mmitev

V, I am certainly talking about the new A6, there is really no point discussing the old one

These are the numbers from Auto Bild from 3 weeks ago:
Audi A6 3.0 TDI Quattro, 1795 kg
BMW 530d xDrive, 1865 kg
MB E350 CDI, 1835 kg

The difference between Audi and BMW is 70 kg or 140 lbs! Or 3.8%!

How did you derive the 1,000 lbs difference between the new cars? The 3,500 lbs for the A6 is correct, but the F10 does not weigh 4,500 lbs?
Autoblog states the F10 535i at 4,090 lbs, that's the official figure.

EDIT: And two quotes from the article, the translation is mine:

"A6: The good traction and stability in turns are impressive. In this respect the new A6 is significantly better than the old one, even if the 19-inch wheels of the test car are helping. ... But in the wet sharp turns, as before, we can certainly feel the inherent tendency towards understeer due to the high weight on the front axle - when driving in a sporty way, the A6 pigheadedly tries to continue in a straight line. Only if you press the "Sport" button and press the gas pedal early and strongly, you will succeed to "move" the rear end and in that way correct the trajectory. But this is also not always successful."

"BMW: After getting into the 5-series it is immediately clear: the nimbler, the more "active on the road" car, as before, is manufactured by BMW, particularly if it is equipped with the optional Adaptive Drive system, like the test car. ... The BMW reacts more directly on steering input, it turns more willfully into the curves, and even with x-Drive allows to be steered and controlled with the throttle in turns. However, with its 18-inch tyres, our test car reaches earlier its limit in driving along wet road turns."

v_therussian

Now that you put it this way, it certainly seems like much less of a weight difference. I don't know where I got the 4400lbs figure from Maybe that's the 550? Or I misread some data? Perhaps someone would care enough to render independent data to add to this discussion.

But yes, weight notwithstanding, when the car understeers, that tells me "econobox". That was the one trait of both my A6's that I had always despised. That is why I decided to spend a few more shekels and get the Bimmer in the first place.

PS guess this is the article you were referring to?
http://www.autobild.de/artikel/audi-...h-1538764.html

swajames

You weren't imagining things, V. The 550 does indeed weigh over 4400 lbs. That said, what you need to compare is the E60 model weight against the equivalent F10 model. The F10 535xi is significantly heavier than the E60 535xi - the difference is close to 300lbs. In the meantime, Audi has trimmed the weight of the new A6 compared to the outgoing model...

v_therussian

Yes, well, that's basically what I was trying to say. But I was wrong about the weight of the F10 535 - I thought it was heavier than it actually is. And the difference is not near 1000lbs between it and the new A6.

mmitev

yep, that's the article

v_therussian

My German is non-existent, so all I can do is pick out some words, roots, that I can recognize LOL too bad they don't have an English version of their site.

geobmw

Do not see any Check-mate in this review :
http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/...ive/index.html

mmitev

Lesson #1: Der Russe = therussian
Lesson #2: http://translate.google.com/#

haven't tried the translator on technical stuff yet, but it should give you a rough idea of what they are saying.

btw my route to German started with Auto Bild lol, I bought it every week when I was like 9 or so, and by the time I started learning German I literally knew all the car-related vocabulary already

v_therussian

That's not a great review. The info I referred to in my original post stated that Audi claimed A6 would weigh under 3,500lbs - not 3,900. 3,900 certainly isn't a great break-through. And the driving impressions from the MT review sure leave a lot to wish for.

I knew about the translator, of course - just figured there'd be still too many peculiarities I wouldn't get. I might try it anyway if I have the time to kill in the near future.


In the meantime, it certainly appears that my original reports of the A6's dominance seem to have been greatly exaggerated (to paraphrase the famous quote-come-adage).