Pulp Free

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to drive Audi’s new 2012 A6. I started poking around the thought of a new vehicle after spending a few years trying to make my way through some snow and ice packed winters. While unbelievably crazy fun in the summer, my 2009 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG reminded me every time there was even a mention of snow flurries in the forecast that it should stay in the garage. (And yes, I’m mindful that’s what I get with a rear-wheel drive. summer-performance tire setup in a sports sedan with over 500 horsepower. At the time I bought it, we hadn’t had snow in Saint Louis is mostly 5 years!)

Below you’ll find a few of my observations after a test drive in a Prestige optioned A6 with Innovation and 19″ Sport Packages…

Interior

I thought the seats were actually comfortable but a little “thin” – as I’ve heard others mention before – not sure how they would stand up in a long trip. Knowing that US customers can’t currently get any different seats the seats could be a lot worse. The heat was nice and the cooling ventilation in the seats was okay. I didn’t get the feeling that the ventilation seats were blowing against my back – just my seat bottom. While I haven’t been a fan of the S-type sport buckets, I was looking for a little bit more support by having the seats hang onto me a bit more in the corners. I seemed to slide around a bit more than expected and I wasn’t really driving all that sporty. Bonus was that I received the wife’s “thumbs up” on the seats. I’ve had other cars get the thumbs down just because of the seats.

I will say that getting in and out of the car seemed low and I felt that I was needing to step up and then out. The doors had oddly spaced detents in them so the door was either barely open (which I would keep scraping my shoes on the speaker grills) or really wide open (which in a parking scenario probably not very welcome). The back seats had a good amount of room and were just as comfortable even when the front seats were in a normal position. I expect the knee cutouts helped for those in the back.

The electronics are clearly the highlight of Audi’s recent updates to their lineup and left me really excited with what was available. Starting with the the night vision – clearly this cool feature worked exactly as advertised. I loved seeing it in the console dash LCD monitor between the tachometer and speedometer (called the DIS – Driver Information Display). I also tried out the active cruise control that uses radar and a camera to keep pace at a variable distance with the traffic in front of me – perfect in stop -and-go traffic along with cruising on the highway.  The lane departure technology components are limited in the US set of available options but do include blind spot detection. They’re quite useful in that LEDs in the mirror housing flash when the system detects vehicles in my blind spot. And depending on the traffic’s rate of approach, in the heads-up display as well. I’m glad to see that such technology is making it’s way into mainstream car markets – the experience was new to me. They work as expected and a welcome addition to actually turning my head and looking!

The new-to-Audi heads-up display (HUD) was really useful once I was able to get more than just the speed indicator to display. I managed to get the navigation’s turn-by-turn to display in there for a short while along with active cruise control and the side-assist notifications. Interestingly the map directions are visually displayed slightly different (the arrows and roads) than in the DIS – but still very useful. We have the HUD on our BMW X5 and the Audi system is much more colorful and graphically interesting. While just as useful in both, the X5 is mostly monochrome orange (I understand that some of the newer BMW 6-Series HUD are bring full-color to their HUD as well…) I’ve also read earlier comments on how ugly the actual HUD hardware is – essentially how it looks “added on” – but it wasn’t something I paid much attention to. The HUD mostly disappears from the drivers perspective but I did notice it from the side perspective, either from the passenger seat or simply entering or exiting the driver’s side door.

The Google navigation was cool to see as the terrain was scrolling by but I’m not sure how much better it is after seeing it in action for a few days. I’ve turned that pseudo-feature off in our BMW X5 as it was more distracting than helpful and didn’t have the tremendous amount of detail that the Audi system has. I really liked the weather, traffic, gas prices, and news – as long as I had good 3G coverage. We got out into some outlier areas that switched to 2G and it was terribly slow to the point of being almost useless. I don’t think that’s specifically a T-Mobile issue (the cellular carrier that Audi selected to power this feature) – just an issue with 2G Vs 3G service. The MMI system pulls up those online systems in something of a mini Web browser which I scrolled to view. The system didn’t seem to cache any of the content so every time I’d revisit the information screens I’d have to wait a few seconds for the page to fill in.

