Audi A6 Designer Lessons

From advance photos and first actual view, my first impression of the 2006 Audi A6 was, frankly, underwhelming. It seemed as though Audi’s middle child had been left behind by the larger A8 and the more compact A4, and now some of its changes—a large, vertical mouth of a grille, and a lower side groove that sweeps up at the rear, almost like the first Saturn sedan’s—seemed curious.

What was the designer thinking? Well, in the case of the Audi A6, designer Achim Badstuebner stood at the podium on stage at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and, using a sketch pad that was relayed onto a large screen behind him, proceeded to explain his reasons for every line—and forever changed my impression of the car.

In a clipped German accent, Badstuebner said, “To design a new car, you need pencil, paper, and vision. My vision when I was assigned to design the new A6, was to give it more of a look of youth.

“We are always looking for new ways to design the feeling of passion,” he added, then described the A6’s 2004 predecessor: “It is very German. Almost computer-perfect. Too analytical. Too German.”

What? A German engineer, working for a proud German automaker, declaring its car too German? About then, his pencil started making marks on a clean sheet of his pad. At first, it looked like scribbling, as he explained the grille. “It was always an upper and lower grille, so now we’ve combined it,” he explained, drawing the new grille, with the bar of a bumper splitting it to prevent it from looking like a yawning mouth. “A very significant grille, with a V-shaped outline. Then we have functional flanks that carry the lamps . . .” As his pencil darted back and forth, the lines and vague circles started filling in, like a blurred camera viewfinder being adjusted into precise focus. “The lamps are the eyes of the car. We have good, strong eyes. And air intakes on the side, with fog lamps. This is a face we’ll never forget—especially on the autobahn.”

Badstuebner ripped off his finished sketch and started anew. “The rear. It was important to keep the character of the old A6, but we first add a spoiler to the top of the trunk. When a car is always, always logical, it’s hard for it to be too emotional.” He drew the bumper coming to a horizontal edge. “We have a floating reflection on the rear bumper,” he said.

New sheet, for the side view. “We wanted this to be the first four-door coupe,” he said. “This will be the only coupe in that class of business sedans. The side panel is swept up at both ends.” As he drew that lower line curving up at the rear wheel well, he added, “Doesn’t it look a lot like a wing?”

True enough, his sketch resembled the cross-section of an airplane wing.

The next morning, we test-drove the A6 through the coastal redwoods north of San Francisco. As for performance, the powerful V–8 felt strong and sure-footed, but I was more impressed with the new V–6, a 3.2-liter jewel with cutting-edge direct-injection technology and 255 horsepower—less than the V–8’s, but thirty-five more than the previous V–6’s. The V–6 feels more agile and lighter up front than the V–8, and its base price is $41,900, or $10,000 below the V–8. The new body, 34 percent more rigid yet lighter, and a new six-speed automatic transmission, equip the A6 for battle in the hotly contested mid-luxury category against BMW, Mercedes, Acura, Lexus, Cadillac, Volvo, Infiniti, and Jaguar.

We stopped at a coffee shop, and I overheard Badstuebner talking to a woman with whom he had been riding. “Step back,” he said, as he gestured toward the space between the right front fender and the top of the arching wheel opening. “You see here, in certain light, how the reflection forms a Z? I worked for weeks to get that reflection exactly as I wanted it.”

It was as if I was hearing Picasso fully explain his reasons for each brushstroke of a painting. It is impossible to not be impressed when you learn of the emotion and energy the designer put into every line.

Every time I see a new A6, I admire those contours anew. And from the side, I no longer see any resemblance to the first Saturn. No, it definitely is the cross-section of a wing.

Reach John Gilbert at jwgilbert.com. He talks new cars with Charlie Boone on WCCO AM–830 Saturdays at 7 a.m.