Audi A6 vs Jaguar XE

Convenient, roomy, and well-equipped, the 2021 Audi A6 marks the important boxes for a mid-size luxury vehicle. Its cabin is filled with quality supplies and matches and finishes ranks between the most suitable the premium automobile marketplace has to offer.

The A6 also addresses tech-savvy users with plenty of displays, cameras, driver-assistance hallmarks, and convenience details sprayed during the interior. What’s missing here is the brief and tossable handling dynamics that glow so vividly in the shorter Audi A4 sedan and its two-door Audi A5 siblings.

Engine Options

Customers will pick from either a turbocharged four-cylinder engine (those models are denoted with a “45” badge) and a turbocharged V-6 (called “55”); both powertrains get a boost from a Hybrid system and get standard with all-wheel drive. The A6 is a generously styled—if slightly bland—mid-size four-door that simply attaches with competitors such as the BMW 5-series and the Mercedes-Benz E-Class but is better fitted for traveling work than taking twisty back roads.

The XE beat the market for 2017 with a lot of commitment: Its great appearances and powerful progress had it competing to be our favorite in the small-luxury-sedan section. Nevertheless, it’s an ultra-competitive division, and since the XE’s introduction, there have been two very powerful new competitors—Alfa Romeo’s sweet-driving Giulia and the all-around-excellent Genesis G70—along with a much-improved BMW 3-series.

Engine

It’s yet a looker, and it handles well, although we miss the XE’s powerful 380-hp V-6 that’s no longer available for 2020. What’s left are two turbo four-cylinder—an entry-level P250 model with 247 horsepower or a P300 with 296 horsepower —that aren’t class-leading in both performance or efficiency, and its little back seat and trunk control the XE on the practicality front. An important update for 2020 appends upgraded interior elements and supplementary characteristics but yet leaves the XE striving for mid-pack status.

The A6’s interior design is smooth, fresh, and rightly placed together from excellent-quality elements. Soft leather enhances the seats and armrests, rich-looking wood and nickel-finished metal trim is tastefully employed to the dash and doors, and the manhood of the A6’s secondary controls—climate, drive mode, etc.—are controlled by a huge touch-sensitive panel beneath the central infotainment display.

A related system is utilized in the Audi A8 luxury sedan and the Audi Q8 crossover, and notwithstanding our common griping regarding the takeover of touchscreen controls, it runs well and gives pleasant haptic feedback.

Trunk

A spacious trunk and easy-to-fold rear seatbacks perform the A6 excellent for bringing cargo. We hang six of our carry-on cases in the trunk, which matches both the E450 and the 540i. The Audi gave far more space than both of those two with the rear seats collapsed, achieving to carry 20 cases; the Mercedes-Benz held 18 and the BMW 16.

Jaguar’s interior aesthetic is fresh and contemporary, with usually high-quality elements—which made even better with the 2020 updates—and is the ideal equivalent for the XE’s elegant exterior. The driver meets a beautifully formed steering wheel, an analog tachometer and speedometer, and an optional digital gauge cluster.

The XE’s dashboard boasts big, easy-to-read climate controllers with stand-alone temperature readouts. With a broad variety of adjustability for its steering column and front seats, the driver and front-seat passenger have the range to spare. If only Jaguar could have moved some of that additional place to the rear seat, which is closer than most of the competition’s aft sections.

Trunk

On paper, at least, the XE’s trunk capacity is class-competitive, and it has a conventional 60/40 split-folding rear seat to increase that space when required. Our real-world cargo-capacity testing exposed the XE’s trunk to have limited available area than most of its rivals, even those with technically shorter trunks. What’s more, the Jag’s rear seats are hard to fold flat.

The A6’s two powertrains—a 248-hp turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder and a 335-hp turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6—are both more than adequate to pull this mid-size sedan about population. Both powertrains use hybrid technology with a 12- or 48-volt starter/alternator that drives the engine’s stop-start system and other ancillary facilities.

A seven-speed automatic transmission and a Quattro all-wheel-drive are both standards. The V-6 produces lots of thrust for joining and moving on the highway. At our test track, it runs from zero to 60 mph in just 4.8 seconds. Notwithstanding this fast result, it’s not pretty adequate to defeat its chief competitors, the BMW 540i xDrive and the Mercedes-Benz E450 4Matic.

