Geneva 2009: 2010 Audi A4 allroad Quattro

The second-coming of the butch station wagon seems to be upon us. After Saab's debut of theirVolvo XC-clone, the Saab 9-3x, Audi is following up at the Geneva show with their own butch pseudo-off-roader station wagon.  Based on the mid-sized A4 Avant, the A4 allroad Quattro is basically a smaller version of the A6-based allroad, which has been around since 1999.

It's a pretty simple formula: take a standard station wagon (or Estate, or Avant, or whatever they're calling them this week), raise the ground clearance a bit, tack on some black rubber body cladding for that "tough" look, and there you go.  This is what Audi's done with the A4 allroad.

Outside, to differentiate the allroad from standard A4 Avant, Audi has given it a thin, monochromatic center grille, and brushed-aluminum lower trim pieces as well as differently shaped foglight surrounds and fascia.  The allroad has flared wheel arches to accommodate it's larger track, which is approximately 20mm (0.8") wider front and rear.  Around back, the allroad has an imposing-looking aluminum lower rear valence with integrated cutouts for the twin exhaust tips.  Also incorporated are front and rear steel skid plates on the underbody, for all those dangerous offroad excursions at the mall.  The flared fenders and the rest of the body addendum are available in either matte grey plastic, or a contrasting painted color (as below:)

Engine choices for the allroad consist of one petrol and two diesel powerplants.  Base engine is a VW's corporate 2.0TFSI turbo DI four-cylinder, in updated form making 211 horsepower (and 350nM of torque!  quite a bit for a gas 2.0L!)  There is also a 2.0L direct-injection commonrail turbodiesel with 170bhp (and an identical 350nM), and a 3-litre V6 turbodiesel with a healthy 240 horsepower - I'll go for the 3.0 V6TDI, thanks!  500nM of torque in a nifty all-wheel-drive wagon that gets 33mpg (US cycle, combined) sounds great to me.

Transmission options are either a 6-speed manual (standard on 2.0TDI) or Audi's trick dry-plate 7-speed S-Tronic twin-clutch gearbox (standard on 2.0TFSI and 3.0TDIV6, optional on 2.0TDI.)

The A4 allroad is of course equipped with Quattro AWD, as you'd expect.  This updated system has a stock torque split of 40F:60R for more dynamic handling, but can shuffle up to 65 percent of the torque forward or 85 percent of it rearward, depending on the situation.

this pseudo-offroader is also armed with entire sandskrit alphabet of electronic nannies to keep you safe and entertained.  The ESP (electronic stability program) is modified to include what Audi calls ORD (off road detection.)  This uses the wheel speed sensors to determine what type of surface the allroad is being driven on, and if it sense it's a loose surface (like gravel or snow), the ESP will allow more wheelspin for improved propulsion without ESP interference.

On-road, the allroad is equipped with Audi's neat Audi Drive Select system.  ADS is a three-mode system (comfort, normal, sport) which changes engine response characteristics, relative level of steering assist, and shift points in the S-tronic transmission depending on the type of driving done.  Quite neat.

The inside is typical high-end A4, which is to say - very nice.  Nothing radically different from a normal A4 inside, which is no bad thing.  Electronic goodies, MMI (Audi's more-useable version of BMW iDrive), heated seats, satnav - you name it, you can get it on the allroad, making it a comfortable place to spend some time.

The A4 allroad Quattro will go on sale this summer in Europe, at a base price of €37,100 for the 2.0TDI model.  It sounds like a very promising all-around car, especially in 3.0 TDI V6 trim - offering a little bit of everything to everyone.  I imagine this'll be quite a seller as the market shifts away from heavy, thirsty traditional SUV's.