We tire quickly of most midsize sedans that inhabit our long-term fleet, too often relegating them to airport duty and grocery runs once the patina of newness wears thin. Blame, too, the variety our fleet offers, the beguiling lure of sports cars or the sturdy functionalism of sport-utes stealing whatever attention a sedan might otherwise muster.

Not so with the Audi S6, a rock star among four-doors.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that a 435-hp, direct-injected V10 monster propels those four doors down the road, the car reaching 60 mph from a standstill in 5.4 seconds while Audi’s quattro all-wheel-drive system provides confidence from below. We cannot dismiss, however, how much else about the car kept us coming back--its spaciousness, for one thing.

“Spent more than a week in the car, and there is very little I’d want to change,” said one editor. “Amazing how much the trunk holds, and being able to fold down the rear seats opens up more usable space, making this car not only a screamer but quite practical as well.”

It also offered one of the most comfortable rides in our fleet, despite a stiff sport suspension that crashed its way over every road imperfection. “The stiff and heavily bolstered seats might seem at odds with comfort, but I found the driver’s seat fit like a body glove after a few minor adjustments,” said one editor, echoing just about every logbook entry during the year.

The list of amenities suited us perfectly, too. The Sirius satellite radio and easy-to-manage navigation system saw almost constant use and fed a penchant for long road trips and cross-country treks. In fact, in its first three months with us, the S6 racked up more than 8,000 miles--beyond the 1,300-plus piled on during European delivery. In that stretch, the only maintenance required involved a burned-out running light.

During the Audi’s second quarter in the fleet, we received some wonderful assistance from the folks at Tire Rack in finding a set of appropriate snow tires, a difficult task given not only that the S6 came with 19-inch tires standard but that the amount of power put out by the V10 required rubber of the extra-load-bearing sort.

The winter wheels turned our S6 into a veritable snowmobile, and as it churned its way through almost 5,000 miles, the only maintenance issues involved an adjustment of the intake manifold in response to a check-engine light and updating the ECU and MP3 software as advised by a recall notice, all covered under warranty.



By the third quarter, we hit the road again in earnest, adding almost 8,000 more miles to the odometer by the nine-month mark. And from a service standpoint, if the first two quarters were uneventful, then the third was downright boring. The S6 motored along with nary a misstep--that is, as long as you overlooked the mushy brake pedal, as our dealer did.

From day one, we received complaints from every staffer about the poor feel of the brake pedal. No one could believe that an $80,000-plus car would come with such crappy brakes, but our dealer assured us at every maintenance interval that the brakes were, indeed, within specification.

“Wonderful car, great engine, great handling, great performance . . . crappy brakes,” said one editor, mirroring the entire staff’s sentiments. “They’ve been checked and rechecked multiple times and stamped as ‘functioning normal.’ So, if that is the case, then I have to say flat-out that the brakes on this car are a joke. Either Audi should be embarrassed, or our local dealer should be. Flip a coin, anyone?”

By the car’s final three months in our garage, however, complaints about the soft brake pedal had largely subsided, less because the problem had been rectified than out of sheer exhaustion from having our complaints rebuffed. Our only other criticism involved the throttle and its tendency toward an overly aggressive tip-in if not handled judiciously, a quirk we had managed to tolerate by the final three months. And the cruise control stopped working at some point, requiring an adjustment to the distance-control sensor.

Despite the occasional minor maintenance issues, the S6 performed spectacularly. It shrugged off a nasty winter, made blasting down the expressway in summer a laugh-out-loud affair and made even mundane stuff such as shuttling people around entertaining.

“This car is a blast to drive,” said one staffer. “It has a spacious trunk, a back seat that normal people can use, and it will go 155 mph. What more could you ask for?”

One final note: After our year with the S6 officially expired, the dealer finally found a problem with the brakes and fixed them.