Review: 2015 Audi Allroad

For many decades, the station wagon roamed wild, majestic and free in the United States, and in vast numbers. Transporting America's youth everywhere from school to summer camps. Now, though, the North American wagon has all but gone extinct, with only a dozen or so examples still traversing the country's highways and byways.

There's still one car, however, keeping the breed alive: the Audi Allroad. With its slightly jacked-up ride height, plastic side protectors and sporty wheel combos, it hardly harkens back to the wagons of old. Still, however, it is a wagon...and a fantastic one at that.

Better With Age

When the A4-based Allroad was set free onto the great American plains, I was a bit skeptical. Though I'm a big proponent of wagons, it wasn't wagon-y enough for me. For me, wagons derived their utility not from their plastic sidepieces or boulder-clearing suspension stance but rather from the cavernous interiors and low and efficient rooflines.

So, at the initial drive event for the then-refreshed Allroad in 2012, I was unimpressed, as the price, which can easily creep over $50,000, seemed steep. Since then, the automotive landscape has changed. Cars are more expensive without getting noticeably nicer and wagon numbers have dwindled even further.

Details

Emphasizing that the Allroad is more than just your father's old wood-paneled station wagon, Audi has loaded it with distinctive exterior features, including stainless steel skid plates, raised roof rail, xenon-plus headlights with slender LED light surrounds, circular fog lights, LED tail lights, and a power tailgate.

On the inside, the distinction continues with a three-spoke multifunction steering wheel that can include paddle shifters if specified, and high-gloss interior trim finish.

The 2015 Allroad is powered by a 220-hp, 2.0-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder gasoline engine-the familiar engine that's also in some of its other products. Power is routed through a Tiptronic 8-speed automatic transmission to all four wheels through Audi's infamous quattro all-wheel drive.

What occupants will truly enjoy, however, are some of the optional extras: Audi MMI navigation with Google Earth imagery and the Bang & Olufsen 14-speaker sound system. Audi's MMI, though getting a bit long in the tooth, proves to be one of the best infotainment systems in the business. It's good looking (especially so, thanks go Google), easy to navigate, and quick to react to all inputs.

More than Pleasant

It's been a few weeks since I drove the Allroad, and the takeaway from my week with the high-riding German family wagon was its overwhelming pleasantness. Granted, describing, something as 'pleasant' is akin to saying that you have nothing nicer to say about them-but that's not the case with the Allroad. Every time I got behind the wheel, the experience was comforting and relaxing.

I don't know if it was my mental state that week or not, but the Allroad allowed me to sit back, get comfortable, decompress, and enjoy the ride. The Allroad has light but quick steering, which doesn't require much elbow grease to operate, adding to the low-stress ambiance inside the cabin.

While the Allroad excels in serenity, I should warn that it isn't fast. It will get up out of its own way to pass on the highway, but won't smoke any fools between stoplights. This lackluster acceleration is a tradeoff for the sake of fuel economy.

Ride quality is also impressive. The shocks and struts are tuned specifically for the Allroad, which means it's a bit beefier and, obviously, rides a bit higher. Despite its tougher stance, the ride is exceptionally smooth and doesn't suffer from excessive body roll during cornering.

Cruising around town behind the wheel of the Allroad, I didn't feel like I had sacrificed the things I hold dear in order to haul more stuff. The Audi still felt very grownup and classy-and I'm not sure I could say the same of the Volvo XC70 and V60 Cross Country, or the Subaru Outback, the Allroad's chief competitors.

I doubt very many families need a couple extra inches of ground clearance and steel skid plates to get kids to soccer practice. Nor do I think they will be pushing through bushes, which would necessitate the scratchproof gray plastic exterior trim. Heck, for extra money, Audi will even paint the plastic side bits to match the body color, which negates the existence in the first place.

Conclusion

When it's all said and done, the Allroad is essentially fantastic. It is smooth, safe, reliable, tech-savvy, stylish, and relatively efficient. As a semi-utilitarian family hauler, it's distinctive on the crossover-saturated roadway. 

Even so, the stark takeaway from my week with the Allroad was just how much better it could be if it were still a lower, sleeker A4 Avant (wagon). Since Audi refuses to sell that to us anymore, this is as close as we Americans can get, and we'll have to embrace the Allroad. If you do, you will be exceptionally happy with it.