Ultimate Style Statement: Audi’s stunning RS4 Avant
Ultimate Style Statement: Audi’s stunning RS4 Avant
By Stuart Johnston
Audi’s RS4 Avant is one of the last remainng estate cars you can buy on the South African market. It embraces everything you’d expect from an Audi wearing the RS badge – style, grace, brilliant driving dynamics and an engine note to raise your neck hairs.
Audi can take credit for inventing the hyper-performance estate car. Back in 1994 the Ingolstadt firm collaborated with Porsche to develop the RS2, the very first Audi to carry the RS badge. Its turbocharged five-cylinder engine developed 232 kW, enough to give a 0-100 km/h in the sub-five-second region. It was actually assembled by Porsche and featured Porsche Cup 911-style wheels.
Since then there have been a slew of RS Audis and the latest rendition on sale here in South Africa is the Audi RS4 Avant, introduced in March 2019. Audi has always championed its Avant as a sports vehicle rather than a boring old station wagon, and in Germany owners of estate cars embrace thus philosophy. On the autobahns you’ll see dozens of estate cars built by Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz kitted out with fat aftermarket wheels, dropped suspensions, yet often fitted with stylish streamlined luggage carriers. What better way to spend the weekend than taking a 260 km/h blast down the A5 autobahn for a weekend of skiing?
Styling
If there is one good reason to buy the Audi RS4 Avant instead of a top-of-the-range high-performance SUV, it is the styling. That extended roofline on an Avant gives the RS performance version of the Audi A4 a sleeker, streamlined appearance. In the case of the RS4 Avant, this is topped off by gaping air intakes on the nose, delicious-looking 20-inch alloy wheels with ultra-low-profile tyres, and the extra presence that the extended estate car roof line imparts. The flanks feature wheel-arches flared by 30 mm, which gives the car a much more interesting side-on view when compared to more mundane versions of the A4.You can just imagine it travelling at 280 km/h even when you are checking it out in the parking bay.
Space and Comfort
The extended roofline of the Audi RS Avant frees up lots of luggage space when the rear seat backs are folded flat. But with the rear seat backs upright and passengers installed, it has to be said that the luggage space on offer is pretty much in the hatchback or sedan league, and it is in this department that an equivalently-priced SUV scores strongly over the RS4 Avant. The official figures are 505 litres with the seat backrests upright and 1 510 litres with the seat backs folded flat.
However, there is good space for three people in the rear, with adequate head and leg room. As for the accommodation up front, it is first-class all the way.
The RS4 has a beautifully-built dashboard, incorporating Audi’s Virtual Cockpit. This has program-switchable electronic graphics for the instrumentation, and features the top-line MMI Navigation Plus.
The front Sports seats provide excellent lateral support in cornering and the upholstery finish is in Nappa leather. The cladding panels on the dashboard are in a tasteful patterned aluminium-look, and the integration of all the design features inside the cockpit takes your breath away. I would have preferred the infotainment pod situated on top of the dashboard to be more integrated into the dashboard-proper, but it seems Audi, along with Mercedes-Benz, favour this stand-alone arrangement of situating the pod as a stand-alone item.
The Drive
The latest RS4 is fitted with a twin-turbo V6 engine. Many enthusiasts will miss the roar and grumble of the V8 engine fitted to previous RS4 offerings, but enthusiasts should take note that this 2,9-litre V6 engine is rated at 331 kW, the same power output of the previous V8-engined RS. More telling is the increase of the torque to 600 Nm, some 170 NM more than the naturally-aspirated V8 managed. And on full throttle I loved the shrill sound of that turbocharged V6 as it revved towards the 7 000 rpm redline!
The transmission on the RS4 Avant is an eight-speed torque-convertor automatic rather than a dual-clutch device. It is coupled to Audi’s excellent all-wheel-drive Quattro system which uses a Torsen differential to vary power delivery to either the front or rear axles automatically.
