Audi Ups Its Wagon Tease Game

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

Despite wagons facing a growing unpopularity that rivals that of free speech, Audi continues winking and nudging at North America, sneakily hinting that the king of all long-roofs might make its way to this side of the Atlantic.

There, it could see dozens, perhaps even hundreds of orders. Cynical? Perhaps, but a niche pocket of enthusiasm does greet any mention of the A6 Avant midsize wagon and its upcoming, beastly RS 6 Avant performance variant. Believed to pack a twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 and a boatload of horsepower, the next-generation RS 6 launches for the 2020 model year, but it remains to be seen whether any of these wagons arrive on these shores.

Certainly, Audi wants fans to think they will.

Audi embarked on its teaser campaign earlier this year, and this past week brought a new salvo of speculation:

It’s rarely been seen in America. pic.twitter.com/iptIyUZuCE

— Audi (@Audi) August 15, 2019

The first generation RS 6 Avant. Was never available in Canada 🇨🇦. pic.twitter.com/rv1leHlRsN

— Audi Canada (@AudiCanada) August 17, 2019

Hmm, I wonder what they’re trying to get across?

While the larger of Audi’s wagons did once tempt U.S. dealership visitors, the only long-roof Audi passenger car currently on sale stateside is the smaller A4 Allroad, which gets a mild suspension lift to go with its body cladding. It’s a crossover-adjacent wagon, not unlike Buick’s Regal TourX.

Of course, there’s also an Allroad version of the fifth-generation A6 that launched in Europe last year, and it’s this model that’s seen as the most likely candidate for a boat trip. At last report, Audi officials in the U.S. haven’t given any of the A6 wagon variants a green light. Should the Avant, Allroad, or RS 6 make the trip, it wouldn’t face much competition in its micro-segment.

Wagons are flirting with extinction in North America. While Jaguar’s XF Sportbrake will remain in the brand’s U.S. lineup for 2020, its future looks grim, what with Jag culling unpopular car configurations. The next-gen BMW 3 Series, introduced for the 2020 model year, sees the wagon variant drop from U.S. order books. Adding to the bloodbath, Volkswagen recently announced the death of its Golf Sportwagen and Alltrack.

That leaves Subaru, Volvo, the aforementioned Buick, and Mercedes-Benz’s E-Class Estate to keep the A4 Allroad company.

It definitely looks like we’ll see some version of the A6 Avant here; if all of this teasing comes to naught, Audi deserves a slap. As for the next RS 6 Avant, rumored to boast between 650 and 700 horsepower, we’ll get our first glimpse of it at the Frankfurt auto show on September 10th.

[Images: Audi]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Lichtronamo Lichtronamo on Aug 19, 2019

    I’m in Germany now and the A6 Avant is all over. It’s an impressive looking car. I’d be interested in seeing it in the US. Unfortunately, it would be a niche vehicle. The US is all in on CUVs and SUVs. There are popular here in Germany too, but estates and hatches still rule and mostly M-B, BMW, Audi, and VW. To a lesser extent Ford, Opel, Skoka and French brands. We are driving a M-B C-Class 220d estate. Very comfortable, lots of luggage space and easy to Cruze the Autobahn at 220kmh. Pedal to the floor it maxed out at 240kmh. It was fun watching the Porsche GT3 go past me like I wasn’t moving.

  • Cprescott Cprescott on Aug 19, 2019

    I love and value station wagons. Their utility and their "carness" makes them great products and those blasted CUV's and SUV's are bloated, can't see through them road masses of doggie poo.

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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