The rest of the MMI system was very responsive and I absolutely love the color DIS between the speedometer and tachometer. Brilliant and very useful – high resolution and very bright. The only gripe I have so far with the MMI system was that the turning of the selector knob seemed backwards. I really hope that have a preference the change that (I’ve heard that there isn’t… ugh…) I also found that the steering wheel controls for the selection of MMI content uses scroll wheels that also function as selection button. Every once in a while I’d go to make my selection and end up scrolling up or down one item just as I clicked it. Not a big deal as it may have been just getting used to the system.

Oddly, I noticed that the backup camera seemed to have very, very poor resolution. This was the same viewing I saw in the A7 – just fuzzy and pixelated. I’m guessing a low resolution camera – but a little annoyance seeing as other backup cameras I’ve seen from BMW and Mercedes look better. And seeing the rest of the content on the display is detailed and crisp including the playback of video – it doesn’t seem to be a screen resolution issue.

The last option to play with was the Bang & Olufsen sound system. I was really looking forward to having a go at listening to a $5900 option and was very pleased with the sound. However, I wouldn’t say I was blown away. My first test drive I used my wife’s iPhone to play back some music since I brought my demo music on a USB memory stick and the USB pigtail wasn’t included in the demo car. I did need to increase the bass & treble to get some semblance of punch and clarity from the system. I couldn’t spend a lot of time tweaking the volume and settings since my wife is not a fan of loud and/or bass heavy music. The second time around with the B&O I was able to get some of my own music played through the system and was definitely more impressed with the ability to reference music I was already familiar with. The natural request would be to compare it with the base sound system as well as the upgraded Bose option. Neither option was available in an A6 at the time I took my first and second test drives, however the dealer has since received more A6 demos with both options. In the meantime I did take a listen to showroom A8L with the optional Bose sound system and the B&O does sound quite a bit better to my ears. I would describe the B&O as having more stage presence, more aural excitement (without sounding processed) and essentially more clarity and separation throughout the full spectrum. The Bose seemed a little muffled but still had a decent low-end to it. Personally I’m not a fan of Bose systems in general and since in the end this is a car experience with all the road noise that goes along with it – it’ll be hard to tell if those listening tests translates well when I’m actually driving down the road.

Exterior

The demo car had the all-new full LED headlight package that includes Audi’s trademark LED daytime running lights (DRL). Notable in this package was that normal and high-beam headlights were LED as well (including the turn signals). Very cool to see in action as the turn signals are embedded within the swooped design of the DRL. It never got dark enough to actually use the LED headlights so I’ll save that feedback for a later review.

The car itself was with the dealer just a day or so and was a little dirty due to the thunderstorms previously in the day. I’d say that for the most part it really does have a lot of similarities with the outgoing 2011 Audi A6 – more than I had originally expected. There are some nice creases in the right places. The view from the front/side is better than the back side. Some reviews mention that the back looks a lot more “Volkswagen” and I’d tend to agree with that. It’s moving in the right direction – more A5 (which I like) but perhaps not dramatic enough (but better than the A7 treatment). Maybe if the tail lights were a little more stretched? Hard to say…

I like the idea of bigger wheels – this model had the 19” sport package and I have to say not a real fan of how busy the spokes on that package looked. Perhaps that will change later on as currently there aren’t a lot of choices in wheel selections. I really like the double-V 18” wheels so I’ll have to wait and see them in person. One thing I was happy to notice was the absence of the “booming” road noise that I felt and heard in the A7 which had the 20” sport wheel package. While I’m also a fan of summer performance tires – I absolutely detest them in winter driving with snow & ice (exactly why they’re called summer performance tires). At the same time, there’s no way I’m going to deal with swapping tires for the privilege. I may just go with all-season and be done with it. There’s way too many “discussions” on the merits of tires for me to add anything useful – but I am looking for convenience. More thinking needed on that on which way to go.

Mechanics

Engine and braking were pretty good. Both had a very smooth delivery and the bakes worked as expected. Not much noise, grunt or excitement – just driving at 60 mph with no real effort. The first time with the A6 it just felt like there wasn’t a lot of drama when dropping a few gears for passing maneuvers – it didn’t knock me in the back of my seat or punch me in the gut – but for highway driving, there’s plenty of power to get me where I need to go. The experience reminded me a lot of the BMW 335/535 in that sense. I might have been a little more aggressive in the road tests if I didn’t have passengers – I kept seeing my wife try and hold onto the door when I tried anything aggressive.

