The Audi RS 4 Avant is one of those vehicles that seems to have it all. If you just wanted a brief description, the Audi RS 4 Avant is an executive vehicle – big and luxurious – but you can’t really call it an executive saloon or sedan. Because the Audi RS 4 Avant is a station wagon. It’s the sort of car that you can fit a family in, yes, but it’s a car that really makes an impression at the school gates and is the sort of car that your teenager learning how to drive will plead on bended knee and promise to wash all the dishes for a month to have the privilege of driving. You might be able to fit the school bags and the dog in the back, but really, with a car this luxurious, the dog in the back had better be something pedigree (but it can be a large pedigree dog). And you might not want dirty rugby gear all over the seats, either, although the Nappa leather trim is able to take it.

There is something rather masculine about the Audi RS 4 Avant, and that’s coming from a female writer who doesn’t really want to be sexist (wouldn’t mind owning an Audi RS 4 Avant myself). It’s in the looks, I think. The Audi RS 4 Avant looks punchy and muscular (rather than sleek and curvy) but does so without being intimidating or overly aggressive. The lines of the side skirts are as crisp as a crease ironed down the middle of suit pants, while the air inlets and the roof spoiler give that athletic, sporting touch. There are eight colours available for the bodywork, all of which go nicely with the little touches of chrome on the dual exhaust pipes and underneath the windows (my favourite: Daytona Grey, one of several pearlescent finishes). You have a choice of alloy wheels: 19 inches and 20 inches. And, unlike some station wagons I’ve seen, the Audi RS 4 Avant doesn’t look as though the boot and the rear hatch are afterthoughts on what the designers really dreamed up as a sedan: it looks finished and all of a piece.

You’ve got a bit of choice in the interior styling as well, with black or lunar silver with contrast stitching being the options for the leather trim. The inlays come in a range of options, including piano black, carbon and stainless steel mesh. Bucket seats are available for an option in the Audi RS 4 Avant, but the regular S sport seats in the Audi RS 4 Avant are very comfortable anyway. The Top Gear presenter who said that the Audi RS 4 Avant was uncomfortable was talking through a hole in his… head. Maybe he was talking about the ride quality, which has that hard, sporty quality about it.

One engine type is available for the Audi RS 4 Avant, a RS 4 Avant 4.2 FSI quattro 331kW petrol unit. It’s a V8, and we all know what that means. And yes, it’s fast. It’s got a maximum punch of 331 kW backing up the athletic looks, and it can do the nought-to-ton sprint in 4.7 seconds. The top speed of the Audi RS 4 Avant has been regulated to 250 km/hr. So although it looks like a family car and is safe enough to be a family car, you are never going to give into the aforementioned teenager’s begging… The S-tronic transmission blends the good bits of a manual with the convenience of an auto transmission (seven gears to play with here), and the “Quattro” in the name lets you know that the Audi RS 4 Avant is a four-paw. The engine design does its bit for efficiency by using recuperation technology, which kicks in when braking, turning the kinetic energy of motion into electrical potential energy in the battery and then into straight electrical energy, saving a bit of wear and tear on the alternator (and maybe, just maybe paving the way into the future when we might – I’m guessing here – see a hybrid version).

Not that the Audi RS 4 Avant is unsafe. Far from it. It’s got all the usual safety features that you’ll find on any modern car worth its name (airbags everywhere, parking assist front and rear). Worth mentioning in the list of safety features is the adaptive cruise control, which links in with a radar system to detect vehicles ahead of you on the road and changes speed accordingly. Only a few years ago, the only vehicle smart enough to slow down all by itself when it “saw” something ahead was called a horse. Test drives have also found the Audi RS 4 Avant to have a lot of grab, helping it hold the road well, even in the wet.

And the Audi RS 4 Avant has all the fun stuff, as well. You have the Audi sound system (what you could call the Audi audio), with ten speakers including a subwoofer. You’ve got the MMI Navigation Plus package with a 6.5-inch display sitting proudly in the very well-laid out dashboard, and the system also makes friends easily with CDs, MP3 players and other input devices, including iDevices.

The current model series includes the:

• Audi RS 4 Avant

For any more information on the Audi RS 4 Avant, or for that matter any other new car, contact one of our friendly consultants on 1300 303 181. If you’d like some fleet discount pricing (yes even for private buyers!), we can submit vehicle quotes requests out to our national network of Audi dealers and come back with pricing within 24 hours. Private Fleet – car buying made easy!

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