After living with the RS4 sports estate for six months, James Baggott upgrades to the fastest of Audi’s load luggers.

If running an Audi RS4 for six months felt like a lottery win – I can only imagine this is what a Euromillions jackpot feels like.

Ok, so perhaps that’s a little overdramatic, but I must say I was rather excited when a nice man from Oxfordshire arrived with an RS6 replacement for my previous long-term loan Audi RS4.

What’s different about the bigger brother apart from the additional two in its name, I hear you ask? Well, actually rather a lot.

For the uninitiated, the RS6 is the undisputed king of the sports tourer world. It’s got more power – 591bhp no less, and a stomach-punching 800Nm of torque.

Those figures wouldn’t look out of place on a supercar’s specification and, in fact, they serve up performance that would humble most exotic motors, especially considering it can do it while carrying several sacks full of rubbish for the tip at the same time.

The 0-60mph dash is dispatched in as little as 3.6 seconds and it’ll go on to a limited top speed of 155mph.

Compared to my previous RS4’s stats of 444bhp, 600Nm and 0-60mph in 4.1 seconds – itself no slouch – you can see the 6 gets some healthy improvements.

While the increase in performance figures might appear small on paper, after a few weeks with the RS6 it’s become clear that this feels more like a performance car. The throttle is sharper, the exhaust note a little deeper and it’s shockingly rapid off the line.

The eight-speed gearbox can be switched between a normal ‘drive’ and ‘sport’ mode, and in the latter, it sounds louder, changes are swifter and everything feels more assertive. I’m looking forward to some fun drives over the summer, that’s for sure.

The biggest change, though, is the additional space. As much as I loved the RS4, it was just a little too small at times, especially with a kid’s car seat in the rear.

The problem with the 4 was you couldn’t put the front passenger seat back far enough to make it comfortable when the Isofix seat and base were in position. In the RS6, there’s lots more space and that additional legroom has certainly been felt by the family.

The other big noticeable difference – apart from the performance, of course – is with the tech. The RS6 benefits from a far more modern twin touch screen multimedia interface and digital dashboard and it’s really rather smart.

The haptic feedback on the buttons is a classy touch and it all seems very logically laid out. I’m still getting used to it, but it makes the car feel a lot more premium than its smaller sibling (not that I had any complaints there).

The RS6 also looks more menacing than the RS4. While I loved the smaller car’s proportions and subtle, aggressive lines, the RS6 has a much wider stance with a lower nose and angular diffuser at the rear.

I’ve already had plenty of compliments on the Ultra Blue colour, too. In certain light, it shimmers beautifully and several people have said how much they love it – usually while I’m pumping it full of fuel, which is often.

If I thought my trips to the pumps were frequent in the RS4, then I’m going to soon have a bulging points card at my local filling station thanks to the RS6’s thirst. On a couple of trips around town recently I’ve seen 11mpg. Yes, 11.

However, that said, on longer motorway trips, thanks to 48v technology that shuts down the engine and allows it to coast to save fuel, it manages to achieve high twenties. It’ll be interesting to see how fuel consumption settles down during my time with the car.

Facts at a glance

• Model: Audi RS6
• Price as tested: £106,020
• Engine: 4.0-litre V8
• Power: 591bhp
• Torque: 800Nm
• 0-60mph: 3.6 seconds
• Top speed: 155mph
• MPG: 22.4mpg (combined)
• Emissions: 286g/km CO2
• Mileage: 11,256

The M60i brings extra performance to the super-sized X7. James Baggott has been behind the wheel to see what it’s like.

What is it?

Meet BMW’s largest off-roader – now with added punch: The BMW X7 M60i. This is the German firm’s ultra-luxury SUV and is designed with well-heeled families in mind. It has acres of space for family transportation with two pop-up rear seats hidden in the boot floor and a sumptuous second row with so much leg space the toddlers will struggle to kick the back of your chair.

The huge SUV joined the BMW line-up in 2019 and was given a mid-life facelift at the end of last year with an updated front end and mild hybrid engines. It’s best to think of the X7 as the off-road version of the firm’s 7 Series bringing luxurious touches to off-road chic.

What’s new?

The X7’s refresh was relatively mild with most of the attention focused on the whopping kidney grille at the front. New daytime running lights and adaptive LED headlights were added, and at the back, the lights got a new look too.

Inside the curved display is focused towards the driver and showcases a huge amount of information. It also benefits from hand gesture controls, letting you turn the volume of the music up with a twizzle of your finger. However, this is more a passenger pleaser than actually of any use but is fun to use nonetheless.

What’s under the bonnet?

This review focuses on the top-of-the-range model: The M60i xDrive. This has an impressive 530bhp and 750Nm of torque available from its 4.4-litre V8 petrol. That’s enough to propel it to 60mph in just 4.7 seconds.