I’ve since gone back and took a second drive with the A6 using the “Dynamic” mode from the Audi “Drive Select” configuration and it was actually a different experience. I believe I was actually using Auto or Comfort first time around which may explain some of the more lackadaisical feeling of performance. The Drive Select allows the drive to modify the driving and handling characteristics such that throttle, transmission, and steering are all adjustable.

Handling was well controlled. I didn’t get the feeling of the front-end pushing at all. I can only refer back to my 300 HP Acura RL with SH-AWD that seemed to push out on hard corners – but not here. I wouldn’t say it was on rails or anything that dramatic – there’s not the sense of a completely flat turning experience – but still very well footed. There wasn’t an easy way to push the quattro all-wheel drive since it was mostly city driving and normal weather conditions. And when I did find myself with some twisting turns available, I started sliding in my seat.

Final Thoughts

In the beginning I thought I had all my configurations settled on before I even test drove the A6. Prestige, Innovation, 18” Sport Package (I just like those wheels better), the B&O and perhaps the Cold Weather Package. Now after driving it the first time I walked away with only one thought on my mind – “It’s really nice”. But it’s not like it blew me away. The second time around I was more pleased with the car and some of my expectations were starting to be met.

I will say that I struggled with this opinion of being “really nice” last year when I went on the lookout for an Audi S6 and test drove both an A6 and an S6. “Really nice” I said to myself again. I also thought that the price range for an 2011 A6 seemed to be a bit inflated for the available technology and performance. (Thinking back – it’s possible that the demo car was setup more for comfort than for performance…) But as I try to wean myself off my 2009 Mercedes E63, I’m wondering if my expectations continue to be inflated and I end up letting myself down. The reasons for looking at the A6 are mostly for the all-wheel drive, technology, comfort, fit and finish, and a little bit of uniqueness. I certainly didn’t say “whoa” with a grin on my face after the driving experience (and to be honest, I didn’t say the same after the S6). But I also am under no delusion that this compares to an AMG car.

Now towards the end of my decision process I have to consider if $15,000 in options makes the A6 fully loaded any better than the base A6. (Seriously – I have to love the German’s and their optioning of cars!) But now that I’ve built up my expectations on a fully loaded A6, I definitely need more time to think about the LED headlights, night vision, and the B&O sound system. And if those cool gadget items are removed – does the rest of the car still compete with what I’m looking for? We’ll see… right?

Well – it seems to be my lucky adventure since after putting these thoughts down, I’ve now custom ordered up my own A6 fully loaded! While ordered with the Moonlight Blue – I’m still vacillating on going with Garnet Red Pearl. More thoughts to come…

The sun was shining, the wind was blowing – yet still a slight chill in the air. It’s been a bit over three years since I’ve been acquainted with new Buddy and I’ve been having a slight new car twitch that’s been bugging me lately. This afternoon, I decided to do something about it. Time to head to a few car dealerships.

About 5 years ago I took the plunge and test drove about everything I could get my hands on – specifically around my price range of $30,000. BMW, Mercedes, Acura, Audi… Just to name a few. It was a good time to really see what was out there and to gauge how far my hard earned money would get me. At the time I ended up going with the new 2004 Acura TL and loved every minute of it. It had a beautiful shape to it, four-doors… Plenty of power and technology goodies galore! (I thank my TiVo for prompting me with one of the first user-selected ads to run for the introduction…)

Flash forward back up today and while I’ve graduated up to an Acura RL (and I’ve truly grown attached to Buddy and love how awesome of a “grandpa” car that it is) – I’m really wondering what else is out there. What’s new… What’s wow… What’s just a few more dollars in monthly car payments. While technically my lease is up in December – the fantastic buying opportunity and low borrowing costs are tempting me to start Christmas shopping early. So what was up for this past afternoon?

BMW 335i & M3

I took my first visit of the afternoon up to Autohaus BMW where C has had great service with her own BMW. Might as well start with the car that I’ve been wanting since I was just a youngster… The magical 3-series. I’ve read too many Internet discussion boards and more than my fair share of TopGear (and other car shows) to know that it gets not better than the king of the hill… The M3. Essentially my goal was to see how different the 335 was from the M3 in terms of driveability and if I’d be happy with the 335… You know – not pine for the M3.

