Price: from £22,600
On sale: Now
0-60mph: 9.7 seconds; top speed 130mph
Average fuel: 49.6mpg
Standard equipment: Standard SE kit: driver info system with colour display, remote locking, power steering, ABS with ESP, three-zone climate control (includes rear settings), front and side airbags, electric front/rear windows, steering-mounted audio controls, rake/reach adjustable steering, height-adjustable front seats, day-running lights, power/heated door mirrors, 17-inch alloys, aluminium roof rails, CD player with MP3 format, leather steering wheel.
Tiscali verdict: 7/10
They used to be blue collar, the model sales executives would do anything to avoid. But that thing called lifestyle changed all that and the estate is increasingly the cool option. And it's not called an estate any more, anyhow - it's an SW if you're Peugeot or Kia, a Touring if you're BMW, a Sport Tourer if you're Renault, Sportwagon if Alfa or Saab, Tourer if Honda, and, as tested here, an Avant if you're Audi.
The marketing men of those brands that still call estates estates really Avant a clue: witness the halo of dullness and sales apathy that hovers over such models as the Jaguar X Type Estate, Vauxhall's Vectra Estate and the elongated VW Passat. For these brands, the message is slow to arrive: estates are what councils do.
So what's so special about the new Audi A4 Avant? If you were unaware of sales success, you could almost feel sorry for this brand. BMW must be feeling like everybody's favourite Etonian, David Cameron - the underserved mantle for what was for years known as the Nasty Badge, driven by boorish roadhogs, has gradually been migrating from BMW onto the undeserving shoulders of Audi. Like the proverbial tall poppy, Audi's unstoppable elevation and popularity has inevitably begun to trigger a backlash. So if you seek unjustified prejudice on your way to work, an A4 is a safer bet today than any 3 Series.
It might just also, a bit, be because of the bling thing. Audi has decided to take the fairground approach to its incoming generation of models, not least with the new day-running LED "brow" headlights, which first appeared on the supercar R8 and looked fab, but diffuse a certain aura of smugness on a family car. So any new Audi can be recognised in your view mirror by this twin array of diamante distraction. Logic dictates this might be a good safety move; jealousy might urge you to dismiss it as brash materialism. And more lights mean more power demand, ultimately more fuel consumption and less saving of the planet, so your scepticism may not be pure social envy.
Not that there isn't much to envy here. As is Audi's trademark, the tangible quality of its models seems to rise inexorably. Delicious is perhaps the best word: I test an endless succession of models that are spoiled by naff colours, gaudy chrome, savage plastic overkill and clumsy lines; apart, perhaps, from those lights, the new A4 is an object lesson in understatement, subtlety and ineffable good taste. And getting the outside and inside to coexist in design-match harmony would count for little if it wasn't properly crafted. An A4 feels every bit as fussed over in the factory as a £80,000 supercar. The net effect is like buying a Japanese car with added taste.
A total of £22,600 buys into this level of euphoria, when buying the 2.0TDI in SE trim. That's just your deposit though. My test model carried £11,980 worth of extras. We'll focus on the worthwhile ones: the eight-speed multitronic transmission (£1,450) is superb. Why anyone wants to flap about with a gearstick on busy UK roads beats me; this option keeps you involved (you can shift up and down tiptronically) and features a Sport mode for any rare moments of open-road joy.
Electric front seats are a welcome albeit dubious benefit for £750 and I'm unsure whether it's rampant bone idleness or a justifiable enhancement, but the electric tailgate does ensure you don't have to strain extra muscles when struggling with dogs and shopping bags. For £375 though? That's six months in a posh gym. And satellite navigation for a bargain £1,975? It's enough to buy Tom-Toms for your whole street.
But on the road, the A4's good. Not "the road is a racetrack" good, but precise and accurate enough to feel exciting, yet smooth and calm enough to feel luxurious. This diesel unit is a gem when idling and won't drown any pavement conversations. It's smooth at all speeds, but there is a criticism: if you want an extra dollop of urge when overtaking someone who's not going as slowly as perhaps you foolishly first thought, it might make your heart race in the wrong way - it digs down to the bottom of its pockets for resources and is slightly miserly in producing them.
But perhaps an average of more than 50mpg will help you forgive that. Ultimately, I've yet to discover THE perfect car, but I think the A4 Avant, with its fine built, generous space and easy ability to twin-up as a part-time van would happily do for now. It's got life, it's got style: perhaps that what lifestyle means?
