Overall, I have been enjoying the A6 for the past 2 years.
BHPian sawnilrules recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
27000 kms update & 2 years
Today I complete 2 years with the A6, 27000 kms on the ODO (21600 roughly with me). And it feels like the time has literally flown by. When we bought the car, it was just at 5600 kms on the ODO, and within 2 years we have clocked close to 22000 kms, to put it in perspective, my Taigun GT Plus completed 3 years with us on March 12th, and it still is at 16,000 Kms on the ODO. That clearly talks about my liking towards taking the A6 out more regularly.
Some niggles, and yet another road trip
Rear Right Door Lock Malfunction
For long I was facing this issue of rear right door lock jamming. Whenever I tried to open the rear right door via the door sensor, the door used to invariably not open, and the lock used to unlock and auto lock automatically leading to jamming the door. Moment this happened, the MID cluster showed the message of Central Lock Malfunction. This would then lead to car not getting auto locked from inside while on the move. However, if I unlocked the car with the key and then opened the rear door, the door would open normally. Even the central locking mechanism would work normally. I carried on with this, as I was too bored to send the car to service to get this rectified.
Malfunction Error Message
However, two weeks back, even with the key the rear door lock started behaving abnormally. That is how I finally dropped the car at the service to get this rectified. I first thought it is an issue with central locking mechanism, however on diagnosis, the team found out that the rear right door lock had gone kaput, and thus they replaced the lock under warranty. The team took 2 days as per the warranty process and the car was dropped home.
New Replaced Part- Observe the VW written on it
Old Part- Had Audi Rings
Faded DRL’s
This is one universal problem with the VAG cars. I faced it in Octavia as well, I have seen it happening in the Taigun as well, and I could see that the DRL’s have slightly become faded in the Audi as well.
While I reported the same to the service station, the team felt, it hasn’t become yellow enough to warrant a replacement.
Don’t they look faded?
Well, I left that conversation at that and moved on. Will now keep an eye for the DRL’s to become yellow.
Road Tripa-Mumbai-Shirdi-Shani Singnapur and Back.
It has been our annual ritual now to visit Shirdi. Interestingly, we have taken our every new car post-delivery to Shirdi, starting with Honda City in 2012, Grand i10 in 2016, Skoda Octavia in 2016, VW Taigun in 2022 & Audi in 2023 when we had just taken the deliveries. So, this is one road that we have been traveling for more than a decade, year on year.
The plan is usually pretty simple- it usually is a two-night plan. We start on a Friday night and come back by Sunday evening. So, it becomes a kind of a devotional plus relaxation trip for us.
However, this time, I had consciously planned it as one overnighter, owing to the season’s opening F1 race on last Sunday, which I couldn’t miss for anything.
Last weekend was a long weekend owing to Holi falling on a Friday. Plus, Holi is a festival, where generally, people love playing with the colors and hence rarely venture out, that is how we had pre-decided to head out to Shirdi on this weekend.
Route Map Mumbai to Shirdi
Mumbai to Shirdi is a 246 kms drive, where today 130 kms you drive on the old Mumbai-Nasik Highway, and the remaining 110 odd kms on the Samruddhi Mahamarg. The road till Bhiwandi bypass is generally slow moving, but owing to Holi, we were lucky enough to fly by this section as the traffic was sparce. The road after the toll at Asangoan improves as compared to the road till there. Before Asangoan, we crossed Amnegoan, where the Samruddhi Mahamarg ends. I am happy to report that the expressway is fully ready till the exit point. However, the authorities are building the elevation on both the sides to connect the Nasik Highway to the Expressway. I am expecting the Samruddhi Mahamarg to be operational by Mid-May.
The Samruddhi Mahamarg is a letdown. Unlike the buttery-smooth Mumbai-Pune Expressway, it’s riddled with uneven tar patches and a rough tarmac that makes high-speed driving stressful. Safety features like chevrons and SOS booths are missing, and essential services—hospitals, towing, and trucker rest areas—are scarce. While the cloverleaf interchanges and signage are a plus, the overall execution feels rushed. I had my friend who also traveled to Shirdi the same day in his Kushaq, and even he echoed the exact same sentiments, infact these were is exact words.
If you happen to face a breakdown, the lack of greenery will make breakdowns in the scorching sun unbearable, and service areas are too far apart. With no shade, no proper facilities, and miles of uninspiring concrete, this expressway is more about missed opportunities than a smooth ride. But if you look at the positives, net-net, it saves more than an hour if you are headed to Shirdi. Earlier it took almost 6+ hours to head to Shirdi from Mumbai, now, that journey is cut down to just 4.5 hours or max 5 hours depending on the traffic to reach the starting point of the Samruddhi Mahamarg.
