Audi A6 Ultra

[belly buster]

That would be a lousy cup of tea :-)

And an expensive one.

The Truth About Clean Diesels: AdBlue Is Freaking Expensive | The Truth About Cars

[Whippy53]

And you lose your spare wheel! Ah, the price of keeping the treehuggers 'n ducksqueezers happy huh.

[rickerby]

You get a urea (or 'Adblue') tank in the wheel well. not my cuppa tea but it's the future with diesel. Live with it or buy a petrol.

What at makes you think that?

[Whippy53]

It's how the system works, and it's the only way to get a diesel past Euro 6.

[johnsimcox]

It's how the system works, and it's the only way to get a diesel past Euro 6.

Prepared to be proved wrong but none of the information on the new A3, which I believe has the same engine as that going into the A6 in its 184PS/EU6 version, makes any reference to the car using Urea technology

[rickerby]

Prepared to be proved wrong but none of the information on the new A3, which I believe has the same engine as that going into the A6 in its 184PS/EU6 version, makes any reference to the car using Urea technology

Thats right, Urea injection isnt a prerequisite for Euro 6. Both BMW and Mazda Euro 6 Diesels do without it and I have seen nothing in the various Audi press releases relating to Ultra or Euro 6 compliance that suggest they will need to adopt it.

[Whippy53]

The way I see it,

"Audi's head of powertrain development, Dr Stefan Knirsch, said: “A highly-efficient SCR system removes nitrogen oxides from the exhaust. This measure means that the new A6 TDI Ultra models meet the future Euro 6 emission standards while achieving lower fuel consumption.”
While the Volkswagen Group uses lean NOx traps on the 1,968cc four-cylinder in C-segment vehicles such as the VW Golf, bigger heavier models such as the Audi A6 will rely on SCR. The technology is also used in North American applications."

Note the use of both SCR and A6, if you google SCR you find it refers to removing NOx by using urea injection. Also the Passat already has it as does the Q7. I hope I'm wrong but I somehow don't think so. Happy as always to be proved wrong when the time comes though. This explanation also explains why the A3 doesn't have it, it relies instead in NOx trapping technology instead.

[Passatier3]

There never seems like the "right" time to buy a car or anything else really as having owned my Multi-tronic for a few months now, upon hearing about the auto being replaced with S-tronic (and me really liking the DSG in my last Passat) I was beginning to wish I had waited. The penny must have dropped with Audi, i.e. they had been rumbled (!) that the Multi-tronic just wasn't doing the business in the real world as far as fuel economy is concerned.

But if the price for having S-tronic is urea injection and having to replenish a tank then I'm not too sure. Personally I think that all this additional technology is just getting rather silly now. I'm all for saving the planet but these new technologies bring their own issues of energy use and greenhouse gases etc. to produce them, none of which are taken into account when cars are measured for fuel efficiency etc.

And as we've said before, these technologies could result in cars being scrapped before they should be, because owners further down the line either can't afford or don't want to fork out for very expensive replacement parts, and that does nothing for the environment, more harm in fact.

So, given that I really like my present car, perhaps it was the right" time!

[Whippy53]

I actually was initially of the same mind, however, I love my multitronic, damn the consumption, if I was really trying to save money I would have bought a Polo Bluemotion. It's just more things to go wrong just to appease a bunch of treehuggers. Anyhoo, the other interesting point is that while the Ultra has 190ps as opposed to 177ps the 0-60 time remains unchanged at 8.2 sec S-Tronic vs multitronic. So, my question is, where's the extra power gone? midrange perhaps? or perhaps weight and other losses via the box? dunno. (Stops to scratch head and sniff fingers!)

[ukgroucho]

But if the price for having S-tronic is urea injection and having to replenish a tank then I'm not too sure. Personally I think that all this additional technology is just getting rather silly now. I'm all for saving the planet but these new technologies bring their own issues of energy use and greenhouse gases etc. to produce them,

Not to mention the environmental concerns about Urea spillages - the Environment Agency are concerned after a few spills (probably truck related) 'cos when this stuff gets into waterways it has serious impacts.