Well… The M3 is just awesome. I can’t describe it any other way unless you’re actually in the car driving it yourself. Having that V8 with 414 HP available in every gear – just waiting for you to punch down on the accelerator and feel it pull you forward just never got old. On the highway in 3rd, 4th, 5th or even 6th I could give it a bit of a flip and just let the noise in. I smiled every time. I mean – 6th gear!!

Granted – I’ve never had a V8. My trek to the top of car mountain includes mostly all 4-cylinders with just the last two really having powerful V6′s. The 300 HP in my Acura RL is no slouch and makes straight line acceleration pretty lively. But that smooth, silky V8 in the M3 is just addictive. I won’t go on here – there’s plenty of YouTube videos and reviews on the Web that nail the M3 experience. So what’s up next?

The 335i. Again, for the most part the “car” is the same – but the components are mixed up with a turbo V6 with 300 HP and in my demo, all-wheel drive. I even had the chance to play with the new iDrive and I was really impressed compared to the 2008 iDrive (which really sucked). The 335i is a great car. But the issue really comes down to… I’m now already under the influence of the M3. I felt I needed to down shift each time in the 335 to pull out the same grunt of the M3. There was a little bit of lag in any acceleration whereas the M3 always just provided the grunt. Did driving the M3 first ruin my 335 experience? Yes. Could I be happy with the 335 and dismiss the memories of the M3… Only time will tell… Only time will tell… Of course, dollars will speak on the real decision. That’ll be for another day. I’m still needing to get back to my M3 blissful happy place…

Jaguar XF time…

I first laid eyes on the XF at a stop light near my house and there was one right in front of me. The rear end is just blissfully beautiful. I snapped a picture of it on my iPhone (and of course, uploaded it to Facebook). My first accidental viewing stayed with me and I kept it on the list of next-up cars to keep in mind. I ran into that same XF at least 3 more times in the next week so my karma was starting to get the better of me.

Since one of C’s requirements for any next-up purchase is to keep it with 4-doors, the XF lends itself nicely. Probably pulling me back from jumping in wholeheartedly this time around is that while, again, the XF is simply a beautiful car – it is a Jaguar. When I headed into Moore Jaguar (the only dealership in Missouri) it had beautiful cars all throughout the showroom. A walk around the back had two XF’s on display for me to poke my head into and to breathe in the aristocrat-ness of the experience. But that’s really part of the issue for some of us “new” buyers into the Jaguar franchise. It was just all to… stuffy! Green carpet on the floors, ponderous wood paneled walls and nice leather furniture everywhere. It was like heading into the Ritz Cigar Bar in Clayton but without the cool people, fantastic food, and well.. cigars! Oddly enough, the place was empty as well. I didn’t see another customer near that dealer for the entire hour or so that I was there. So is this a comment on my driving experience or the dealer? Well – perhaps one in the same.

The sales guy was nice enough. We talked a bit about the XF and I hopped around the showroom display model and even marveled at the size of the trunk. Oddly that Moore chromed out the wheels and vent covers (isn’t that just a Dodge thing?) and slapped on a Jaguar Leaper. Again – old school Jaguar but who wants that?? Really? Next up we hopped into a whilte demo XF and the sales guy drove me out first and took some winding back neighborhood roads quite fast and I will say the XF really performed. It’s own 300 HP V8 sounded great and pulled very quickly… (Sorry Buddy… Your 300 HP just feels… “different”). So doing 80 MPH in a 25 MPH school zone probably wasn’t the best opportunity to show of the XF’s skills – it was grippy, powerful, and amazingly sure-footed. I took my own 5 minute spin back to the dealer and shared in the same gutsy feel of the V8. But this is where my comparisons really start fouling up the XF experience.

If I had never had an Acura TL or RL – the tech, gadgets and quality would have really impressed me. But I’ve had all “that” stuff for the last 5 years and Acura pulls most of it off either the same or better than Jaguar did. The navigation screen is larger and more intuitive (the XF’s screen really looks small… Like an afterthought or from left over, close out technology). The folding open air vents seemed a bit cheesy and I get the feeling would get on my nerves after a while. The pop-up drive control knob was okay… And the remote key fob and button car-start has been done before.

