Despite its 4.2-liter V8 and quattro all-wheel-drive, the A6 is not a car you’d choose to carve up canyon roads, or take a lap or two around the track. It just doesn’t have a personality that goads you on, or reminds you that its main purpose in life is getting from Point A to Point B quickly, especially if there are turns – the more the merrier – involved. The A6 is more suited to spirited driving in less intense situations, including those that involve a few adults and lots of luggage. Situations similar to the one found when escaping from a major metropolitan area for a quick vacation in a tony resort area. That’s when you’d take the A6 and abandon the freeways for the back roads.

The A6 is nothing if not a spacious and aerodynamically slick sedan. There’s little to ruffle the wind as it rushes past, which means there’s little noise transferred from it to the interior. Couple that with a quiet, but not totally silent, powertrain and you have a combination that makes it easy to relax and listen to the $1,300 Bose premium audio system with integral satellite radio receiver (XM or Sirius, take your choice), without ever losing sight of your mission. Or your speed.

Grunt comes courtesy of a 4.2-liter V8 with 335 hp and five valves per cylinder mated to a six-speed Tiptronic automatic transmission. The combination is smooth but not nth-degree silky, which isn’t the problem some manufacturers (think Japanese) might have you believe. The A6 is a rapid, well-appointed mechanical device. The fact that it subtly reminds you of same is a plus, not a minus. In my book, every last vestige of mechanical feel or sound is not something to be eradicated, though the A6 comes closer than most German luxury vehicles.

The price for all this goodness is $56,920. That number includes $1,050 for the DVD navigation system, $750 for the optional 18-in. wheels, the same amount for the “Advance Key” system that never requires you to take the keys out of your pocket, $350 for voice recognition, the aforementioned $1,300 audio unit, and a $720 destination charge. Just don’t assault the dealer when you can’t open the glovebox. You see, Audi has taken the slick, minimalism of the exterior, and brought it to the interior. Which means there’s no obvious glovebox handle. To open it, you must press a button on the instrument panel near the passenger’s seat that looks, from the pictograph on its surface, like it deploys a front spoiler. It doesn’t. But it does grant entry to a glovebox with nearly enough room for a complete change of clothing.

It’s Audi’s one concession to “ultimate luxury,” and enough to make you wonder – when all else is considered – why they build the A8.