For our test drive, we travelled across France to the Alps in a 1,500-mile round trip. The engine was remarkably smooth and relaxing for the duration with spades of power in reserve when it was needed. While big V8s might be fast becoming a thing of the past, there’s a lot to be said for the silky smooth power delivery they can serve up.

Fuel economy for the trip was impressive too. Officially it will do 21.2mpg on the combined cycle, but we got closer to 30mpg thanks to long stretches of motorway miles. It helps that all engines now come with 48V mild hybrid technology which assists the engine to improve efficiency at higher speeds and can even drive the car electrically at very low speeds. The energy is created by braking regeneration and stored in a battery in the engine compartment.

What’s it like to drive?

Over the huge distances we covered during our test, the X7 was incredibly relaxing to drive. Despite its huge size, the road and wind noise was noticeable by its absence and the way the big SUV rides means we jumped out at the end of our 13-hour drive reasonably fresh. The adaptive air suspension certainly helped.

It’s surprising how quickly you get used to the sheer size of the car and the clever parking cameras and sensors make it pretty easy to slot into parking spaces. We had a few issues with the radar cruise control on our trip, though, as it stopped working a number of times.

How does it look?

With the two extra seats in the rear boot floor – which rise and lower electronically at the touch of a button – the X7 is noticeably longer than its X5 little brother. But, despite this extra length, the proportions are still pleasing to the eye. The huge front grille won’t be to everyone’s tastes, though, but in the M Sport spec of our test car, it certainly looked menacing.

What’s it like inside?

There’s no doubt this is a luxurious SUV that could easily rival cars costing considerably more. We’d suggest it would give the likes of the new Range Rover and even a Bentley Bentayga a run for their money.

The new curved screen is wonderful to use and offers a huge expanse of space to display information. The 12.3-inch screen behind the steering wheel offers clever touches like augmented navigation directions that overlay arrows over a live video feed of the road ahead while the 14.9-inch control display is easy to manipulate.

The display and the software take a little bit of getting used to, though – but this is no complicated iDrive of old, which used to frustrate owners. The new version simply has so many screens and functions that it can take time to work out where things are.

We did find the button for the massaging seats, though, which offered heating, cooling and a variety of different back kneading modes.

What’s the spec like?

Our test model had the Comfort and Ultimate packs added. The first offers heated and cooled cup holders (very useful) as well as heated front and rear seats for £3,750. The Ultimate Pack (£11,000) adds extras including those aforementioned massaging seats, rear window blinds, an incredible Bowers & Wilkins sound system and a panoramic glass roof.

The standard specification is high to start with and includes 21-inch alloys, illuminated kidney grille, ambient lighting and metallic paint. Inside you get a sports steering wheel, four-zone air con and acoustic glass. Apple CarPlay and a wireless charging tray for your mobile are also included. M Sport specification models, like our test car, get extra badging and some additional design tweaks.

Verdict

There are very few BMW X7s sold every year – less than a thousand, in fact – and that’s a real shame because we think this is a genuine alternative to the likes of a Range Rover. It offers fantastic driver and passenger comfort, is packed with luxurious extras and, with this stonking M60i powerplant, is great fun to drive.

Wafting across France was a pleasure in the handsome SUV and with two children in tow, it coped with all the additional space requirements they demanded with ease. The boot is absolutely humongous, we loved the powered third row of seats that rise out of the floor at a touch of a button and it was very relaxing to drive. If you’re in the market for one of the largest SUVs around, the X7 certainly comes highly recommended.

Facts at a glance

• Model: BMW X7 xDrive60i
• Base price: £82,450Price as tested: £115,615
• Engine: 4.4-litre petrol
• Power: 530bhp
• Torque: 750Nm
• Max speed: 155mph
• 0-60mph: 4.7 seconds
• MPG: 21.2mpg
• Emissions: 277g/km

In the interests of balanced reporting, James Baggott reluctantly handed over the keys to his long term loan Audi RS4 to some colleagues…

While the Audi RS4 has certainly won a place in my heart over the past few months, I’ve recently been interested to hear what other people think of it.

And rather than ask people in the street – many of whom usually offer their opinion without me asking (some good, some bad) – I thought I’d try a more scientific approach and let some others test it out properly.

So, in the interest of a balanced opinion, I rather reluctantly handed the keys to my long term loan Audi over to two colleagues.

Interestingly the feedback I got from them both was mixed. One absolutely loved the fast estate, while the other gave it a somewhat mixed review. I’ll start with the complaints.

“It’s certainly fast, makes a brilliant noise and the seats are incredibly comfortable,’ said James Batchelor, who has been testing cars for more than a decade.

“But the ride quality is awful. It goes very well in a straight line but in the corners it’s really underwhelming.”