So what I have is a car that’s similar to what I have now… Just 5 years newer and has a sexier back-end to it. At the $55,000 price tag, you can’t fault it, however. It’s a great car. But do I want more of the same? I do like unique. I had a TL before they were on every corner. The RL still stands out as being somewhat unique… But mostly because Acura doesn’t advertise much and most people don’t have any experience with them.

(I won’t even go into the fuglification transformation going on that’s really forcing me to look outside the Acura brand for my next car…)

So overall… It was a great day. The M3 is definitely in the lead from the shear rocket ship potential. But I have time… Let it sink in… Absorb the drives and see what keeps me entertained.

I’ve been listening to XM Radio since 2005… Mostly since it came with my Acura TL and for the last 3 years, I’ve renewed in in my RL as well. Especially helpful considering that for the last four years I’ve been able to use the “I want the $77 for 12 month deal” to keep its costs inline. However, most of the time I’m listening to MP3 CDs so XM is only really helpful for longer road trips with my wife (she loves the 70′s station) and before XM pulled the plug on E!

The crux of this story is more related to a few weeks ago while I was flipping around on my 12 XM presets. I hit on BPM long enough to grab a listen to “I’m Done With The Pain” and was mesmerized by the bass line. Love the sine-wave bass lines.

So while finding anything on John Kano proved minimal, at least there’s a somewhat cheesy video of this song on YouTube:

Along with my own song sample:

I’m Done With The Pain (Featuring Sarah Mattea) (Bellatrax Radio Edit) – John Kano – (Song Sample)

Granted – more focused on Sarah Mattea than John Kano (heck – even the image on here is of Sarah!) – hopefully you’ll feel the need to add this track to your collection…

Without a doubt I’ve always enjoyed Acura cars (and SUVs). Probably back to the Legend and Integra days they really set themselves apart. When the MDX came out – my mom was right there almost first in line. My sister picked up an RSX a few years after that and I found myself in a brand new TL when the updated 3rd generation showed up in 2004. After a nice few years the TL was moved aside (front-end T-bone totaled it) for a really nice 2005 RL (shout out to Buddy even if his voice has changed a bit lately.)

But c’mon, Acura. What are you doing with the “refreshed” RL & TL lines for 2009? They’re just fugly.

Acura TL Before:

And after…

How about the RL for this year? The old:

And the new…

A face only a mother could love… Honestly now… At least they kept the interior the same… Which is already impressive enough… (They did add cooling seats… Hello 2002 Lexus?) I will say they also got the back end dead on…

Why they messed up the new TL so badly who knows… So the RL wins out over the TL by a long shot… But it’s still two “L’s” in the losing column. The new wide grill, otherwise known as “Dynamic Power Plenum” grill just destroys any appeal for me…

We all held our breaths for a while… Waiting to see if the cars most of us had grown to love over the years would be “betterfied” by Acura – even if they haven’t been selling for years (just 6262 RLs sold in 2007). The wait is over and I’m just not sure with what’s left that I’d trade up my current Acura for a new one… Makes the Audi A5 look awfully good next year…

Here’s hoping that the NSX can save Acura’s image…

Ugh. I hear about this all the time. My last 3 cars all needed higher octane… And I could tell the difference in performance… So please use this as a reference (you’re welcome, Buddy… Even though I did just give you another $52 at the pump…)

Myth: High Octane is better.

NASCAR driver Joe Nemechek knows this. “Believe me, I’ve pumped gas in about every gas station there’s been in my personal cars. Whether it’s around town or on vacation or wherever, you put the regular in there it keeps on running,” he said. The NASCAR drivers, mechanics, and car makers will tell you that for 90 percent of the cars sold today, high octane is no better than regular gas. It won’t give you better mileage, more power or a cleaner engine. NASCAR crew member Lisa Smokstad told us what every expert told us.

“It is a myth that cars run better on premium gas,” she said.

Some cars do need higher octane — older cars that knock, and cars with high-compression, high-revving engines like Ferraris, Bentleys, Jaguars, Acuras, Mercedes and Corvettes.

But 90 percent of new cars don’t need it — check your owner’s manual.

Source: ABC News 20/20