Audi RS4 | Video Review | CarsIreland.ie

Published on 29 August, 2018

Blisteringly quick and achingly cool

Overview

Overview

An estate might not be the first thing to spring to mind if you’re after something fast and furious. By their very nature, they are supposed to be sensible - boring even, prioritising space and practicality above all else, especially such frivolities as speed or looks.
Luckily for us, the kind folk at Audi have decided you can have both with the RS4 Avant.

The boot is one of the unique selling points of this car. At 505 litres, it is a usefully large space that is easy to access. There's plenty of room inside for a pushchair or two, a trip to IKEA, taking the Christmas tree to the dump – or whatever else you might need it for. There’s also a few handy gadgets to help make those tasks easier like hooks, nets and flat-folding rear seats.

The back is also impressively spacious. The outer two passengers will have plenty of room to stretch out, even if they’re on the taller side. There are two sets of Isofix anchors for child seats, and a middle seat the same as what you'll find in the A4 - lacking in legroom thanks to a large transmission tunnel but fine for kids or on a shorter spin.

The RS styling is reasonably subtle in the cabin. Aside from the exquisite leather RS bucket sports seats, and a nice splash of RS badging around the place – it’s your typical offering of effortless Audi elegance. Every detail is beautifully laid out, easy on the eye, and reassuringly solid to the touch. Infotainment is taken care of by the MMI system, one of our favourite ones to use.

It also gets the sensational virtual cockpit as standard, which despite various attempts from other brands to keep up, has never lost its wow factor. As for other toys, it would probably be easier to list the features that it doesn't have because in terms of tech and comfort, there’s really not a lot missing from the RS4.

Standard kit includes adjustable lumbar support, electric seat adjustment, dual zone air con, Audi Smartphone interface, all round parking sensors and a reversing camera. There's also plenty of impressive safety gear like Audi emergency call and pre-sense city emergency braking.

But as always with Audi, if you want more you can have it, and the list of extras on our test car (highlights of which included wireless phone charging, three-zone air con, a carbon black styling package, 20 inch bespoke alloy wheels, panoramic glass sunroof, and a sports exhaust) would probably buy you a nice little A1.

It’s got the goods to back up those handsome looks. Powered by a 2.9l twin turbo V6 petrol engine, it spits out 450 bhp which is sent to all four wheels via Audi’s sensational Quattro four wheel drive system. This helps it complete the 0 – 100km/h sprint in just 4.1 seconds.
It is stupidly fast, with an absolutely seamless power uptake from the 8 speed tiptronic gearbox. However, more impressive still is its ability to hold the road while you rip through corners, despite that big old boot on the back.

The four wheel drive system is biased 60:40 toward the rear for a sportier feel, but is ready to redistribute that power wherever and whenever you might need that bit of extra traction. But really, you don’t need to know any of that, just that the car does most of the thinking for you, and the resulting grip is phenomenal. The steering is light but sharp, and the suspension surprisingly limber, with very little unsettling the cabin even on the optional 20 inch wheels. There are different driving modes which will help adjust the feel to different situations. Dynamic mode is as raucous and captivating as you would imagine, but putting it in Comfort does calm things down nicely around town and tones down the noise of the engine. For this level of performance, the running costs aren’t as outrageous as they could be with a claimed figure of 8.8 l/100km and an annual motortax bill of €1,350.

That’s on top of a starting price of €101,500 which, we suppose is the only bad news here. Unfortunately a steep price tag generally means steep depreciation initially but we can't imagine anyone who buys this car will want to part with it anytime soon.

Many cars are fast, many are practical, but very few are both, and virtually none will garner more respect on the road.

Verdict: This might just be all the car you'll ever need.

Facts & Figures

Sinead McCann

Sinéad is our resident car tester who has the unenviable (-ok, slightly enviable) task of reviewing all the latest new cars to hit the market. You can follow her on Twitter @smcani and on Instagram @whatshedrives