A6 Buyer's Remorse?

[Gary Mayne <Gary.Mayne@mci.com>]

New to the list with a new 98' A6 Quattro purchased one month ago
today, the Torsen thread has me wondering if I should feel a little
buyer's remorse. I have to admit, coming out of a 93' 325i, I am still
not sure how to drive the Quattro and I appreciated the recent comment
that it takes 3 months to get comfortable driving a new car. This is
sure true with a Quattro.

The new A6 is of course wonderful. I knew I had to have one when I saw
the first pics last summer. My biggest disappointment was the color
selection: according to the salesmen, Audi has discontinued pearl and
silver on the A6, something to do with Audi not being happy with the
way the paint looked on the new A6 body, so I settled for what they
call "melange", the light metallic cashmere color so generic on luxury
cars today. What has happened to pearl on the A6?

The reviewers have been somewhat uniform in condemning the new A6's
lack of power and soft ride. Having driven a 97' A6 recently I would
agree with these criticisms. However everything else is damn near
perfect and I am still sneaking out to the garage at night just to
admire the thing and make sure it is real and not a dream.

One thing for sure: while the technical arguments of the Torsen
thread are a bit beyond me at this point, I did get to drive the new
A6 in a late Colorado spring snowstorm and it's performance amazed me.
Clearly superior to my 325i which would have been all over the road
even with Blizzaks all around. I was probably the only car out that
sloppy night for a joy ride.

Gary Mayne