AUDI A4 ALLROAD MZANSI LAUNCH CONFIRMED

Audi South Africa is returning the allroad name to Mzansi fans. Last seen as the A6 allroad in 2001, the name is now attached to the smaller A4. I had quite a blast in the A6 allroad back in 2002 and hopefully this “reincarnation” will offer similar kinds of fuzzy warm feelings from me. Mind you, in Europe there is also a current-generation A6 allroad.

Unlike last time out when we only had a 2.7-litre twin turbo engine with 184kW (that was real boss at the time!), we are now looking at two engine choices in the 2.0 TFSI and 2.0 TDI. The former makes go of 155kW and 350Nm of torque, while the TDI is a typical diesel with relatively lower power of 130kW, but puts its talk into its torque of 380Nm. Both will only be sold with the S tronic gearbox driving all four wheels using quattro AWD.

Audi is confident that the A4 allroad, which you can now order from your nearest Audi dealership, is about to improve the fortunes of the “wagon” segment, although strictly speaking, this is more than just a wagon. For one it rides 18cm higher off the ground than normal A4 Avants. So you don’t actually get to SUV height, nor are you sitting flat on your belly either. Obviously it also has a “stronger” character featuring extra underbody protection parts. Spacewise you are looking at something close to the Starship Enterprise, with 490 litres in normal mode, and 1430 litres when certain seats are folded flat.

Other added sweeteners include 17-inch alloy wheels, headlight washers for all those bugs in the forest, an aluminium package with roof rails, window trim surround, rain and light sensors and others.

The new A4 allroad comes to Mzansi in February 2013 at a price we’ll tell you closer to the time.