By Christopher A. Sawyer
The Virtual Driver

(August 28, 2016) These are two Audis I love. Which is a little funny when you consider that one is a VW Golf hatchback reconstituted as a four-door sedan, and which hews more closely to the Audi ethos than many of the brand’s higher priced offerings. But is it better than the Golf on which it is based? Let’s find out.



S6 4.0T quattro

This is a handsome car bristling with technology that carries an as-tested price of $80,775, and — after a look under the hood — is a vehicle I am glad I neither have to fix nor pay to have fixed. But that both is and isn’t the point.

If you can afford this car, you really don’t care about repair bills as you will probably have moved on to a new vehicle before the four year/50,000 mile warranty is up. And you likely will have paid extra to extend the free scheduled maintenance from the 12 month/5,000 miles offered as standard. Also, as a buyer in this league, it’s the very complexity that draws you to their car.

The twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 produces a heady 450 horsepower and 406 lb.-ft. of torque, and is mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox that sends power to all four wheels. Remember this for those times when you pop open the hood (casually pointing out the dual latches that hold it steady at a speed-limited 155 mph), and show your audience the tightly packed confines forward of the A-pillar. Then they can ooh and ahh as they gaze upon the various plastic covers that make the underwood area handsome but antiseptic.

If they need more, open the doors. There they will be accosted by the aromatic leather-covered everything, and the quilted centers of the S6 branded sport seats. Each stitch is perfect. Every panel lines up with the next with consistent, small gaps. The instrumentation is a combination of analog gauges at either end of the binnacle, separated by a large video screen. It displays a redundant digital speedometer and various other information or the navigation screen, and makes following the path chosen both easier and safer.

Use it once and you’ll begin to wonder why  there’s a navigation function available for the screen in the center stack. Unless your front seat passenger is inputting the destination information (unlikely), it’s both easier and, in use, safer to have that information displayed within the driver’s line of sight.

But this redundancy also speaks to the level of luxury you expect in this class of car. And the S6 is luxurious. However, it also is an accomplished driver’s car that can be used everyday. Want to go from 60 to 120 mph in much less time than it takes to read this sentence? This is your car. And it accomplishes this feat with a smoothness and equanimity you often don’t find in vehicles with this level of power. The exhaust note is muted, but not to the point of anonymity. There’s just enough of a V8 bellow to remind you that this is a refined but not tame mechanical creature.

The steering is direct, though the messages through the wheel are clear, though not sports car crisp. Part of this is due to the power being sent through the front wheels, which always dilutes feel, while the rest is massaged by the electromechanical power steering unit. Audi engineers must believe that, like a CEO, it’s best to let through only that information that is truly necessary for decision making, not everything that crosses the car’s path.

This editing extends to the ride, which is surprisingly comfortable for a sport sedan. The adaptive air suspension acts as a buffer between the road and the cabin, and — under most conditions — lessens the ride compromises that come with low-profile sport tires. That is, until you hit a pothole. This is the point at which you realize just how stiff the sidewalls have to be, and how little tire sits between the road and the wheel to cushion the blow. Almost immediately your thoughts turn to how expensive a new wheel and tires will be, but (unless this is a sizable pothole) your concern is unwarranted.

But this small imperfection aside, the S6 is an incredibly seductive machine. Tastefully appointed, impeccably built, shockingly quick and powerful, surprisingly frugal (18 city/27 highway/21 combined, number that are more than EPA fantasy) and handsome, the S6 quattro is all you could want in an all-weather sport sedan. But buy now. A new S6 is waiting in the wings, and it promises to be even more technologically advanced and expensive. Why wait when you can have your fun now?



A3 quattro

Speaking of having your fun now, there’s always Audi’s A3 for those just climbing the ladder. We’ve covered the A3 before, though in diesel form, and came away impressed by the small sedan. This time, however, we ditched the diesel and front-drive for the 2.0-liter turbocharged gasoline engine and all-wheel drive. And, as much as we like the instant torque and fuel mileage of a diesel, there’s nothing quite like a well-designed and developed turbocharged gasoline engine for those times when you can break away from the drudgery of stop-and-go traffic.

The inline four puts out 220 horsepower and 258 lb.-ft. of torque, the latter from 1,600 to 4,400 rpm. This flexibility makes the A3 a real point-and-squirt kind of car, while the quattro all-wheel drive shuffles enough power from the front to the rear to balance the chassis in corners while leaving the steering relatively uncorrupted. That’s not something you’d say as enthusiastically about the handling with front-wheel drive.

Yes, mechanically this is a VW Golf underneath the skin, and the front-drive Golf GTI is a perennial favorite for its grip, stability and feel. But shunting power to the rear does things all the technology in the world can’t: It aids balance and turn-in by putting power to the rear wheels, and gets both ends of the car working together. This is immediately noticeable through the steering wheel, and the seat of your pants. The car feels more planted, lively and capable. And even if you don’t push the car hard every time, there’s also the added benefit of all-wheel drive in inclement weather, though a good set of winter tires will give a front-drive vehicle surprisingly good traction in the snow.

So the question you have to ask yourself is, “Does the addition of all-wheel drive justify the difference in price? A better question might be, what else can you do with the $41,900 (as tested) you’d spend on this car?



VW Golf R

How about this? For less than the cost of the A3 quattro tested above, you can have a Golf R. It comes with all-wheel drive and the 292 hp/280 lb.-ft. turbocharged four you’d have to pay much more to get in the Audi S3. And, like its less powerful brother, that torque peak is available from 1,900 to 5,300 rpm, making this a very flexible powerplant. Also, you can order the Golf R with a six-speed manual gearbox, something you can’t do on the S3.

There are a couple of problems, though. First, the Golf R is based on a VW Golf, looks like a VW Golf, and carries a large VW badge in the center of the grille, just like any other Golf. It does not have the more socially acceptable four interlinked rings on the nose or tail. Second, though the interior is arguably the best in its class, it is not the minimalist mini-luxury car cabin of the A3. And, as some in the auto industry like to say, people in the luxury class don’t want to ride in the same cabin as the luggage. (Unless they order an A3 hatchback, apparently.) So the sedan profile carries extra cachet.

On the other hand, you get an S3 for the price of an A3 quattro. That means incredible performance, a blissful ability to devour corners, and incredible confidence at speed. You also get a gnawing desire to buy a race track where you can use this capability as the Golf R feels wasted in the daily commute or getting groceries. And whereas you can impress your friends and coworkers with the A3, only the cognoscenti will appreciate the fact that the Golf R is more than just a hot GTI…. or a Volkswagen.

The Golf R is a marvelous machine that can do the day-to-day while also being capable of stringing corners together. It gets surprisingly good fuel mileage — 23 city/30 highway/25 combined, and a real world 24 mpg in mixed driving — seats four in comfort and five in a pinch, and has the utility of a folding rear seat and hatch. Which means you can buy it for its performance, and justify the purchase by using it as your everyday transport.

What you can’t do, however, is tap into the snob appeal the Audi carries. And, with the overabundance of performance available under most circumstances, the A3 quattro might be the better choice for the majority of buyers.

The Virtual Driver