Fantastic Car-- If you can afford the repairs.

Author's Rating:

Pros: Bi-Turbo Power, Quattro all wheel drive security, best interior made in 2001

Cons: Very expensive to maintain and repair.

The Bottom Line: 
If you have the money to buy it AND maintain it, do it!

Author's Review
I purchased my 2001 A6 2.7t Quattro Tiptronic in 2007 with 64,000 miles on it. When I was shopping for a new car to replace my 1994 Mercedes C-Class, I knew wanted 3 things, more style, more comfort, and more POWER.  I found all 3 in the A6. The body on this car is absolutely stunning. The subtle but sharp body lines and the beautiful chrome trim surrounding the windows really make this car look modern, even 10 years later. The interior is the best in the business, period. Forget Mercedes, BMW, Lexus, Acura, etc. No car manufacturer has ever made a higher quality interior. Excellent layout, top quality materials, incredible attention to detail, amazing comfort.  The powertrain is the stuff of legends. The Quattro all wheel drive system is the best in the industry.  Complete confidence on even slick roads.  I have a set of studded snow tires for the car which I use in the winter and the car is unstoppable. You think your SUV or Subaru is good in slick conditions? Forget it!  The Audi Quattro system can't be beat. The motor is docile while cruising around town, although a little thirsty (17-18 MPG usually) but when you put your foot down, hang on. 250 horsepower provided by a 30 valve V6 with two turbos ramming air down its throat. Shortly after purchasing the car I upgraded to APR's 93 octane EMCS (high end chip). This provided an additional 70-80 hp and made this car a rocket. I do commonly hear complaints from other A6 drivers about turbo lag at inconvenient times. Let me provide a tip for anyone who owns or is thinking of owning a car with the 2.7T engine. Don't floor it from a dead stop. The turbos need time to spool and if you just slam the pedal to the floor, they won't spool and you won't go anywhere. Instead, roll onto the throttle. Ease into the throttle over the course of 1-2 seconds. This will get the car off the line quickly and allow you to get into the power band quickly. If you remember to do that, you won't ever experience that lag.

Now the major drawback. This car costs a lot to maintain and repair. For me, this is not a big issue. I'm a mechanic. But for people less mechanically inclined, this car can be very expensive to maintain.  Keep in mind, this car was top of the line in 2001 so it has a very complicated engine, a very complicated transmission, and very complicated electronics. The result is an amazing car to own and drive, but with so many parts, there is more that can go wrong. Don't get me wrong, the car is actually very reliable, but when the inevitable happens, it'll cost you. There are a few very common failure points to be aware of. The throttle body boot which feeds compressed air from the turbos into the intake manifold likes to tear around 80,000 miles. This is only $31 from the Audi dealer and about a 20 minute repair in the driveway. The Timing belt must be replaced around 70,000 miles. This also involves replacing the water pump, timing belt tensioner and serpentine belt. This is a very involved job to do at home. Don't even think about it unless you really know what you're doing. Plan on at least $800-1200 for the dealer to do it. The automatic transmission torque converter seals will fail. This one is no fun. This will easily cost $2000 to repair, although you can usually drive the car just fine for quite a long time without any problems if you don't repair it (you'll just have a check engine light on and slightly lower highway MPG). Finally, the turbos will eventually fail. This is an expensive job mostly because of labor. The engine has to come out to fix it. No, you do not need the K04 turbos so don't listen to anybody who says that. Stock K03s are fine. K04s are an upgrade for more power. They aren't any more reliable. This job will cost $3000-4000 for parts and labor. 

So what have we learned?  This car is amazing to drive if you can afford it. The best thing to do is find a low miles car with verifiable service records. One that already had some of this work done (check receipts!). Beyond that, change your oil with full synthetic oil and a high quality filter at least every 6 months or 5,000 miles and don't ever let the car overheat. If it starts to overheat, call a tow truck. Allowing the car to overheat for too long means you get to go car shopping again so don't do it!

Don't be scared. It's one of the absolute best cars I've ever driven, and I've driven a lot!