Audi A4 2008 review

Station wagons are for wet labradors, muddy mountain bikes, prams and potted plants.

If you don't own any of these, you have no reason to drive a station wagon and should at all costs bypass these at the showroom.

Or so I thought. Yes, I have memories of holidays as a child in a station wagon.

But they were days when the car was a cubby house — place to be filled with movement and toys and open windows and no seatbelts.

We never whinged "Are we there yet?" because there was so much to do in the expanse of the station wagon.

Our children know of no such joys. Today the ankle-biters are locked into position and would go completely troppo — and take their parents with them — save for the blessings of rear DVD players and iPods.

Audi looks after its rear occupants with the option of such attention-grabbing aids but the kids aren't reading this so I'm going to list what's in it for you.

Package

The Audi A4 as already been lauded as a beaut sedan. This Avant (read, wagon) just adds flexibility though can also become quite unwagon-like thanks to a stylish upgrade.

The S-Line package adds exterior features that are subtle enough to escape the garishness of some manufacturers' examples, yet strong enough to enhance an already neat wagon.

Colour is important. The white A4 Avant is stunning in its simplicity and gets a lift with polished 18-inch alloy five-spoke wheels.

S-Line packages also trim 20mm from the standard A4's height and sits the car on sports suspension. And here is one of the car's few hiccups.

The ride is a tad too firm for a vehicle ostensibly meant for leisure-seeking families rather than race-bred couples.

That's not helped by the leather upholstery stretched over hard foam. Great for distance driving but it takes a bit to get used to in the suburbs.

Yet, if you revert to the standard 16-inch wheels to retrieve Japanese levels of comfort, the wagon ends up looking like Mum's taxi.

Drivetrain

Into the mix we add Audi's perennial 2-litre turbo-diesel and a CVT automatic transmission.

This transmission also has seven preset ratios so, thanks to one of the items in the S-Line pack, you can drive it like a clutchless manual.

The engine is a real trouper that pulls hard and clean from virtually any revs, has a real kick when asked to overtake slower traffic and delivers fuel economy that'll make your wallet obsolete. Well, not quite.

It's a package that, because the world turns faster than we can anticipate, was even more attractive about six months ago.

Subsequently, the world oil price has halved and this made a dramatic 30c a litre drop — any discrepancy here? — in the bowser price of petrol. Unfortunately, the impact on diesel prices was even less miniscular.

That makes buying a diesel — especially where the engine price is a premium — suit only the bearded eco-aware folk in the mountains and motorists who annually travel long distances.

You must today weigh up if a diesel makes economical sense to you. Otherwise, the Audi A4 Avant petrol ($59,641 in equivalent S-Line format) may make more sense.

Safety

The A4 Avant scores very highly on safety but the most impressive feature of the car is its quality. Few, if any, manufacturers consistently make such near-perfect machines that are so visually impressive.

Driving

This wagon is dead simple to drive — though I was baulked by the fingernail-breaking push-pull design of the starter — and is compact enough to slip quickly into a crowded parking bay.

It seats four adults with cargo impressively increased thanks to the near-flat folding rear seats. The spare wheel is a space saver and there's no excuse.

As fitted out for this test, the Avant is a wagon that rises out of the family-car image to be stylish and versatile.

And if you really, really must, it will take muddied dogs, bikes and pot plants. And prams.

Snapshot

Price: $57,837 (S-Line as tested $66,205)

Engine: 2-litre, 4-cyl, turbocharger, intercooler

Power: 105kW @ 4200rpm

Torque: 320Nm @ 1750-2500rpm

Transmission: CVT with 7-preset ratios, sequential; front-drive

0-100km/h: 9.7 seconds

Economy (official): 6.0 litres/100km

Economy (tested): 6.8 litres/100km

Greenhouse: 159g/km (Corolla: 175g/km)