"S" is for Special

Audi’s A6 is a fine car, a valid challenger to the BMW 5-Series and the Mercedes E-Class. In fact, the A6 outpaces its German peers as the world’s top-selling midsize luxury car, and it retains the highest residual value. Now Audi’s new S6 goes well above and beyond the A6 with firmer suspension, quicker steering, an up-dated interior and instrumentation, and an impressive new engine.

Audi owns the Italian Lamborghini sports car company and built a superb V10 for it. In the S6, that 5.2-liter V10 engine replaces the A6’s 3.2-liter V6 and gets direct fuel injection to each cylinder. A sequential six-speed automatic shifts in two-tenths of a second, faster than any human could shift a manual. Sixty percent of the engine’s torque goes to the rear wheels in normal driving, but up to 100 percent can transfer to either the front or rear if the sophisticated Quattro all-wheel-drive system anticipates a need for better traction.

Ingolstadt, Germany–based Audi has a self-proclaimed passion to lead with technology and with fanatical attention to detail. One small sign of that attention: Hit park, and the angle of the wiper blades changes from perpendicular, which could cause them to wear out faster. And when the temperature drops below 32 degrees Fahrenheit, the wiper blades lift slightly so they don’t freeze to the window overnight.

Swift and strong as the S6 is, don’t expect it to catch Audi’s larger S8. Audi puts the same V10 in both cars, but increases the horsepower by 15 in the $92,000 Audi S8—just so the $72,000 S6 can’t outrun it.