Speed

The 540i handled a 4.5-second run, while the Benz did it in 4.6. Notwithstanding its extraordinary cornering capability and steady drive, the A6 delivers better as a luxury sedan than a sports sedan. We liked its stable handling and accurate steering but never seemed interested when tackling twisty segments of the street.

With the 380-hp supercharged V-6 and the diesel, four-cylinder went for 2020, the XE can no longer race to 60 mph in fewer than five seconds or reach more than 40 mpg on the highway like it used to. What’s left is a turbo four-cylinder in two power levels, 247 or 296 horsepower.

At least it’s honestly peaceful and clean, although the engine doesn’t influence the class in either performance or fuel economy (the BMW 330i beats it on both fronts). The XE gives exceptional body control covering bumps and through turns and presents a comfortable drive quality. An adaptive suspension with various firmness perspectives is given, but it isn’t as completely wonderful as the conventional structure.

Power

The electric power steering gives different feedback from the front wheels to the driver’s guidance, which is a significant determination booster when driving hard. We acknowledge the much-improved cornering grip and more active steering responses on XEs wearing optional summer wheels rather than the standard all-season rubber.

The A6 has gained five stars for crash-test safety from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety also announced solid outcomes for the new A6 in 2019 and listed it a Top Safety Pick+ for the 2019 and 2020 model years. Audi also gives quite a few standards and voluntary driver-assistance hallmarks, including a system that watches out for traffic to protect you from moving out of the vehicle and into the track of a traveling vehicle.

Essential safety innovations incorporate:

1.  Standard automated emergency braking
2.  Standard lane-departure warning
3.  Available adaptive cruise control

Almost every contemporary safety technology highlight is available on the XE, with an accent on “available.” Several of the hallmarks are standard, except on upper trim levels. Meantime, neither the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) nor the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has crash-tested the XE, so it’s not possible to say how safe the XE is. 

Essential safety innovations incorporate:

1.  Available automated emergency braking
2. Standard driver-drowsiness monitoring
3.  Available lane-keeping assist
4.  Available adaptive cruise control

The A6 received average fuel-economy measures from the EPA, and opting for the V-6 versus the turbo four-cylinder isn’t much of a bargain in the efficiency field. The four-cylinder A6 got a 32-mpg highway rating, which is only three more than the V-6. Still, our V-6–powered inspection vehicle achieved an admirable 32 mpg throughout our 200-mile highway fuel-economy inspection. That result sets it leading off the Benz (30 mpg) and the BMW (31 mpg) but behind the über-efficient Lexus ES350, which achieved an incredible 39 mpg in the very analysis.

The XE’s entry-level, 247-hp four-cylinder engine is ranked at 34 mpg on the highway, which piles up well against the rival(s). Nevertheless, we couldn’t resemble that in our highway-fuel-economy analysis, where our all-wheel-drive XE only accomplished 31 mpg. That’s way off of the stellar 42 mpg we observed in a rear-drive BMW 330i, and an extension to being more effective, the BMW is also much faster.

Audi’s well-known MMI infotainment interface receives a huge revamp in this repetition of the A6. It no longer utilizes a click-wheel controller on the middle console but allows reconfigurable menus so users can customize the design of the home screen to accommodate their appreciations.

An 8.8-inch display, navigation, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and onboard Wi-Fi are all standard, but Audi’s Virtual Cockpit digital gauge display and the bigger 10.1-inch infotainment display are voluntary.

A 10-speaker audio system is standard, but we’d suggest the 16-speaker Bang & Olufsen setup that gets standard on the Premium Plus and Prestige models.

All XE arrives with a 10.2-inch infotainment touchscreen and the latest variant of Jaguar’s InControl Touch Pro software. InControl Touch Pro is simple to utilize with navigable menus and a smooth presentation, but we’ve seen some bugs and notable delay time in this system and other Jaguar products.

InControl Touch Pro also introduces navigation; Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integration are standard for 2020. New this year is the capability to upgrade to Jaguar’s latest InControl Touch Pro Duo infotainment system from the I-Pace EV.

Technology Pack

It’s a portion of the Technology Pack that incorporates a wireless charging pad for phones, a head-up display, a 12.3-inch digital gauge cluster, and a second touchscreen lower in the middle stack that manages the climate system. In our experience with this system in the I-Pace, we’ve noticed it needs some time to get habitual to its complexities.