Audi A6 Avant: long-term revelations

Premium cars are defined by the details and extra engineering that makes them more special than volume cars. A luxury manufacturer, goes the thinking, has more money and more need to make more bespoke cars - their models must do all the mainstream does but offer something extra on top, too.

The edge in build quality, high-line features and classy togetherness they give is often apparent even from a first drive. But premium makers also spend amply on the tiniest of details too. Two months in, here are those that have struck me on the MSN Cars Audi A6 Avant.

Premium cars should make solid, reassuring noises when you close the door. The A6 ticks this box, but in an unexpected way: the noise is less vault-like, more technical, like the lightweight 'whumph' you'd expect of a door closing at the McLaren HQ, as opposed to the heavy-duty clink of a door at Bentley HQ.

There's reason here: all the A6 body panels are aluminium. Naturally, this is lighter, but the aurals are also different when you close it too (try tapping a piece of steel and a piece of aluminium to get an idea). Audi has ensured it's fully damped though, so there's no rattle or vibration, just a heavyweight feel of lightweightness. I love it: closing an A6 door always elicits a little feel-good vibe.

Seriously, I could stare at this for hours. Instead of a simple painted gearshift pattern on a piece of plastic, Audi fits an extended-H-shaped trace of polished chrome, set behind clear resin. It is gorgeous, deep and lustrous, and catches the light to glint like jewellery beneath. Rarely has the top of a gearknob looked so rich…*

This is serious engineering. The smooth cool-touch metal finish of the button, with red LED indicator set within, feels built to withstand anything the world can throw at it. The action is firm, solid, purposeful, with not an ounce of wibble-wobble. The loud click is purposeful, rich. Audi has paid good money for this button, to remind you of its heavyweight engineering each time you use it.

(Of course, the electric handbrake should also be auto-release, so you don't have to touch it, but it does this only two-thirds of the time, seemingly randomly. Best get out the owner's manual, then, to find out what the parameters are...)

The A6 headlights are remarkable pieces of engineering. Their shape from afar hides something more akin to high-tech sculpture up close. Architectural shapes and an expensive mix of surfaces is enhanced each time you unlock it, because they illuminate as you approach (neat detail) to reveal the white-light xenon glow and fascinating daytime running light track around the outside edge. Who knew headlights could be so alluring? This is the mark of a premium brand over a mainstream one, and Audi certainly leads in the area of jazzy headlight tech.

Two big round dials dominate the A6 instrument pack. They're immaculately marked out, with white backlit numerals all in the Audi font, pointed at by long red needles. It's all ultra-precise and extremely nice to look at. With polished silver rings, the dials are more like a posh watch: something that do a job but are to also be enjoyed.

And what really reinforces this for me? The way they sit, engine off, completely vertical at 6 o'clock. Why I like this so much, I'm not sure (premium brand black magic?), but there really is something quite satisfying about seeing them standing to attention then springing swiftly clockwise into life when you start it up...

That's five details for starters, then, with many more revealing themselves every day. This is what makes a car premium: can you ever imagine talking about the look of a Ford gear knob in the pub, or the noise a Vauxhall Insignia door makes when it's closed?

Arguably not: premium is the motoring gift that keeps on giving. Maybe that's the reason why, once in a premium-brand car, few go back to mainstream…

Overall, the LED lights are widely used most new cars such as LED Dome Lights, LED Daytime Running Lights, and will come out with even more innovation in the future.