Price of A6 drops to stand out against other luxury brands 08/19/2011
The base price of a new Audi A6 was just reduced from the $45,200 cost of the previous model to $41,700 in an effort to boost sales and gain an edge over BMW and Mercedes-Benz.
The BMW 5-Series and the Mercedes E-Class sedans sell approximately five and six times more than the A6, respectively, according to Bloomberg. The 5-Series line starts at $45,050 and the E-Class base price is roughly $49,400, so Audi's price break could win over drivers who are looking for new cars in the luxury market.
"If they want to get to their goal of being the number one premium brand, if they want to get to the goal of 200,000 units in the United States, obviously they need to improve in that segment," Tom Libby, an auto-sales analyst at the NJ-based automotive data center Polk, told Bloonberg.
Last year saw a major improvement in sales of the A6, and the numbers even set a U.S. record for the German car company. Perhaps the increased interest in the new car has something to do with all of the cool gadgets and features packed into it. The Audi has self-parking technology, a navigation system that uses Google Earth and keyless ignition. The Prestige edition also offers a BOSE sound system, which can transform the passenger cabin into a private concert hall.
The base A6 has a 2.0-liter, turbocharged DOHC engine that delivers 211 horsepower and zips from zero to 60 in 7.5 seconds. It also has a combined fuel economy of 28 miles per gallon. The next step up is the 3.0-liter V6 engine that offers more power (310 hp) and better acceleration (zero to 60 in 5.3 seconds), but these advantages come at the cost of fuel efficiency as the bigger engine only gets a combines 22 mpg.