He went on to moan about the hard tyre walls, but by that point I’d stopped listening. While I agree with his compliments I have to disagree with his complaints. I’ve found the Audi wonderfully comfortable and while it might crash over the largest of potholes – seemingly more than a metre deep around these parts – for the majority of the time, I can’t fault it.

Perhaps I had just got used to the ride over the last few months. I certainly wouldn’t call it awful. Earlier this month I took the RS4 on a longer journey – in fact, its longest yet, a near-1,500-mile round trip to the Alps – and I shared the driving with a colleague.

Joe Wallington owns an Audi himself, albeit an older A1, so was looking forward to trying out the comparatively luxurious RS4 on the trip south.

He spent a lot of our journey to and from Chamonix behind the wheel and loved the ride quality. Perhaps some of this was to do with the super smooth French autoroutes, but that said the local roads in and around the ski resort would make some British B roads look well maintained and there were certainly no complaints there.

He also praised the tech – citing the multimedia system as far improved over his older A1 and a delight to use ‘because it just works’. He said it was comfortable and also pretty spacious, coping with our ski kit and us pretty well.

He did have a couple of moans, though. The winter tyres that Audi kindly shod the vehicle on for the trip were ‘very noisy’ and he also wasn’t a fan of the tub-thumping beat that plays every time you get out of the car. In previous updates you might remember I moaned about this exit soundtrack myself and I still haven’t worked out how to turn it off.

He’s right about the winters, they were a bit noisy. But I was rather pleased they were on, despite the relative lack of snow in the Alps.

On our last day the skies opened and the white stuff came bucketing down – always seems to be the case on the last day of a ski holiday – and those winters gave us both a welcome bit of added confidence thanks to their improved grip.

So, in the interests of wrapping this piece up, I asked both my colleagues if they would buy the RS4 with their own money. At £85k, the high performance estate is quite pricey and in that price bracket there’s a lot of choice.

The results? Well, in football speak, it was one-all. While Joe said he would, James wasn’t so sure and declined the offer. However, as this is my report I get the casting vote, and I certainly would shell out for one.

Over the last few months the Audi has proven to be a comfortable, entertaining, classy and an incredibly exciting car to drive. So much so, it’ll be sorely missed when Audi come round and prise the keys from my hands. Until then, I’ll be making sure I enjoy the change in the weather and getting out there in the Audi to enjoy it.

Facts at a glance

• Model: Audi RS4
• Price as tested: £85,000
• Engine: 3.0-litre twin turbo petrol
• Power: 444bhp
• Torque: 600Nm
• 0-60mph: 4.1 seconds
• Top speed: 155mph
• MPG: 28.5mpg (combined)
• Emissions: 225g/km CO2
• Mileage: 6,439

When it comes to transporting little ones and their equipment, the larger the vehicle the better. Does the RS4 fit the bill? James Baggott finds out.

People have different ideas of what makes the perfect parent-mobile – but for me, the criteria are pretty clear.

First, it needs to have plenty of carrying capacity, because babies come with more luggage than Paris Hilton. After that, it needs to be safe, stylish and above all else, really rather cool.

The last one is more subjective, but there would be few people that would argue the Audi RS4 is anything other than jaw-achingly cool.

Take the pensioner driving a Hyundai i10 who stopped me at a fuel station the other day to ask who made it. She’d never heard of an ‘Audi’, but did tell me it was ‘jolly good-looking’. And who am I to argue with what was clearly a very astute pensioner?

The RS4’s incredible performance is the usual talking point when I pull up at the pumps. I’ve been stopped several times now at the fuel station (a place I frequent rather too often these days) by Audi admirers. One had previously owned an RS6 and spent 10 minutes telling me how much he missed it and just how good it was at pretty much everything.

And he hit the nail on the head. While I understand an £85,000 estate car isn’t the most affordable family transportation out there, for those lucky enough to be able to buy one – or lucky journalists like myself lent one for a few months – it makes a compelling argument for the ultimate in family wheels.

Over the last few weeks the RS4 has been called upon for a variety of mundane family tasks and all of them it’s achieved with aplomb.

The boot has been packed with all sorts lately including equipment for a forthcoming work event, a life-size dummy for man overboard drills on the lifeboat (pictured) and even 25 bags of horse manure for my vegetable patch. Nothing says ‘middle aged man’ quite like a fondness for gardening, but I’ll move quickly on.

That latter task was tackled with incredible care for fear of recreating a scene from Back to the Future and earning myself the nickname ‘Biff’ for the rest of my life. Thankfully, the manure made its way back from the horse field and into the garden without incident.

On the rare occasions I do get to drive the car alone, I get the chance to marvel at its incredible turn of speed. For all its practicality and usefulness, the RS4 can still be classed as a true performance car.

