[__Beamer-Guy@07]

Awesome car man !! Audi is the only brand who is not giving in to polarising designs like bmw and Mercedes. This will age like fine wine and is definitely a looker

[sawnilrules]

Dent Removal Update:

I am happy to report that the A6 is back with me and as expected, Qasim (the friend that I was referring to), who runs this FNG exclusively for German Cars, and who also works in the area of restoration of cars for his clients, has once again done a fab job. He largely followed a five-step process- filling, sanding, priming, repainting, and clear-coating the area. What I love about his job is his eye for detail. If anyone in Mumbai, wants to avail his services, do DM me.

Posting the picture for your reference. Probably it is should be clear here. A Before and After picture should help.

Before



After



Ceramic Retouch Up

As soon as I got the car yesterday, I have sent the car for Ceramic Retouch Up. It was due since last 3 months, but considering the dent on the car, which needed attention first, I postponed this. I have handed over the car to Suraj from The Washing Culture Team, and he has his setup at D N Nagar, Andheri West as well as on SV Road Kandivali West. This is the second time that the Audi is going to him for a Ceramic Re-Touch Up. In the past he has already worked on my Skoda Octavia as well as VW Taigun.

Few Pictures

Both my Taigun & Octavia Together...



Gosh, I miss my Octavia, she was such a fun car.

The Car at The Washing Culture




Work Initiated



Additionally, I have also told him to do interior leather polish and deep cleaning. I will be picking up the car tomorrow noon.

Stay Tuned for the before and after pictures of the car and couple of more interesting updates.

[sachin_cs]

You do have an eye for maintaining your cars Nilesh, being able to keep your car in spic & span condition that too in a city like Mumbai is a testament. Keep sharing pictures of the beautiful A6 and yes, that Octavia’s design still looks one of the better timeless designs that Skoda pulled off.

[sawnilrules]

Originally Posted by sachin_cs

You do have an eye for maintaining your cars Nilesh, being able to keep your car in spic & span condition that too in a city like Mumbai is a testament.

Thank you Sachin, Driving around in Mumbai, one has to be in state of Zen Mind. That is what I do every-time that I take the A6 out.

Originally Posted by sachin_cs

Keep sharing pictures of the beautiful A6 and yes, that Octavia’s design still looks one of the better timeless designs that Skoda pulled off.

I quite agree with you on the Octavia part, there is something about the Octavia, everybody loves in the family. For example, the other day, I overheard my dad telling one of his relative, "Audi-Wodi, yeh sab thik hain, but the comfort of our earlier Octavia was much better than our Audi" & then in the some other party, I heard my wife saying, " Yaar I miss the boot opening of the Octavia, it was so easy to load and unload the bags."

And in my mind, I am thinking, what is it, that I am missing of my Octavia...

Below things came to my mind

• The DSG of the Octavia shifted faster, as compared to the A6
• While on paper, boot space of both the Octavia and A6 are similar, but the usability of the boot was much better in the Octavia.
• The Suspension setup in the Octavia, I find it much sharper than the A6.
• The Octavia had an aggressive pull, while the A6 has a much linear pull.

However having said that, I must say, the A6 is a phenomenal product, and I still can't figure out, why the blokes at Audi are not able to sell the car in good numbers.

[sawnilrules]

Ceramic Coat & Other Updates

The car is back after ceramic coating, and I must say, the car is looking stunning. Below are few pictures that I managed to click at the Washing Culture. I must say, Suraj and his team have done a fabulous job once again. Suraj is yet to share the before after pictures, will post them too, once I have them in my gallery.

The Dazzling Front



I Love This Angle Of The Car



The Shine



Rear Looks Shimmery Too




But with the ceramic coat, I have realised one thing, the car quickly becomes a dust magnet, moment I stepped out of his workshop, and went to the Audi West Dealership, the car became dusty in a matter of 10-15 minutes. Thankfully, the team at Audi West, happily obliged and wiped the car once again for me.

I was toying with the idea of sprucing up the car a bit, considering I had just pampered it with Ceramic. There were 2 things in my mind- Audi Projection Logo for the doors or Audi Self Levelling Wheel Hubs for the alloys. At first, I thought of going with both in following combination of Audi Projection Logos for the front 2 doors and Self Levelling Hubs for the alloys, (Budget Constraints Coming to Play you see ) but then eventually, I settled for Audi Projection Logos for all the 4 doors. Thanks to our fellow team bhpian and a close and old friend of mine Rajwant Bajwa who came to my rescue, considering I was confused. He said, people may not notice the self levelling logos on the wheel hubs, but the Audi Projection Logos won't go unnoticed. Thus I made the switch. A big shoutout to him to, for suggesting the right thing.

Prices of the product in the images below

Logo Projection Lights



Self Levelling Hubs



At the dealership today set of 4 was not available, however, I got 2 fitted on the front doors, the rear one will be fitted sometime this week, when the same is restocked at the dealership. Observe the brightness of the logo, this is in the day light, I am sure, this one will look stunning in the night.

The Logo Projection



Additionally, there was yet another reason to visit the Audi West Dealership Today.

Well, I am happy to update that we have added one more Audi to the family as my younger cousin brother picked up the Q3 Technology Pack (Black & Brown). We had booked the car last Friday, and we got the delivery today. Through and through, I must say the Safa from Audi West, ably led by Aditya Jani, did a fantastic job of securing one happier and content customer. The team kept providing us constant updates on the status of the car, the loan formalities, the registration formalities, etc.

