Looking to return!

Hi Guys,

Im looking to return back to A6 ownership, had a 2006 A6 a few years ago which made way for my current car (Mondeo).

Had my Mondeo for 5 years now and to be fair has been really good, but its time to change and ive had many Mondeos over the years (With a couple of Audis occasionally) so i can not buy another mondeo, plus its dog ugly in my opinion. My current car has the Auto (Powershift) box, which coupled with the 2.0 Turbo petrol engine works really well, except it likes petrol stations a little too much for my liking. Im looking for something sub 17k so around a 14 plate, either multitronic or perhaps even s tronic at a push (ultra)

If im being honest my main driving is 2 x 8 mile journeys a day to work and back, we use my car as the main family car if you like and the wife has something smaller for work. So weekends, holidays etc we use mine. In summer it does tend to go a bit further on weekends but crap weather in winter and it doesnt do so much "stretching its legs".

Im aware with modern diesels with DPF etc they dont lend themselves to my kind of driving, which is a bit annoying when the car you want basically comes in sooty form only. so here goes.....

1. Read loads on here over DPF, in real terms tho, how often would the car need to go on a run to keep the thing clear?(Have read the other posts about keeping revs up and the like etc on motorways/a roads)
2. If i invest in the VCDS does it tell you how "blocked" it is, so something i could monitor occasionally to see how its affected and then take it for a run to clear?
3. Auto boxes - I cant seem to read anything good about them on here, multitronic drives different (Had a go in one many moons ago) and so i thought the S tronic may be the one to go for but that doesnt seem to win universal praise either, im basically lazy and the Ford Auto is very much like the S tronic and frankly i find it brilliant, even just round town driving. So in reality are either any good? or too jerky etc?

Im pretty much set on another A6 as i loved my last one, My mate is trying to talk me into a 5 Series, but am not so keen.

Am i going to give myself a massive headache trying to drag a Diesel Auto with a DPF around doing my kind of driving, or is it something i can live with as long as i understand and treat it accordingly? Im not a fan of supermarket fuel so never use it (still believe it destroyed the injectors in a previous car) not sure if that helps or not. I realise a petrol is more suited for me but there is a serious lack of choice out there. My only other consideration was the Hybrid LS300H but im not ready for an electric motor yet and the boot was way too small.

Hope thats not too long and boring!

Thanks

I don't think anyone will want to recommend a diesel given your 8 mile trip each way - that's simply not enough for a DPF regen to complete in my experience. I've taken to driving mine around in sport mode when I recognise it is doing a regen . My next car will be a petrol or hybrid or fuel cell or whatever... Love the way diesels drive (mid range torque) but all this DPF complexity etc. is a drag. Just order a Q2 for Mrs Groucho and we went for a 1.4TFsi

If you can find one there were few 3.0TFsi A6 quattros around until they stopped selling them... probably 2012 / 2013 vintage. Lovely bit of kit - and yes it will use a bit more fuel but you need to be realistic on what that actually costs you. Based on your 8 miles each way to work and weekend use etc. I suspect you are well short of 10k (even 8k) per year... when you work it all out the difference between a 40 mpg diesel and a 28mpg V6 petrol is probably only £400 a year... and no DPF worries or concern that your local town will want to start charging a dirty diesel tax for Euro 5 or earlier vehicles.

Thanks for that

Pretty much what I expected but not what I’d hoped to hear.

My current car does early 20’s round town and can just get mid 30’s on a motorway so wanted something a bit more economical.

Choice is poor really, petrol A6 is pretty much non existant. The Smaller Audi’s I don’t like and do need something a bit bigger for chucking the kids and all their junk in for the odd weekend away. In fact if it wasn’t for the car insurance I would actually want an A8, but it’s a hell of a lot more so can’t really justify it.

Lexus is300h isn’t bad as a hybrid but is a bit too toyotaish for me and I think I’m a few years off wanting something half electric.

I was kinda banking on the odd weekend journey clearing the dpf out and keeping it tip top.

Ford are now sticking little turbo petrol engines in their range now, can’t help thinking Audi are bit behind in that respect.

Would the VCDS software tell me how blocked up or full the thing is?

Don't think VCDS shows you the DPF state.

If you do proper trips at weekends - 50 mile runs or so at "high" speed then maybe you could get away with a diesel. But there is still no guarantee the DPF regen would coincide with that... Maybe I worry about this too much but I do a fair few short trips and the DPF regens seem to happen every 500 miles or so. I just cannot believe that not allowing the regen to complete will result in happy times ahead.

I think Audi are getting the message but they will not re-engineer their old model ranges. If you look at the Q2 (which I have done recently) then there are more petrol choices than diesel. (3 to 2).

My usage is very similar to yours, mainly only 5 miles each way to work monday to friday, but probably slightly heavier weekend use.
I never give the dpf a second thought, occasionally I interupt it but it seems to finish it off next time. Done 35k in my last one, so far 15k in this one, no problems so far, perhaps I have just been lucky.
All I am saying is that the dpf thing, certainly for me, is no reason not to have diesel again.

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Dpf is a big worry for most as it’s £1k+ to replace. My experience so far has been ok.
I went from 50+ miles each way commute to 2-3 miles each way for the past 6 months. So far there’s been a couple of times it left the fans running when parked. I did notice mine did the regens more when I used shell v power but not so much with bp ultimate or Tesco’s no frills.
Car was definitely noticeably quieter when on bp or shell fuels especially at motorway speeds. But that could be all in my head.

You don't say what age of A6 you are thinking of buying but early C7 A6s are affected by "dieselgate" and reports would suggest that cars that have had the fix are tending to go through the DPF regen process more frequently

I know a dpf is costly to replace, but so are loads of other parts on cars, there are more people with dual mass flywheel problems on here than dpf problems aren't there??
Just saying that imo it wouldn't be the reason NOT to have diesel again.

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Since getting my A6 4 years ago I've changed to always working from home, so the car does mainly short (up to 4 or 5 mile) journeys with occasional longer trips at weekends or for holidays. I'm aware of a regen occurring every now and then (the fan going when I stop) but so far it hasn't given any problems. I had the 'dieselgate' fixed applied but haven't been aware of any resulting issues.

Having said that, I expect my next car will be petrol as my mileage just doesn't warrant a diesel, never mind any additional charges councils may introduce in the future.

Neil.