The story
Audi built the allroad on a simple premise: a family should not have to choose between a fast luxury wagon and something that can reach the trailhead. So it took the A6 Avant, gave it a 4-position air suspension that could crouch for the highway and rise for a rutted track, wrapped the lower body in tough cladding and kept quattro all-wheel drive underneath. The 2.7-liter twin-turbo V6, shared with the S4, delivered 250 hp and 258 lb-ft in a broad, unhurried surge, and the cabin was as calm and well finished as any Audi of its day.
The cleverness came with an invoice. Leaking air springs left cars slumped on their bump stops overnight, the turbo V6 consumed oil and demanded timing belts on schedule, and values collapsed as second owners discovered what upkeep really cost. Many were converted to steel springs or simply run into the ground. The survivors, usually cars with a single devoted owner and a thick folder of receipts, now attract a loyal following that sees the allroad for what it was: a crossover before the word caught on, built with far more ambition than most that followed.
