The A6 Allroad’s pre-crash front seatbelts will tighten automatically in the event the vehicle detects an impending crash, improving protection against injury significantly. The Outback doesn’t offer pre-crash pretensioners.
Both the A6 Allroad and Outback have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The A6 Allroad has power child safety locks, allowing the driver to activate and deactivate them from the driver's seat and to know when they're engaged. The Outback’s child locks have to be individually engaged at each rear door with a manual switch. The driver can’t know the status of the locks without opening the doors and checking them.
The Audi A6 Allroad has standard driver and front passenger side knee airbags mounted low on the dashboard. These airbags helps prevent the driver and front passenger from sliding under their seatbelts or the main frontal airbags; this keeps them better positioned during a collision for maximum protection. Knee airbags also help keep the legs from striking the dashboard, preventing knee and leg injuries in the case of a serious frontal collision. The Outback doesn’t offer a front passenger side knee airbag.
The A6 Allroad has a standard Secondary Collision Brake Assist, which automatically applies the brakes in the event of a crash to help prevent secondary collisions and prevent further injuries. The Outback doesn’t offer a post collision braking system: in the event of a collision that triggers the airbags, more collisions are possible without the protection of airbags that may have already deployed.
A passive infrared night vision system optional on the A6 Allroad Prestige helps the driver to more easily detect people, animals or other objects in front of the vehicle at night. Using an infrared camera to detect heat, the system then displays the image on a monitor in the dashboard. The Outback doesn’t offer a night vision system.
The A6 Allroad has a standard Top View Cameras to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The Outback only offers a rear monitor and rear parking sensors that beep or flash a light. That doesn’t help with obstacles to the front or sides.
Both the A6 Allroad and Outback offer rear cross-traffic warning, but the A6 Allroad with Rear Cross-Traffic Assist also has Automatic Brake Activation (automatically applies the brakes) to better prevent a collision when backing near traffic. The Outback’s Rear Cross Traffic Alert doesn’t automatically brake.
Both the A6 Allroad and the Outback have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, front and rear seatbelt pretensioners, height adjustable front shoulder belts, four-wheel antilock brakes, all wheel drive, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, rearview cameras and available blind spot warning systems.
The Audi A6 Allroad weighs 540 to 845 pounds more than the Subaru Outback. The NHTSA advises that heavier cars are much safer in collisions than their significantly lighter counterparts.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does 35 MPH front crash tests on new vehicles. In this test, results indicate that the Audi A6 Allroad is safer than the Subaru Outback:
|
|
A6 Allroad |
Outback |
|
|
Passenger |
|
| STARS |
4 Stars |
4 Stars |
| Chest Compression |
.5 inches |
.6 inches |
| Neck Injury Risk |
41% |
43% |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does side impact tests on new vehicles. In this test, which crashes the vehicle into a flat barrier at 38.5 MPH and into a post at 20 MPH, results indicate that the Audi A6 Allroad is safer than the Subaru Outback:
|
|
A6 Allroad |
Outback |
|
|
Rear Seat |
|
| STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
| Spine Acceleration |
43 G’s |
51 G’s |
|
|
Into Pole |
|
| STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
| Max Damage Depth |
13 inches |
14 inches |
| Spine Acceleration |
39 G’s |
43 G’s |
| Hip Force |
514 lbs. |
674 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
Instrumented handling tests conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and analysis of its dimensions indicate that the A6 Allroad, with its five-star roll-over rating, is 9.6% less likely to roll over than the Outback, which received a four-star rating.