• Plenty of room for a family, plus extra storage
• 495 litres of boot space with rear seats in place
• Rear seats don’t fold completely flat

As a rugged, go-anywhere estate car, the Allroad needs to stand out in the practicality stakes. And while it does make for a versatile family car, it trails its rivals for outright space and roominess.

At 495 litres the boot space is generous, while the load area itself is well-shaped with square sides and useful pockets. Also, the tailgate is electrically powered and the load cover retracts automatically.

However, a Volvo V60 Cross Country offers a larger load area at 529 litres, while a more conventional and far cheaper Volkswagen Passat estate offers a huge 639 litres of space with the rear seats up. Lower the seats and a total of 1,495 litres is freed up, but the seats don’t fold completely flat, leaving a slight slope in the load area.

There’s a good amount of useful storage areas elsewhere in the car. The door bins are large and useful, there’s a pair of cupholders ahead of the gearlever and a tray area beneath the adjustable armrest.

Safety

• Five-star Euro NCAP crash test rating for regular A4
• Wide array of driver assistance systems available
• Security of Quattro remains a significant draw

The regular A4 saloon achieved a five-star Euro NCAP score when it was tested in 2015, and that score applies to the Avant and Allroad body styles.

The Allroad comes with a comprehensive safety kit list, including a suite of airbags and stability control systems. On top of this, a Driver Assistance Tour Pack can be added at extra cost, and it bundles the following driver assistance and safety systems into one pack:

• Adaptive cruise assist with stop and go, plus traffic jam assist
• Predictive efficiency assist
• Camera-based traffic sign recognition
• Audi pre-sense front – autonomous emergency braking
• Collision avoidance assistant
• Turn assist
• Active lane assist