Esteemed senior editor Jonny Lieberman summed up his thoughts after his drive of the new A6 earlier this year: "Like the A4 and the A8, the adaptive [Servotronic] steering is the A6's weakest link. Overboosted and sloppy in Comfort mode; artificially heavy, uncommunicative and just plain sketchy in Dynamic mode; and God knows what you're going to get in Auto mode (overboosted and uncommunicative?)"



Associate editor and resident European car wonk Mike Febbo said this after a few days behind the wheel of the A6 tester: "The A6 steering is like a band with a musician missing. There is a layer of vibration that comes through the wheel that feels like road surface, then there is the resistance from turning the wheel, and you can feel resistance load-up from scrub radius/caster trail. But there is a layer missing. The road feel doesn't seem to change with big steering movements; you don't feel what the contact patch is really doing. There are two distinct feelings coming from the wheel, but they seem unrelated. There's drums and guitar, but the bassist just isn't tying it all together."

Try as Audi's engineers might -- and they are trying mightily with the A6's drive select settings and other countermeasures -- the bashing continues. There are limits to what a front-drive based car with a 55/45 weight distribution and an engine out in front of the half shafts can accomplish from a steering-feel perspective. But the A6 makes up for it with impressive track numbers.

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