AUDI A6 AVANT

How does this big all-new exec estate cope on tight, battered UK roads?

- STEVE CROPLEY

If ever there were a car for which our final verdict depends on the way it drives on UK roads, this new Audi A6 Avant is it. It starts with plenty of positives and one of the most important is that it’s only the third model to use Audi’s latest PPC platform, employed by the recently revised A5 and Q5. It has a svelte new look too.

It’s also super-streamlined, with a 0.25 Cd, yet there’s up to 1500 litres of load space. It weighs ‘only’ two tonnes, which means its kerb weight undercuts similar-sized EVs by 500kg. Its driving position also avoids the increasingly common compromise of requiring the driver to sit on top of a big EV battery, but it’s still a hybrid and can do short, fuel-saving manoeuvres on electric power. Its combined fuel consumption is quoted as a creditable near-50mpg (though on our test drive, we didn’t get within 15mpg of that).