• Generous passenger room front and back
• Boot the same size as before
• Convenient shape and good access 

How much space is there?

The A6 Avant is a big car, which means generous interior room for passengers. It’s wide, so there’s excellent space in both the front or rear seats . The large glass area makes it feel light and airy up front, but that’s not the case in the rear where the tapering roofline and narrow windows mean a smaller glass area.

Despite that, it’s possible for tall adults to sit front and rear with ample leg and headroom for all, but the centre back seat is a little snug and probably best used for the armrest hidden in its back, which features a cubby and two cupholders.

Boot space and storage

The A6 Avant’s boot is large, but far from being class leading. While it’s a usable, square shape with some useful latching points in the rear it trails its rivals. At 565 litres with the rear seats up, and 1,680 folded flat, it’ll see off mid-sized estates, but can’t quite match the best of its rivals.

The Mercedes-Benz E-Class Estate offers a whopping 640 litres of space for instance, while the BMW 5 Series Touring also beats it at 570 litres. The Jaguar XF Sportbrake is on a par with the Audi when the rear seats are in place.

There are some useful touches, though. An electric tailgate comes as standard, while the load cover moves upwards and out of the way automatically, too. Interior storage is okay, but nothing mind-blowing. The door bins aren’t huge and there’s not a huge amount of extra cubby space in the cabin – it trails the E-Class here, too. 

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Is it easy to park?

The A6 is a large car, and that means it’s not so easy to park in congested cities or the smaller slots you seem to get these days. Standard-fit parking sensors and reversing camera aid manoeuvrability, as does plenty of glass to help see out when parking.

Go for the Comfort and Sound Pack and 360-degree cameras are available (or as an individual option) which will help squeeze the A6 in to tight spaces. 

However, it can feel quite wide on tight country roads and in town, but it’s easy to get used to and it doesn’t feel intimidatingly large to pilot.

Safety

• Five-star rating from Euro NCAP in 2018
• Plenty amount of safety kit
• But lots of it is optional

The A6 Avant hasn’t specifically been crash-tested by Euro NCAP, but the closely related A6 Saloon scored a five-star rating when it was scrutinised in autumn 2018. As standard, the A6 features Pre-Sense front – a traffic monitor that alerts the driver of potential hazards and collisions, with audible warnings followed by braking intervention if the driver doesn’t respond. 

There’s also several airbags, front-and rear parking sensors with camera, LED headlights, autonomous emergency braking, lane-departure warning and cruise control with speed limiter.

From the options list, a vast array of extras can be added, including:

• Matrix or HD Matrix LED lights
• Adaptive Cruise Assist
• Lane-departure warning with emergency assist
• Traffic-sign recognition
• Audi Pre-Sense Basic
• High-beam assist
• Audi Side Assist (blindspot monitoring and lane-keeping)
• Pre-Sense rear
• Front cross-traffic assist
• Head-up display
• Night vision

Many of the options are bundled into packages – namely the Tour Pack and City Assist Pack.