The 3.0-litre twin-turbocharged engine produces 444bhp and 600Nm of torque – which makes it unbelievably rapid off the line. In fact, it’ll hit 60mph in just 4.1 seconds. That’s faster than some Porsches.

Over the last few months, I’ve loved the beautiful ride quality, which is supple enough to be comfortable but firm enough to inspire confidence in the bends. The steering is perfect and unlike any VW Group model with a diesel-auto gearbox combination, this petrol-auto match is sheer brilliance. Changes are rapid in normal mode and even quicker in sportier ‘RS’ guise.

It is very hard to fault the RS4. Yes, as I’ve pointed out in previous reports, there are a few minor annoyances, but they’re nothing that would put me off. I do still find the drum beat it plays every time I get out a bit strange – I think it’s supposed to be an emotive heartbeat, but it just sounds like I’ve accidentally turned Radio 1 up too loud. But there’s not much else to groan about.

The longer I live with the RS4 the deeper the bond grows. It’s sublime to drive, wonderfully practical and fits perfectly with my current lifestyle. Next up is a trip to the Alps for a little winter break, so I’ll report back soon on how it copes. Spoiler alert: I suspect it’ll be really rather well.

Facts at a glance

• Model: Audi RS4
• Price as tested: £85,000
• Engine: 3.0-litre twin-turbo petrol
• Power: 444bhp
• Torque: 600Nm
• 0-60mph: 4.1 seconds
• Top speed: 155mph
• MPG: 28.5mpg (combined)
• Emissions: 225g/km CO2
• Mileage: 3,774

When powered boot lids first arrived on new cars I must admit I was a bit of a sceptic – who needed a motor to do something your arm could already do faster, I asked anyone who dared to listen.

Turns out, the answer is almost everyone. Powered boots that shut themselves at the touch of a button are now nearly as common as electric windows.

You’ll find them on everything from Bentleys to Kias these days, and my long term Audi RS4 is no different. So, it’s time to eat a slice of humble pie, because I must admit I’ve become somewhat of a fan.

You see, these days whenever I’m getting something out of the boot it requires 13 hands and a helper. Babies come with a lot of equipment and, add in a weekly shop to the mix, the chances of being able to shut a boot lid by hand without a return trip falls to zero.

Problem is, I’ve got an issue with our Audi’s boot and that’s its tendency to clobber me on the head. Twice now, I’ve been extracting baby paraphernalia from its deepest recesses to be surprised by a warning beep and before I know it the boot lid smacking the back of my head.

I couldn’t work out why it was doing it at first, until one day I realised it was my feet that were the culprit. The RS4 has one of those sensors just under the bumper that when a foot is waved underneath, it closes the boot for you.

My size 12s clearly protruded too far under the bumper and were inadvertently setting off the mechanism resulting in the boot-bonce interface. I was rather pleased with the discovery, thinking this would help my boot-emptying efforts, but can I get it to work when I want it to? No chance.

Despite whatever Michael Flatley dance moves I try to perform behind the Audi, I can never find the sensor when I want to. Typical.

Anyway, enough about bootlids. It’s actually a very minor gripe with what I’m discovering is a truly brilliant car. Fast estates fit my lifestyle perfectly, and the RS4 is one of the best.

In the past I’ve taken real issue with sloppy Audi automatic gearboxes, usually paired with their diesel engines, but there’s no such problems with the RS4. Changes here are brisk and without hesitation as it rapidly fires through the ratios.

Under the bonnet, the 444bhp 2.9-litre twin turbo engine is a delight. On the road it’s got power whenever I need it and the 4.1 second time for the benchmark 60mph dash is seriously impressive.

I am a huge fan of the ride quality too. I’ve mentioned in previous reports about the RS Sport Suspension with Dynamic Ride Control (£2,000) specified on this car, and the more I live with it the more I can’t recommend it highly enough. Yes, it’s expensive, but on our potholed roads it still manages to deliver a comfortable ride.

Over the Christmas period I was also very glad to find a first aid kit in the boot. First on the scene of a nasty road accident, where a car had knocked a pedestrian five metres down the road, I used the kit to patch up a poor woman before taking her to hospital myself, as an ambulance was a two-hour wait away.

The kit’s dressings, bandages and sterile wipes came in very handy and I was very glad to find it in the boot. I later found out she had broken her hip and shoulder, something the kit wasn’t prepared for, but A&E fortunately was.

And on a separate note, I don’t think I’ll ever tire of the compliments the Audi gets. At petrol pumps or from visitors who have spotted it on the drive, it often receives words of praise. People love a fast Audi, especially those with the iconic RS badging, and the RS4 is certainly iconic. After three months behind the wheel, I’m also starting to understand why people love them so much.