Audi RS6 review

While you weren’t looking, the Audi RS6 Avant got very expensive indeed. It’s a lot of car, sure, but £111,570 is a lot of money. And according to the Audi UK website you don’t even get the delightfully dished 22-inch lightweight wheels as standard. They’re a £2,200 option on the ‘base’ car, which gets matrix LED headlights and the sports exhaust as standard. 

The next version is the Carbon Black, which costs a mighty £120,520 at the time of writing (summer 2023). Here you do get the lovely rims, and matt black carbon bodywork elements, plus a suede headlining inside and carbon trim. But this is merely the mid-range, chicken Balti of RS6s. you can go even tartier, if you must. 

And top of the range?

For ultimate RS6-watchers, there’s the Carbon Vorsprung edition, which will set you back an eye-watering £128,970. That’s not much less than the (very excellent) entry-level R8 supercar.

Going for the Vorsprung adds a lengthy glass sunroof, cleverer cross-linked hydraulic dampers without anti-roll bars which aid everyday comfort (less vital now the wheels are so much lighter) and the Tour and City Assist packs. Which basically means cleverer cruise control that’ll mostly take over driving while in stop-start traffic, though you still need to keep your hands on the steering wheel. And when was the last time anyone actually used a self-parking aid in real life, really?

What about fuelling it?

Yes, running costs must be factored in as well. Audi claims 22.4mpg and 286g/km, which is pretty realistic, in our testing. Maybe reckon on 19mpg if you’re using the Performance’s, well, you know, on the regular.

Despite the new RS6 having 48-volt ‘hybrid’ boost to aid its stop-start programme, this is by no means a fuel-sipping electrified car. Audi says the engine will switch off at anything up to 13mph, but we never noticed that being possible when coasting about town.