RS6 · JIMNY · SUPRA · DISCO SPORT · A45

Goodbye RS6 and Jimny. Sniff. But hello Disco Sport, XC40 and Merc-AMG A45. Also reports on the e, 208, Supra and Citigo

GOODBYE

£98,850 OTR/£101,700 as tested/£1,158pcm

WHY IT’S HERE

Is the RS6 everything to everyone? With bells on?

DRIVER

Ollie Marriage

THE RS6 LEAVES TOMORROW. I’VE JUST GIVEN IT A FINAL VACUUM out to get rid of concrete dust, canal weed, bike muck and the last dregs of garden waste from a tip run last weekend. It’s lived a life. I’ve found it bloody useful. Big boot. Swallows four and holiday gear no problem. Wears a roofbox well. Damn comfortable too. Barely hear the wind whistle around bikes on the roof and the ride on 22s is miraculous. Not once did any passenger say it was ‘a bit positive’. If you want an estate car, this is a goodie.

But this is an RS6, emphatically not just an estate car. And I don’t think I’m going to miss it. It’s failed to get under my skin. Partly this is my fault as I got the spec wrong – I should have maxed out the sportiness, fitted ceramic brakes instead of the spongy standard ones, had the Dynamic Ride Control with its conventional springs and dampers which makes the suspension and steering feel more natural. Kitted out like that, as we found in last month’s group test, and again during Speed

Week (see p102), the RS6 is definitely better (if considerably more expensive). But even then it doesn’t have the rawness and personality of the Mercedes-Benz E63.

There’s a flip side to that: when I had an E63 at home my wife said it ‘rides like it’s driving over rocks’. If it was just down to me, I’d have the E63 because it’s a proper charger, but super-estates are a family choice, and if everyone else in the car was having a rotten time because the seats and suspension were too hard, that wouldn’t make for happy holidays. So in the RS6 I contented myself with the woofly exhaust and the nods of admiration from fellow road users. It has proper stance. Maybe too much stance. Here’s an admission: I’ve kerbed the wheels on more than one occasion. I couldn’t figure this out to start with – I thought I’d left more than enough room at the kerb, but then I realised that the front wheel actually sits about six inches further out than the crease line that marks the edge of the visible bonnet above the front wheelarch.

Apart from its hidden width, the RS6 is remarkably easy to use. Four wheel steering not only means it has a decent turning circle, but has also altered the dynamics. This RS6 is notably less nose-led than previous generations. Where they ploughed on into understeer if you turned in a mite enthusiastically, this one works both ends more evenly, heightening the sense of agility and lowering the perception of weight. You only have to brake hard once to remind yourself it weighs over two tonnes. The pedal goes soft and long quite quickly. For further evidence of its weight, look no further than the 20.4mpg it’s averaged over six months – no better than the previous gen version. And no quicker either. The fastest

RS6 we’ve tested remains a 2016 Plus that was three-tenths faster to 100mph (7.5secs) than the new one. I know we’re always banging on that progress doesn’t need to mean more power and more speed, but here’s one that promises it and fails to deliver.

It’s fitted with a mild hybrid system that must account for a good proportion of the weight gain. In the real world it has precisely no benefits whatsoever other than mildly assuaging your guilt if anyone chastises you for driving a 600bhp estate. It might promise to disconnect the drivetrain and shut off the engine when you lift off, but in real life that only happens less than half the time and I quickly got frustrated that it wasn’t doing it when my wife’s VW van does it reliably every time.

Aside from kerbed wheels the only issue I’ve had was an air suspension leak that saw the front end droop down awkwardly. That happened during lockdown and over the course of a few days the nose steadily dropped until the wheels were tucked up inside the arches, the splitter was scuffing the gravel and the neighbours were chuckling. It was subsequently diagnosed as a faulty nearside air spring unit and fixed under warranty. No issues since. None with any of the onboard systems either. There’s a lot of touchscreen to get used to, but compared to the Merc-AMG A45 that has just turned up (see p132) the Audi is a lot easier to get on with.

The RS button on the steering wheel may be a copy of BMW’s M button idea, but it’s a quick, useful shortcut to preferred settings. One press gets me the noisy exhaust and more responsive drivetrain I want, and pushing the gearlever across into manual mode stops the gearbox wanting to hold high revs. No need. The perforated leather looks and feels a bit cheap (should have had Alcantara), but a special mention for the all-enveloping seats, even if they don’t sit you low enough.

Have I got a downer on the RS6? Partially, yes. I’m disappointed that it’s piled on weight and tech and yet proves no faster or more efficient than the car it replaces. How is that progress? If you can put that to one side (and I struggled) the news is better. It looks awesome. It has colossal bandwidth. It is deeply, shockingly fast and capable on difficult roads, yet its USP, the one thing it does better than any other supersaloon or estate, is prove effortlessly comfortable. You don’t lose too much of that by speccing the sporty bits, so do what I didn’t. Then you’ll have the right RS6. And your family will still be happy.