Re: Edmund's Review of A6

[Tom Nas <tnas@euronet.nl>]

John Allred <jallred@rtimeinc.com> wrote:

>At the bottom of the review, they said:
>"For this car to seriously challenge BMWís 5-series in the United States,
>three things must happen: a manual transmission must be made available to
>the enthusiast driver, the price of the base car must fall, and a V-8 model
>must be offered in showrooms. Only then will Audi have a chance at beating
>the masters in Munich."

>This echoes what several of us have been saying here -- Audi of America,
>listen up:  if you want to compete with BMW, get off your fat posteriors
>and bring the new S6 (and S4) to the States.

Something else was mentioned in about every review I saw or read here. It
was always compared to the 5-series, and everyone mentioned that the
5-series is more sporting. The consensus seemed to be that the A6 lacked
feel in its over-light steering and that the suspension was too soft for
enthusiastic driving- something which IMHO is a common ailment of all
bread-and-butter Audis.

I'd be interested to see what the reviews will be like when the sportier
models with beefed-up suspension enter the market.

Note- when I last test-drove a new Audi (A4 Avant), I mentioned to the
sales guy that I found it too wallowy to be fun on twisty roads. He
mentioned the (very cheap) sports suspension available, and even tried to
locate a car fitted with it for me to test drive. There was only _one_ in
the country- a 30v 2.8q at the importer's.
It seems that Audi's very successful here in the 'luxury car' market, where
people mostly don't care about suspension as long as it's comfortable. If I
ever buy a new Audi (not with my own money I won't!) I'd rather have sports
suspension than a nice stereo- and that's saying something coming from an
audio nut...

Tom

PS Did anyone else watch last Thursday's Top Gear? The 'car of the year'
stuff was fun, but the invitation to join the team as a journo made me
drool badly...

 _______________________________________________________________________
 Tom Nas                                          Zeist, The Netherlands
 tnas@euronet.nl

    They all laughed at Albert Einstein. They all laughed at Columbus.
          Unfortunately, they also all laughed at Bozo the Clown.
                                      -- William H. Jefferys