New Audi A6 Allroad has RS6 hips – wider rugged estate is an SUV antidote
Audi’s weird off-road estate returns, with some added RS6-style visual muscle
The Audi A6 Allroad is the kind of esoteric, middling-volume model you wouldn’t expect to have a place on Audi’s lineup in lean times like these. Yet here it is, returning for the new C9 generation, with not just the body cladding and jacked-up ride height for which Allroads are famous, but an RS6-style widebody too.
Yes, on top of being 34mm taller in terms of ride height than a standard A6, it’s also a full 110mm wider overall - 74mm in terms of track width - with stylish 21-inch wheels (standard are 19-inch, 20s are an option) to fill the wider arches. There are even RS6 GT-style distended vents aft the front wheels. Audi’s enormous ‘single frame grille’ and sportier headlights already make the standard A6 look more aggressive than the last.
The new, wider A6 Allroad adds to that with larger flanking vents that climb up the bumper towards the headlights. So wide and RS6-shaped is the rear end, that the very non-RS small twin-pipe exhausts look a little apologetic but overall, it’s a great-looking package – a far cry from its slightly dweeby predecessors. There’s substance you can’t see as well as the style that you can, with underbody protective panelling to save your oil sump and eight-speed automatic gearbox from angry rocks.
Powering the new A6 Allroad is a choice between two powertrains. There’s a 3-litre V6 diesel (complete with 48-volt mild hybrid tech and a quick-spooling electric compressor) with 295bhp and 438lb ft, making the Allroad good for 0-62mph in 5.4sec and a 155mph top speed.
There’s also a PHEV, pairing a 2-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol engine with an electric motor, for 362bhp and 369lb ft, good for 0-62mph in 5.5sec with the same top speed. Its 25.9kWh battery allows for a WLTP-certified electric range of 59 miles but the tradeoff, obviously, will be c200kg of extra weight. Both send power to all four wheels via the de rigeur eight-speed automatic transmission.
The Allroad’s technical appointment speaks to its focus on capability. It gets bespoke adaptive air suspension that, while sitting 34mm higher as standard, also affords the Allroad a 55mm range of height adjustment. In addition to the usual Dynamic, Individual, Comfort, Efficiency and Balanced modes, there are now Offroad and Offroad+ modes, which raise the ride by a further 15mm. Need the car sitting as high as possible? Activate the Lift, for 20mm extra ground clearance, though it’ll only stay that high up to 22mph.
The A6 Allroad also gets Audi’s rear-wheel-steering system. This allows the rear wheels to turn against the front wheels by up to 5 degrees at low speeds to aid agility or turning circle, or up to two degrees at speed to add stability.
Perhaps curious for the most off-road focussed A6, Audi claims steering feel is improved, thanks to added stiffness for ‘the entire path from the steering wheel to the wheels’. Read, stiffer mounting for the steering rack, stiffer control arm bushings and a stiffer torsion bar. Perhaps strangest of all, there’s more negative camber on the front than the standard A6 – not the most surprising when you consider the suspension’s range of adjustability in terms of ride height.
Full UK pricing is yet to be announced for the A6 Allroad, which we expect to be in dealerships by the end of the year, though the £65-75k range is a safe bet, before options of course. At least it will have what can't be a huge market to itself, with the likes of Mercedes-Benz's E-class All Terrain and Volvo's V90 Cross Country being no more.
