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The concept is tempting: escape to an island and for a moment to the unrest of the world. But when we boarded a ferry to that position, Beaver Island, in Lake Michigan, we start to wonder if escape is valuable to get there. We’ve already driven 4 hours north to Charlevoix, and now we’ll spend two more for a 32-mile boat ride that costs $32.50 consistently with what’s consistent. I deserve to have brought a book.
We paid $105 for the other smart people at Beaver Island Boat Company to also load our Audi A6 Allroad 2020 on the ferry. This car is a kind of fantasy that comes to life. This is an example of the rare European rupture that made the leap from banned fruit to the fully learned and federalized vehicle for sale at U.S. dealerships. But that doesn’t mean it’s going to be a commodity.
In fact, this Allroad is the only car among the helmet cars (in fact, we don’t count the Dodge Journey). And it’s going to be a show in the United States, because we don’t expect Audi to sell more than a few thousand a year here. But interestingly, the Allroad is a component of a trend, even if it has an attractive niche.
Smart cars like this are experiencing a little resurgence in America. Some of them are adorned with plastic frame cover parts and height-adjustable SUV suspensions, however, we know a genuine carriage when we see one. Volvo has the V60 and V90; Mercedes, E-Class; Jaguar, the XF Sportbrake; and Porsche, yes, even Porsche, has the Panamera Sport Turismo. But Audi surpasses them all, providing two truck sizes (A4 and A6) as Volvo, as well as a superior functionality variant (the 591-horsepower Avant RS6) like Mercedes and Porsche. U.S. automakers, at least those with an available source of income, are now in the unlikely position of not being able to choose.
Beaver Island is home to about six hundred citizens throughout the year, and even as tourism resumes in the summer, the only time we see something that looks like a crowd is when the ferry docks and we’ll disembark passengers. As we wait to disembark, we are traversed by the supposedly choreographed movements of the ferry staff as they unload all kinds of cars: bicycles, structure equipment, large trucks. Finally, our Soho Brown Allroad leaves the shipment and we go to see what this little rock offers in the middle of a lake.
Beaver Island, which occupies 55 square miles of the lake, has about a hundred miles of road. But few of those routes are similar to those we use at home, and some of them broaden the definition of “road.” For example, on the map, Gull Harbor Drive appears to be a beautiful waterfront road at the northeast end of the island. This is not the case, as we notice when we stubbornly press the symptoms of the “Closed Way” to realize that this narrow dirt road simply discards in the crystal clear and transparent water of the lake. So we headed to the other end of the island on King’s Highway, one of the few paved roads, and touched the floor along East Side Drive. We chose the car’s Allroad driving mode, which lifts the 1.2-inch frame through popular pneumatic springs. (There is also another elevator from 0.6 inches to less than 22 mph).
In fact, we are likely to cross very well one of the island’s well-maintained dirt roads into an A6 sedan. But is it more appropriate to explore in this subtly powerful car physically? This is the kind of gentle adventures for which the Allroads are intended, and the brown paint and grey lining of the A6 wheel passage blend magnificently with the bright green trees, bright blue water and rich brown sand that make up the landscape of Beaver Island. The pneumatic spring configuration provides incredibly stylish driving, keeping passengers comfortable on the stretches of the road to wash.
The high height of the Allroad frame, the revised suspension configuration and the long ceiling frame on the rear of the B bracket are the only significant differences from the A6 sedan. The two are also mechanically the same and operate with the same 3.0-liter turbocharged V-6, which produces 335 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque and uses a discrete 48-volt hybrid system. A seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission is standard, as is The Audi Quattro with Ultra All-Wheel Drive System, which includes a rear axle decoupling function to save fuel. That turns out to be working. Back on a paved road, the Allroad reaches a remarkable 34 mph on our 75 mph road fuel economy circuit.
On the check rink, the A6 car rolls at 60 mph in 5.2 moments and travels the quarter mile in 13.8 moments at 102 mph. This makes it a slower time in any of the configurations than the A6 2019 sedan, which is 155 pounds lighter. At the northern end of the island, the 25 mph speed restriction symptoms move us at a slower pace, we see no restrictions published in the maximum remote spaces to the south. There, the V-6 drives the Allroad with a sense of simple strength, however, the engine score is so flat and remote that we find ourselves without the fill character inside Audi’s old supercharged V-6. The dual-clutch transmission adjusts temporarily and smoothly, but presents enough discomfort at low speed to ask why Audi doesn’t use ZF’s unmatched eight-speed automatic transmission here, as it does on the Q7 SUV with this engine.
Audi’s dual-screen information and entertainment setup is a questionable decision. We are not too involved in diverting air conditioning touch controls on quiet Beaver Island, where roads are often empty. But back in the hustle and bustle of life in general, we preferred Audi’s oldest and least annoying MMI configuration, which used touch buttons and satisfying buttons on the dashboard and an intuitive swivel controller on the console.
We are a little disappointed that we have cellular service in much of the island. The Wi-Fi connection aboard the Allroad looks bad in a position like this, however, expect some point of connectivity in a vehicle starting at $66895. Our prestige style very optional, which has luxuries such as heated and ventilated front seats, a head demonstration and soft locking doors, stickers for $72,910. That’s enough to give you a large plot of land on Beaver Island, if it’s a small rustic cabin.
However, the maximum of others will never take into account any of those specific purchases. Just because you know the island exists doesn’t mean you’re going there, and breaks like the A6 Allroad take place in the U.S. Doesn’t mean other people will buy them. But that would possibly be the point. An A6 Allroad wouldn’t seem desirable if you saw one on every corner of the street, and Beaver Island wouldn’t feel so beautifully remote if it were overrun by tourists. These kinds of hidden gems are undeniably special, however, they don’t spread the word too much. And if you’re on vacation on Beaver Island, don’t bring a smart eBook for the ferry ride.
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