question. And we actually asked Mike Crossen, who you've certainly seen on this podcast

and here at CR, he's one of our master technicians here at CR. So we actually asked him and he

provided us with an awesome video answer to your question. So here he is.

It's for the great question, Elliot. You're definitely not alone. As Prius is and other

hybrids get older and get more mileage on them, the batteries can become a problem area. Generally

speaking, the Prius is very reliable. And I think if you do this repair correctly, it would make

sense. You definitely want to avoid the dealership in a brand new battery. That can be really pricey

and the numbers just don't work out. However, if you find a good quality remanufactured battery and

there's probably a specialist in your area that can handle this repair, it's not that big of a deal.

You can do this economically and get yourself back on the road and get the miles per gallon

that you expect. You can start putting some of that money back in your pocket. Before too long,

that repair could very well pay for itself. All right. So thanks, Mike. Very well said.

Anything else that you guys want to add to Mike's response here for Elliot? No, I think Mike

showed it pretty well. 103,000 miles is nowadays in a ton of miles. I mean, it's a lot of miles,

but that car could go another hundred easily. So depending on what your wallet wants to do,

don't be afraid. The battery is a big scary thing, I guess, but if not, it doesn't have to be. You

should do what Mike said, avoid a dealer and whatnot. So if you like the car, it might be worth it.

Yeah. A new car is expensive today. Very much so. Much more than the cost of refurbishing a battery.

One thing I'd add is it kind of underscores, while many people were concerned with hybrid

batteries or even EV batteries. How long will they last? How will this impact me?

One of the ways to reduce those stresses is to buy a reliable model and to choose something

that sells in a high volume. There's going to be a lot of support for Priuses out there.

Some other smaller seller cars, maybe not. Yeah. Yeah. And I guess the only thing I'll add into

the mix, totally agree with you guys. And Mike is just a new car. Things have progressed a lot,

right? In terms of safety, technology, the materials used, better in a crash, all that stuff. So

even if you're not going to use, even if you got something certified pre-owned or something like

that, getting into something newer that's not 12 years old. Again, just depending on how you're

using the car or putting your family in it, that type of thing. Just something to consider.

But it doesn't sound like this vehicle goes too, too many miles in a year.

So that'll do it for this episode. Once again, send your questions to talkingcarsaticloud.com

and we will see you next week.

2026 Audi A6 Premium Plus

About this episode

Audi A6

BMW 5 Series

Mercedes-Benz Eclass

turbo V6

powertrain

dual clutch transmission

sport mode

dual clutches

Audi A5

BMW

summer tires

Renault Wind

Lucid Air

electric vehicle (EV)

Audi Q7

Audi Q5

touch-capacitive controls

volume roller

black plastic

body control

sportier tires

European sports sedan

DCT

Audi A4

Audi A8

Ford Mustang

Toyota Prius

Dr Prius app

battery state of charge

hybrid vehicle

Request an Explanation

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