Despite the popularity of station wagons in Europe, as well as their greater versatility compared with conventional four-door sedans, two-box cars like this Audi A4 2.0T Avant still don’t resonate with most U.S. consumers. Americans for the most part remain tied to visions of Clark Griswold trundling across the country in a puke green, wood-paneled Ford LTD Country Squire, and would rather drive something else. But this country has in fact been in love for the past 20 years with what are essentially wagons. Witness the rise of the SUV and the recent explosion of crossovers, all of which are basically five-door wagons with higher seating positions, greater (but often unused) towing and payload capacities, and cruddier fuel economy.

Move ’Em Out

This Audi makes a great case for the traditional wagon, however. While it’s no fire-breathing RS6 Avant, our A4 Avant was far more maneuverable and exciting to pilot than those SUV and crossover mall cruisers. Based on the A4 sedan, our Avant was fitted with Audi’s excellent 211-hp, turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder—the only engine in the A4 lineup for 2010—plus a six-speed automatic and Quattro all-wheel drive. It also had the optional S-line package, which includes a sport suspension, 19-inch wheels with summer rubber, front sport seats, various interior-trim upgrades, and S-line bumpers and rocker panels. Thus equipped, the A4 Avant recorded a 6.3-second run to 60 mph and a quarter-mile time of 14.8 at 91 mph, times which beat all the players in our last comparison test of six-cylinder luxury crossovers. Perhaps more important, the Audi’s 0.92 g of skidpad grip blows away that group’s average of 0.80 g, as does its fun-to-drive quotient on back roads. And it’s the same with 70-to-0 braking ability: 159 feet for the A4 wagon versus an average of 174 for the crossovers.

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