Audi A6 1.8T Quattro makes good running

Good looking, isn't it? There's no doubt that the small styling details which Audi do to the bodyshell that is basically VW Passat make a difference. Enough to warrant the fairly hefty extra money for the Audi badge is something only those who really want an Audi can answer. But there's an extra smoothness to the look, through careful work on the styling of the front and rear bumper/lights elements. And, of course, the basic shape is rather classically timeless.

Anyway, the A6 in its various versions has always impressed us. The 1.8T Quattro we looked forward to because the very term 'Quattro' has a noble pedigree in motoring development. In many respects that anticipation was well fulfilled.

The A6 is a big and generally comfortable car, with lots of room front and back, and no stinting of creature comforts for those it carries. The company also makes much of its detailing, as you'll remember from the various clever advertisements. Like studying a CD-player to design the front cup-holder mechanism? We don't have to believe it, but the point is made. And the cup-holder does work well ... it is also repeated duofold in the rear.

The car feels big too, and my suspicion is that it might not necessarily be attractive to the female buyer. For me, though, it felt good, given that I prefer big cars anyway.

That it was one of the more expensive cars in the range was indicated by the burr walnut trim inside. Seat material, though, was a pretty no-nonsense tough cloth. Leathers of various kinds and colours are an option.

It happened that I did a 340-mile round trip in one day while I had the car, and this showed up some strong and weak points of the whole package. The main strength was the car's ability to lope along in a variety of driving conditions, from being stuck behind truck convoys to fast clear road romps, and its tractability and ease of use proved to be superb. Not least because of the particular characteristics of the light-pressure turbocharged engine, of which more later.

I suppose the main weakness - and I say this hesitantly because such things are very subjective - was a certain lack of support in the seats which left both myself and my passenger feeling a bit twingey when we got home. It probably wouldn't have shown up under normal driving distances, and if it had been just me, I'd have put it down to something else, maybe. It's worth checking out, though, if you intend to long-distance a lot.

Let me get the gripes all out at once, too. This particular car is almost £37,000 and I found it quite poor that it didn't come with a computerised information system as standard. When travelling long distances, I like to keep a running check on fuel consumption and things like that, but such a system is an optional extra here.

Not extra was the climate control, which worked a treat and required very little adjustment on my side (she who was with me had her own controls to fiddle with, and I must record again my appreciation for such dual control systems in a family where preferences of temperature differ quite markedly).

Instrumentation is nice and clear in general, though I feel people of a certain age have difficulty with red as a night-time colour ... as you get longsighted, the short wavelength of that end of the spectrum blurs more than white, or blue, for instance.

The car's controls were, as expected, faultless - a neat and precise gearchange that would be the envy of any quality Japanese maker, and an electronic throttle control that is a boon for traffic crawl.

The ride and handling were typical large German, not for chucking around the place but very well controlled if one did. Otherwise it was a boardroom on wheels, where a business party could make all the serious decisions they wanted to while on the move without being distracted by such mundane things as poor roads.

The motor powering all this was the 150bhp version of the 1.8-litre four which is a foundation engine in the VW Group. Contrary to expectations, it didn't light fires (or tyres), but it is significantly faster in the 0-60 than the unturbed version (9.7secs against 11.4). Much more importantly, the turbo has a very flat maximum torque profile from 1750-4600rpm, as against a peaky 3800rpm for the standard 1.8. This allowed very smooth driving in all kinds of traffic patterns without the need to do much shifting down.

It was, of course, fitted with the famed 'quattro' Torsen permanent 4WD system. It happened that we didn't get the conditions where this really shows its usefulness, but it is well proven and does indeed add a level of safety to winter conditions. In addition, the review car had an electronic differential lock system.

The 4WD system hits fuel consumption by about 10%, which is to be expected. And there's a wide spread of consumption between city and country driving - 22.4/38.2mpg. Combined consumption is around 30mpg, but it must be remarked that the range of the car while I had it was a staggering 500+ miles to the tankful.

Overall, the A6 1.8T is a fine car. My quibbles are perhaps more to do with me than the car itself, so take that on board. I liked it. More, I enjoyed it.

And I really would appreciate the trip and consumption information as standard.