Ranj, I had a 1995 328i Sport new back in the day, and a variety of higher powered rear wheel drive cars over the years, I know how to be careful in the wet, it's getting any traction at all in the snow that bothers me most +++

Yep - details on DSG here which suggests not available on the A6 or anything other than the most up to date A4 or A8

If no badge snobbery then the best option from the VAG stable on this front is the Skoda Octavia vRS 2.0 CR diesel which had/s DSG as an option. Otherwise, definitely look elsewhere for a conventional auto

The 335D is in another league to the E36 328I, trust me. We had an E36 328 and the 335D back to back coincidently. The 335 was almost undriveable in the wet nevermind the snow. More torque then a V10 M5. But in all honesty, forget the BMW and get a 4.2 TDI A8, screw the 2.0 TDI A6. I had a six month old one for a month, it was horribly slow from what I remember, and you know the A8 is what you REALLY want. If your going to go A6, get the 3.0 quattro at least.

The 328i was one, also had a Hartge modified 535i and a 3.0i Z4.

I'd love a TDI A8, but the size of the car is the problem, it will only just fit in my space at work and if anyone's parked badly (a lot of women work there!), then it will not fit, had this a lot with my D2 and end up paying £8 per day in a public car park for the privilege of going to work. I've even come out of work to find other cars parked so close I can't open the doors wide enough, a problem solved in the Boxster by dropping the roof and climbing in :)

My idea is to have something relatively cheap to run so I can start saving for a 2nd car, a D3 S8, which won't need to fit in the work car park as it won't be used as a daily.

Having said that, I change my mind a lot, a D3 A8 is still a possibility, Audi is my first choice, maybe even an A/S4, A/S6 or an A/S5 even, problem seems to be the transmissions unless I find a quattro, though that wouldn't be a bad thing either.