From the outside the Audi A6 Matrix doesn’t look that much different than the outgoing model, but even incremental changes make a huge difference, writes Kushan Mitra
On National Highway 76, the road between Udaipur and Mount Abu is a favourite among Indian car manufacturers as a road where they conduct test drives. This wonderful four-lane highway, which serves as a part of the Golden Quadrilateral, is a relatively empty stretch of road, and despite the occasional rockfall from the mountains that have been blasted away to construct the road, it is well-maintained and an advertisement for the progress that Indian highways have made over the past few years.
It is also a stretch of road on which you discover some of the positives and negatives of the refreshed Audi A6. Called the A6 Matrix to reflect the new lED headlight cluster that does away completely with bulbs, the A6 Matrix is more than just one small improvement. The two-litre turbo-diesel unit that does serve under the hood now produces 13 extra horsepower over the outgoing unit for a total of 190 horsepower.
Coupled with a new S-Tronic transmission that is geared to be sporty according to Audi literature, you can actually feel that the extra power has made a difference to this very large and heavy sedan.
The two-litre engine, which now serves in an incredible range of Volkswagen Group cars from the A3/Jetta/Octavia range all the way to the Audi A6 and Q5 now comes with three power outputs — 140 horsepower on the smaller cars to 177 horsepower on the bigger cars, and 190 horsepower on the new A6 that gets this updated engine first. Of course this does not make understanding Audi’s new numbering nomenclature any easier — the A6 Matrix has a ‘35 TDI’ badge as does the A3 that has the variant with 50 less horses.
The new A6 Matrix also comes with a paddle-shift, because the new power unit has one slight disadvantage that the automatic gearbox when the car is set on ‘comfort’ mode does not downshift very well. When overtaking you sometimes need to shift down from seventh gear to fifth gear, the car itself will just shift down to sixth. But using the paddles, you can move up and down the gears far more easily, and given the Volkswagen Group’s DSG double-clutch gearbox technology does make shifting gears very, very easy. The paddle-shifter is now a standard fit on the A6 Matrix as are the new headlights.
And small changes have also been made to the car’s entertainment system, the instrument cluster has also been changed to display the navigation on the middle for example. This, while not as cool as the ‘virtual cockpit’ system on the Audi TT and on the new Q7, is a major improvement on the older version of the car. The voice command system also has a small adjustment, for example now a long press on the steering mounted voice command button actually shifts the car voice command system to the one on your phone, of course depending on whether your phone is already connected through the car’s bluetooth system.
And then there are the Matrix headlights, as Audi dispenses with the bulbs on the front headlight cluster, the lEDs work together or in a group to give the perfect amount of lighting that the car needs to throw in front of it.
On a dark road, the headlights automatically shift to a more powerful mode, like a high beam would, but the second a car appears in front of you, instead of blinding the driver of the oncoming car, the headlights adjust to a lower power setting. Similarly, the lights adjust themselves depending on the amount of ambient light.
While this technology is quite pricey for the time being and features only on the Audi A6 and its bigger sibling, the A8l, as someone who gets blinded every second day by inconsiderate fellow drivers with their high beams, this, like say bluetooth systems and navigation, should make it down the chain as quickly as possible. Kudos to Audi for this though!
All in all, the A6 Matrix is a good and improved update on the outgoing A6 and with a sticker price of Rs49.5 lakh ex-showroom Delhi, makes for a reasonable buy compared to the competition of the BMW 5-series and Mercedes E-Class.