Ride and handling
Tooling around the suburbs while warming up the RS Avant, one is struck by the fact that although the ride is obviously firm it handles small-frequency bumps and ripples remarkably well. You begin to wonder if it in fact has higher-profile tyres fitted, although if you check you’ll see they are 275/30 R20 items.
With Audi’s Drive Select programme you can switch between Comfort, Automatic, Dynamic and Individual driving modes to tune suspension and engine responses.
The steering is not particularly crisp at lower speeds when it comes to turn-in. But there is a sure-footedness about the RS4 that doesn’t disappoint, even taking into account Audi’s reputation for amazing Quattro grip levels. This is true once you’ve set the car up for a corner, because the way all four tyres grip in mid-corner and catapult the car safely out the bend with virtually no drama is astounding.
Highway prowess
On the highway I found the car to be much more involving, lane changes being dealt with in a precise manner that would be all but impossible in a large, high-powered SUV.
This, for me, is an area where the RS4 Avant shines. It was designed as a high-speed city-to-city conveyance with stability as its key-note, and here it inspires confidence in its stability. This is particularly true when braking hard from high speeds, with that all-wheel-drive system maintaining fantastic stability in the transition from acceleration to hard braking.
Performance
Aha! When all is said and done, this is the RS4 Avant’s strong suit. That all-wheel-drive traction off the line, coupled with 600 NM of torque and an efficient eight-speed automatic transmission provides acceleration that is simply stunning. This full-sized family estate car accelerates from 0-100 km/h in a claimed 4,1 seconds, but some independent testers have reduced that time to the 3,9-second bracket! Top speed is an electronically-limited 250 km/h, but Audi gives owners the option of increasing this to 280 km/h.
The overtaking acceleration is stunning too, and coupled to the assurance you get behind the wheel of this low-slung car, it is amazing that this is a high-performance vehicle that you can use as a holiday device with a family of five.
Fuel Consumption
Audi claims an average fuel consumption figure of 9,2 litres/100 km, and you will be driving in an extremely disciplined manner to realise a figure of anything below 10,5 litres/100 km. The exception to this will be on long steady trips at the national speed limit, where the efficiency of the turbocharged V6 on light throttle openings will see cruising consumption drop to the 7,5 litres/100 km level.
Safety
This is an extremely quick car but an extremely safe one. The low centre of gravity in an estate car, coupled with less weight makes it much more reactive than a large SUV in a critical situation. The RS4 Avant weighs 1 830 kg, whereas a BMW X5 M50i (as an example), weighs over 2 300 kg.
SUVs generally have a much higher centre of gravity and the extra weight and height means the RS4 Avant is always going to be more manoeuvrable in a critical safety situation.
However, there is a strong case to be made for SUVs in their own right. No-one is denying their practicality and the engineering excellence that has made these big vehicles handle to very high levels, considering their size restraints. In the interests of an un-biased attitude, we recommend a review of the latest-generation of BMW X5s, which you’ll access if you click here.
Back on the subject of the Audi: The RS4 Avant is fitted with all the requisite driver aids that a car of this performance requires, such as ABS braking with EBD and EBA, electronic traction control and corner assist, lane-keeping assist, LED headlights with optional adaptive high-beam operation, ISOFIX child seat mountings for both outer rear passenger seats and the front seat, and six airbags.
Verdict
Right now the Audi RS4 Avant is the only premium-level estate car available here for sale. If you enjoy driving for its own sake you’ll relish how much more involving this estate car is than an SUV, and you’ll mourn the fact that these great lumbering devices have pretty much supplanted sedans and estate cars as the conveyances of choice.
Quite apart from its exceptional acceleration and cornering power, the RS4 Avant is beautiful to look at, from both outside and inside the vehicle. And the quality of all components makes it worth its asking price of R1 211 500. You get a five-year/100 000 km maintenance plan to go with that asking price.
This could well be the last of the RS Avant breed. We applaud Audi for including it in its South African line-up.