Shirdi to singnapur
Route Map Shirdi to Singnapur
Last time around the road from Shirdi to Singnapur was partially under construction. Luckily, this time around the road is n pretty much better condition. We started from Shirdi at 7:00 in the evening and we were in Singnapur by 8:30 in the night. That is 74 kms in 1.5 hours.
How did the matrix lights perform? I have mentioned this last time as well; these lights are a bane as well as boon. Moment, you encounter pitch dark conditions, the light perform brilliantly well, the moment the sensors sense any kind of light on the road, the software switches off the matrix functionality in fraction of a second. This turns out to be very risky especially on our uncontrolled highways, where you have people driving on the wrong side, bikers deciding to simply cross at the junctions, or just pedestrians jaywalking.
Overall Statistics
- Total Kms Covered- 650 kms
- Average Speed- 75 kms/hr.
- Average Fuel Efficiency – 17.5 kmpl
- Full Tank Range- 1200 kms
For the Audiophiles here- Audi & Bang & Olufsen
Commuting in Mumbai, means spending atleast 60 to 90 mins on the road, especially in my kind of commute where I travel 30 kms each way to work. While WFH has brought in lot of flexibility, but having said that, I end up going to work atleast thrice a week, owing to multiple in-person commitments at work.
Mumbai is famous for many things, one amongst them is the Western Express Highway, which unfortunately, neither express nor can it be deemed as a highway. Also, these 60-90 mins of time becomes my solace time and hence great audio setup was always on my priority. This was one of the reason why I chose Audi A6 over others. The then E Class did come with Burmeister, but I found it more tuned towards classical music, also the BMW’s Harmon Kardon did sound punchy, but due to over emphasis on Bass, I felt the lows and mids got missed.
Now that I have spent almost 2 years with the car, here’s my little bit of google & Audi media site research on why the B&O sounds stupendous.
A6 globally comes with 3 kind of sound options to choose from as follows-
- Bang & Olufsen Sound System (5.1 surround sound, 17 speakers with 755 watts amplifier)
- Bang & Olufsen 3D Surround Sound System (5.1 surround with 3D surround drivers, 17 speakers with 755 watts amplifier)
- Bang & Olufsen 3D Advanced Sound System (5.1 surround with rising acoustics speakers, 1920 watts amplifier with 23 speakers)
However, for India, Audi has gone ahead with 17 speakers setup with 3D surround drivers. Let’s talk about the hardware first.
B&O Hardware
Speaker Placement Infograph
This Bang and Olufsen 3D surround Sound system has a 755-watt dedicated Bang and Olufsen Amplifier. The amplifier produces amazing output from deep low beats to high crisp sounds. Even when the volume is cranked up, the system is able to reproduce sound accurately without too much distortion. There are times where I have cranked up the volume all the way to 70% or more and I haven’t felt any distortion in sound quality. To ensure equal audio circulation, there are mid-range speakers, tweeters, and woofers used to optimize the cars cabin to full potential. In order to enhance the surround sound experience from all seating positions, height channel speakers are placed within the 2 speakers in A -pillars and two in the rear, complimenting the two speakers added woofers on the 3D sound effect. The audio system also has an automated noise detection feature. This device adjusts the audio parameters to the surrounding speakers and filter sound to block out known noise making it easier to listen to uniform sound throughout the cabin.
Even though technically the car is 5 years old now, there is so squeaking or rattling sound anywhere and that speaks volumes on the quality of speakers installed by Audi.
B&O Software
A6 comes with B&O’s proprietary sound profiling software which has options of customizing the equalizer, level of surround sound, depth of 3D modulation and lastly to control the punch from the subwoofer.
For the equalizer, surround field and the subwoofer, the dynamic range is from negative 10 to positive 10, depending on the depth of sound vision that you want in the car, and for the 3D surround, one can choose from off-low-mid-high. My personal sound profile settings are as below-
- Treble- Mid to High
- Bass- Low to Mid
- 3D Depth- High
- Surround- High
- Bass Module- High
Interestingly, the sound profile that you choose can be configured to the driver profile, so every time you choose the driver profile, the chosen sound profile also gets activated. Overall, I am loving the sound experience that B&O brings to the table. Looks like the next upgrade from here is going to be difficult, keeping the sound profile in mind.
Beautiful in #everyangle
Overall, I have been enjoying the A6 for the past 2 years. Yes there are few features that I miss in the car compared to the new A6, but luckily those features weren’t a must have feature considering the price for which I had bought this car to begin with.
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