Just ordered my first Audi - An A6 Allroad

[Bash D Bishop]

Hi

After 4.5 years of almost trouble free Discovery 3 ownership I decided it was time for a new car. I really wanted a Discovery 4 but surging prices and virually no discounts or decent finance deals meant it didn't work financially. After weighing up different options I decided I wanted to retain a measure of offroad capability as I spend quite a bit of time on my in-laws farm and also live in a rural location that can get more than its fair share of snow. After driving the best SUV for the last 4.5 years I really couldn't see myself in a Tourag, XC90 or the like so it came don to a choice between a new BMW 3 series with X-Drive or an Audi. The boot in the 3 series was too small so that left the A6 Avant Quattro or Allroad. After more research and a 24 hour test drive in a 245 PS Allroad the decision was made. Now to the next problem. I am very impatient and when I was quoted September delivery I almost decided to forget about changing the car.

My local Audi dealer was not very attentive and I had to keep chasing him. Eventually I gave up and went to Drive the Deal. I wish I had gone there first. I was amazed at the level of discount - £10.1k on a £45k car. They too quoted September delivery but I asked if they could enquire as to any stock cars. They came back and said one of their dealers had a Oolong Grey (my first choice) 245 PS standard spec car due for delivery on 10th June. My impatience got the better of me and I placed the order. I've been told it is a MY13 car so I will lose out on DAB as that would have been standard if I'd waited on a factory order MY14. However, I have been told it will be possible later in the summer to have DAB retrofitted.

By getting a standard spec car am I missing out of any "needs" or "must haves"? I'm not interested in large alloys. The test drive car I had was on 20" wheels and the road noise was very noticeable. The only things I think I will miss are the aforementioned DAB and the Audi Music Interface although I should still be able to play music from my Galaxy S3 via Bluetooth Audio. Correct?

[Whippy53]

Hi, congratulations and welcome! I'm sure one of the Allroad boys will be along soon but in the meantime, the dab is available as a retrofit quite cheaply.

[ukgroucho]

Welcome Bash!

Standard spec Allroad is fairly well appointed.
DAB you will have to retrofit - either aftermarket or, I believe, that Audi FINALLY will make this more widely available - but check with your dealer.
Bluetooth streaming of music is "OK" for stuff your kids have on their phone that they MUST listen to right now, but not great... if you want any kind of quality then stick an SD card with decent bit rate MP3s (192Kbps or better) in the slot in the dash...similar quality to a CD in a car environment,

[johnsimcox]

Welcome and enjoy the car. AMI can also be retrofitted, mine was arranged by the dealer and I was told this was a very common occurrence. Yes you can stream music via Bluetooth, but the in car controls are somewhat limited compared to using an iPod/iPhone via AMI. As ukgroucho says you can get pretty much the full AMI experience by putting your music onto an SD card and popping it in the spare slot in the dash (the other slot being used for the SatNav) and some would argue at better quality

[Bash D Bishop]

Thanks for the welcome.

I'm collecting the car from the dealer in the Midlands on 15th June. My son and I are flying down in the morning and then driving the 300 miles back home to Scotland. Two weeks after that we are heading to the Dordoyne via Portsmouth and St Malo so in the first month it will cover around 3,000 miles. The engine should be loosening up nicely by the time we get back. We will have to be a bit more careful with our packing this year as we won't have as much space as we had in the Disco. I do have a roofbox but don't want to put that on and dent the fuel economy and performance.

WRT the retrofit DAB. Is this fully integrated with MMI or is it a bolt-on? Any recommendations who I should speak to regarding getting it fitted?

Also, On other threads I see reference to MMI V????? What version will I have in my car?

[johnsimcox]

Thanks for the welcome.

I'm collecting the car from the dealer in the Midlands on 15th June. My son and I are flying down in the morning and then driving the 300 miles back home to Scotland. Two weeks after that we are heading to the Dordoyne via Portsmouth and St Malo so in the first month it will cover around 3,000 miles. The engine should be loosening up nicely by the time we get back. We will have to be a bit more careful with our packing this year as we won't have as much space as we had in the Disco. I do have a roofbox but don't want to put that on and dent the fuel economy and performance.

WRT the retrofit DAB. Is this fully integrated with MMI or is it a bolt-on? Any recommendations who I should speak to regarding getting it fitted?

Also, On other threads I see reference to MMI V????? What version will I have in my car?
Kufatec do a fully integrated DAB kit, although for some reason it does not include auto switching between DAB and FM in areas of poor DAB signal, as a kit and the AMI kit fitted to my car is also from them. I would expect the kit that will be available from Audi later this summer will be that one or even the same as the one fitted on the production line in which case it would have auto switching. Best bet is to speak to your local Audi dealer about who they use for retrofitting stuff like this as they are sure to have someone who actually knows how to dismantle and reassemble the relevant parts of the car (AMI required taking the lower dash and transmission tunnel apart which was somewhat distressing in a 6 week old car!

[Whippy53]

audi will retro the DAB, starting doing it this summer. Full kit same as if it was fitted at build. Looks like we will both be in france at the same time. We go Portsmouth -la Havre. Lets hope the weather picks up!

[MFGF]

Also, On other threads I see reference to MMI V????? What version will I have in my car?

Unless you specced the nav upgrade, your car will come with the RMC system where the nav maps are stored on SD card. MMI 3G+ is the upgrade, and the maps are stored on a hard drive integrated into the car.

Cheers!

MF.

[Bash D Bishop]

audi will retro the DAB, starting doing it this summer. Full kit same as if it was fitted at build. Looks like we will both be in france at the same time. We go Portsmouth -la Havre. Lets hope the weather picks up!

:D The weather is shocking but my fingers are crossed that the position will change in the next 5 weeks. 2 years ago we were in the same area and it was cold and wet. My wife was all for us packing up and heading home. Portsmouth - ST Malo works for us as it gives a good break following the 480 mile drive from where we live near to Edinburgh.

[Allroad_2013]

Hi
By getting a standard spec car am I missing out of any "needs" or "must haves"? I'm not interested in large alloys. The test drive car I had was on 20" wheels and the road noise was very noticeable. The only things I think I will miss are the aforementioned DAB and the Audi Music Interface although I should still be able to play music from my Galaxy S3 via Bluetooth Audio. Correct?

I think the Allroad standard spec is pretty good, but Audi make it very easy to suck your bank balance dry with an amazing array of extras that could almost double the cost of the car.

We tried hard to keep the cost down, but even then we still spent another £5K. Apart from the tow bar (needed for the horse trailer), nothing we added was essential. In my view the standard wheels suit the car better than the bigger wheels and are generally pretty quiet in use.

Xenons are nice and heated sports seats are a fair value combination if you're after a toasted backside but they're not essential either. I doubt you'll feel like you're in a povety spec car if there aren't any extras on the car you're getting.