Audi RS6 review

While you weren’t looking, the Audi RS6 Avant became very expensive indeed. It’s a lot of car, sure, but £120,195 (up on the £111,570 launch price, note) is a lot of money. To give some perspective, a BMW M5 Touring starts around £115k, a Merc-AMG E53 Estate just shy of £100k, and a Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo creeps under £90k.

And according to the Audi UK website you don’t even get the delightfully dished 22-inch lightweight wheels as standard. They’re a £2,250 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 £129,145 at the time of writing. Here you do get the lovely rims, and matte black carbon bodywork elements, plus a suede headlining inside and carbon trim. But this is merely the mid-range RS6. You can go even glitzier, 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 £137,595. That’s more than what the (very excellent) entry-level R8 cost when it was still around.

Going for the Vorsprung adds a lengthy glass sunroof, clever 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 clever 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?

Predictably, the GT costs a heap more right?

Um, yes. Over fifty grand more than the RS6 Performance at £176,975. And while you get a choice of colours - white with orange and black, grey with black or black with grey - you've got to have the wrap.

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.