Coming to the car, it looks stunning in black. Initially I was a bit skeptical on Black & Brown combination, and I was pushing him to go for Black & Beige, however, I am glad that my brother stuck on to his colour choice of Black & Brown, the car indeed looks more sportier in this combination.

Can You Spot The Q Hiding Behind



A Better View of the Q, standing proudly, shielded it's elder sibling The A6



Overall, I am happier too, as we have added one more #vorsprungdurchtechnik to the family.

[sh3lby]

Originally Posted by sawnilrules

Driving the Mercedes Benz E450

“Once in a lifetime, a car comes along—one that flirts with perfection. A car that doesn’t just transport but captivates. One that engages all your senses, effortlessly gliding forward as if the world itself bends to its presence. A car that knows its power, that carries an unshakable confidence—leaving nothing but admiration in its wake.

That is the all-new Mercedes-Benz E450, ladies and gentlemen.

Its silky-smooth inline-six isn’t just powerful; it’s persuasive. It urges you forward, yet makes you wish the journey would never end. The rear seats recline in a way that would make a business-class lounge feel inadequate, while the ambient lighting wraps around you like a tailored suit—elegant, precise, and unmistakably luxurious. And for the Mrs.? Her personal screen ensures she’s as engrossed in the experience as you are.

When a car this close to perfection arrives, you don’t hesitate. You buy it.”

Apply for a Mercedes-Benz marketing position please, this reads 10x better than the corny descriptions automakers are churning put nowadays. V well written.

[vroomingahead]

Originally Posted by sawnilrules

I was toying with the idea of sprucing up the car a bit, considering I had just pampered it with Ceramic. There were 2 things in my mind- Audi Projection Logo for the doors or Audi Self Levelling Wheel Hubs for the alloys.

Exactly my experience, I got both and people hardly notice self levelling hub caps (Dynamic Hub Caps as they are called). But everyone notices the projector logos light.

[GT_424038]

Have a look with my door projection lights setup. Apologies for poor lighting conditions.



Would also like to add that my car went for its second annual service in February 2025 and to my surprise I was treated with a free gift from Audi Lucknow which includes a scale model of one of its iconic Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II and an E-tron 3 in 1 charging cable. My Car is covered under 5 years CSP thus I didn't had to pay anything except Rs. 574 for getting the batteries replaced for both my keys. Attaching a screenshot of the WhatsApp chat in which the dealer had sent a thankyou message along with a picture of the free gifts.

Highly satisfied with the service experience at Audi Lucknow

[sawnilrules]

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 Trip- 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.

[sachin_cs]

BHPian Nilesh and I have known each other since the Slavia premier days and we have been in constant touch since then. We both were Skoda owners (he’s an Audi guy now but still in the VAG family), we both are car fanatics and we can talk cars all day long. So, it happened that I was to be in Mumbai for 3 days and who better to connect with other than Nilesh in his city. What was supposed to be an evening dinner turned out to be a full blown car day, a perfect BHPians day out.

With no agenda in place, we met at his office and then went on a drive in his beautifully maintained Audi A6 TFSI C8, on the go, we decided to visit the BMW showroom to checkout the new 5. But first, we explored the beautiful sides of Mumbai like the Marine Drive, Atal Setu, I really wanted to checkout this piece of engineering and thanks to Nilesh for letting me drive his A6. Few observations about his A6-

• First & foremost, the car has been very well maintained, there’s not a single scratch on the car, I’m sure it takes a lot of efforts to keep the car spotless in a city like Mumbai
• As expected, the Audi interior continues to impress even after 5 years. The kind of materials used, the leather, wooden veneer, everything feels special
• Audi digital cockpit has enormous configurations available, the best part is that you can project the maps too
• I was taken aback by the ride quality, the car cushions you from the road imperfections very well, especially in the roads of Mumbai as its dug out most of the times, surprising for a car which is running on low profile 19” setup.
• Nilesh has done some subtle mods which doesn’t scream out loud but adds small value to everyday driving e.g. some VCDS mods like RS display, 5 blinks and my absolute favourite, the OEM 19 wheels, it has changed the stance of the car
• For anyone who has driven VAGs, getting comfortable behind the wheel doesn’t take much time, you will feel at home soon and surprisingly for what is a ~5m long car, it hides the size very well
• The NVH was fantastic and the B&O music setup was a banger, there was a point where in we were playing Chaiyya Chaiyya by AR Rahman & vibing to it, the whole experience was phenomenal
• The 19” Rims have made the steering feel sharper and the car feels composed around the corners

Soon after the drive, we went to Navnit Motors BMW and there we met Mr Mukund, who happens to be Nilesh’s friend. A big shoutout to Mr Mukund for his warm hospitality, we walked in the showroom to just have a look at the new 5 but we did end up checking out the 3GL & new X3 too. The new 5 is an interesting proposition from BMW, brought in to take the E Class head on but it has it’s fare shares of pros & cons, it has got that premium interiors with high grade materials inside, great cushioning, ride & where it lacks is the adjustments available on the rear seats like the blinds, seats etc, keeping those aside, it is a fantastic product. Since we were so engrossed in the discussion not just limited to cars, we didn’t realise when 5 PM became 9, in the end, we 3 ended up having dinner together at a nice restaurant by the name Radha Krishna nearby. A perfect way to end the day with good cars, good food & great people. A big thanks to BHPian Nilesh for taking out time from his busy schedule and taking me around Mumbai, I really appreciate it brother, looking forward to having many such good times ahead.

Here are some pics-
















The beautiful rear