I just testdrove an '01 A6, and it had the little telephone button on the steering wheel. What exactly does this mean/do?

Some of the A6's had the option of a car phone. I know mine does if I ever wanted to buy a phone for it. I think the button might be for speaker phone or something. Not really sure though.

All '01 A6 are pre-wired for factory telephone. If you have it installed, there is a large handset inside your armrest. The telephone and R/T buttons control the factory telephone handsfree kit audio. If you dont have the factory telephone, the buttons are disabled.

I wonder if anyone has experimented with using these Telephone and R/T buttons to control their own bluetooth handsfree set. The button just fits so nicely in the interior, it would be a shame to have another button from a third-party bluetooth phone somewhere on the dash...

I have just purchased a 2001 A6 with the added buttons on the wheel for the phone as well. I also am interested in any information in getting a bluetooth phone to work with the installed system. If there are no available ways of doing that....... is there any aftermarket wiring kits made to allow existing main-stream "non-audi" phones to work with the installed system? Of course the bluetooth is the way to go, I also have a Chrysler product with bluetooth capability (what they call "U-Connect")- very useful.

Only the 05 and up Audi models have bluetooth

So it will never work like you want it to

There's a difference between "it will never work (as Audi intended it)" and "is there any aftermarket wiring kit to allow bluetooth phones to be hooked up to that button"

Not sure about the aftermarket stuff

I do know those cars are not bluetooth enabled

I already realized that the 2001 models were not bluetooth enabled. What I was looking for was an aftermarket adaption of bluetooth. That being a long stretch, a wire harness adaption for "Todays" phones into the Audi harness (I have a Motorola V600). Both of those options are probably a long stretch though.

Can you still get the Audi phone????
How do they perform????
If available (probably) and with acceptable performance (actually it would need to have exceptional performance to consider it over todays phones)
Is Audi's phone mobile if dis-connected, and is it even usable on existing networks (in my case Cingular)????

Thanks for the quick and knowledgable feedback from all, this forum appears to be a one stop for Audi owners!

I realize this is an older thread, but it defines my question so well, I thought I would use it. Is anyone aware of an aftermarket wiring harness that has come out in the last couple of years that would allow us to plug a newer style, non-Audi phone in and use the hands free built into the car? I jhust picked up my 01 A6 2.7T last night and read about this feature in the owners manual. Sure would be nice to not add another buttom to an already busy dash. Thanks for the input.

my car has that button and i tis there for the ONStar system

According to the manual, the button is used to activate the hands free for the mobile phone. Nothing in my manual refers to On Star. Anyone else familiar with this?

Anybody else know about this?
Thx

Mine does the hands free phone toobut it is also part of the ONSTAR system, which is not on ALL Audis. My buddy's 04 A6 S lien does not have it.

Are you using the factory Audi mobile phone in yours? Do you know of any way to use an aftermarket mobile phone? I am not interested in subscribing to Onstar.

I am not subscribing to Onstar...yet anyway. I do not use the phone functionlaity at all.

I have the R/T button as well, but do not have the factory phone in the armrest. When I hit the button, I was connected to OnStar eventhough I do not have a subscription. I thought I had seen on A6's without OnStar or phone that the two bottom buttoms on the steering wheel controled the pre-sets during radio mode or disc choice when listening to CD.