Audi RS6 Avant
New from £98,385
Is the Audi RS6 Avant Estate a good car?
Read our expert review
Words by: Erin Baker
"King of the rapid estates, the RS 6 Avant is a station wagon so fast it leaves sports cars at the lights, eating dust. But if that sort of get-away power isn’t enough for you, there’s always the insanely expensive, insanely fast, special edition Audi RS 6 Avant GT of which just 60 of the overall production run of 600 will be coming to the UK. Suffice to say, this is a properly rare beast. Resplendent in an orange and black racing livery with white wheels, or black and grey combo, it’s the grown-up car for those who haven’t."
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Running costs for a Audi RS 6 Avant GT
3/5
At just shy of £180,000 this is a serious purchase. But it’s a large family car from a premium brand with a highly tuned V8 under the bonnet so what’s to be expected? Bottom line, it’s expensive to buy, run and maintain. Insurance, fuel economy and tax will also be exorbitantly high. On the other hand that six-figure price tag gets you a thoroughbred supercar with space for four adults and a load of luggage, so it’s two cars in one. Which makes it a bargain. Sort of.
Reliability of a Audi RS 6 Avant GT
4/5
Audi as a whole has fallen to near the bottom of the brand reliability tables lately - it finished 24th out of 31 models in the What Car? index in 2024 while, even more painfully, arch-rival BMW came eighth. Even Porsche finished ahead of Audi. The warranty is the industry-average three-year job. On the other hand, RS 6 Avant owners seem a happy bunch. The issue seems to be not with stuff going wrong, but the cost of maintenance and repairs when they are needed.
Safety for a Audi RS 6 Avant GT
4/5
Although the RS 6 Avant hasn’t been tested by Euro NCAP, the A6, on which is it is based, received a good score. Audi’s four-wheel-drive quattro system has been improved to cope with the extra power of the RS 6 Avant GT, and there are bespoke Continental tyres, so expect more ferocious grip. You get adaptive cruise control, lane-departure warning, blind spot monitoring and parking sensors and camera, so all the necessaries though you’ll be wanting to turn off the typically infuriating lane departure ‘assistance’ via the touch-screen menu.
How comfortable is the Audi RS 6 Avant GT
5/5
For such a hardcore car focused on delivering bruising acceleration and braking, the ride is surprisingly compliant, with no bones shaking over bumpy road surfaces, and no booming sound or vibration transmitting from the engine bay to inside. And that pretty much sums up every version of the RS 6 Avant – this model shows the rest of the world the way to combine performance and practicality, without a hint of compromise. You get sporty seats but they’re perfectly comfortable, and there’s still plenty of legroom and headroom in the rear, plus suitably generous boot space. You can even tick the box for heated rear seats while the carbon-backed bucket seats up front provide a lot of lateral support through the corners.
Features of the Audi RS 6 Avant GT
5/5
There’s red honeycomb stitching on the black seats, and further red highlights along the front surfaces. On the centre console, the number of your edition (1/660, for example) is painted on the grey surface, and you get black GT lettering, a rear roof spoiler and no roof rails, for a sleeker look. The decals are all inspired by the 1989 Audi 90 quattro IMSA GTO, for those who care about such things. For those who care more about smartphone pairing, wireless charging and excellent stereo systems it’s got all that, too, although the infotainment system is starting to show it’s age now. Everything works well, but it doesn’t look very snazzy.
Power for a Audi RS 6 Avant GT
5/5
Where’s the 6-star option? It’s not the fact that it’s fast with its 3.3-second blast from 0-62mph, or that the turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 developes 630 horsepower and 850Nm of torque, the brakes are formidable or even that the handling is improved with a new centre differential and lightweight suspension parts. It’s that it’s all the above, while remaining an unperturbed family estate car that’s just as cool pottering around town at 20mph. Nothing out there does it better. There’s just the small matter of finding the money to buy one!
Standard equipment
Expect the following equipment on your Audi RS6 Avant Estate. This may vary between trim levels.
Other vehicles in the RS6 Avant family
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