Audi RS4 Avant: Ideal For Fast Trips To IKEA

Let's be real, not many young guns have an estate car or wagon location in their mental dream garage. They carry the unfortunate association with people that only want a huge boot so they can take rubbish to the dump or want to get their furniture home from IKEA themselves. Or need more room for the Labrador. However, with the new Audi RS4 Avant hitting our screens, this trend may be coming to an end.

Cast your minds back to our Cars of 2011 and you'll discover that one of them is a completely bonkers Cadillac CTS-V wagon with a 556hp 6.2-litre V8. We also got the chance recently to go sideways in a crazy Volvo V60 T6 Polestar which has 329hp, and we likey a lot. Estates aren't just boxes on wheels anymore. They could be all the car you'll ever need.

Here's the latest incarnation of the original warp-speed wagon. It started life as the RS2 back in 1994 but it's here today as the RS4 Avant. The recipe is simple; take the everyday Audi A4 Avant, lift out the 2.0 TDI and insert the same 444bhp 4.2-litre V8 as you would find in the RS5 coupe. The result is a 4-wheel drive estate car which can go from 0-62mph in just 4.7 seconds and is only 0.1 seconds slower to 62mph than an Aston Martin DB9. Top speed is restricted to 155mph but if you pay the extra fee to get rid of the limiter it could go up to 174mph. Imagine taking your flat-packed furniture home at 174mph.

Not only can it lug many an object or house a whopper of a sub woofer, it can also get 4 of your buddies and their luggage to the destination comfortably and quite quickly. Ferrari 458s, Lamborghini Aventadors and even Bugatti Veyrons can't do any of the above yet this Audi can.

Like those supercars though, there are plenty of toys for the driver to play with. Standard equipment includes electrically adjustable body-hugging sports seats, a 7-speed S tronic gearbox, DVD-based sat nav system and Bluetooth connectivity. Spend extra and you could get trinkets like Google Earth navigation, RS bucket seats, a sports exhaust system that makes the car louder and a Dynamic Ride Control which lets you set the suspension up for your mood whether you feel like casually cruising on the motorway or having some fun around the country roads.

Instead of shouting about it's potential though, the RS4 Avant only has subtle differences compared to the everyday A4. Outside there's a honeycomb grille, chrome wing mirrors, 19 or 20-inch rotor design rims (depending on if you go for the DRC or not) plus two large oval exhausts at the back. Inside is pretty much the same as a normal A4 (if you don't count the racing seats) but with Carbon inlays instead of aluminium bits and RS logos dotted around the cabin.

All that comfort, practicality and speed is available from £54,925 which is actually slightly cheaper than the equivalent RS5 and cheaper than its main rival, the Mercedes C63 AMG Estate.

So, would you add an estate car such as this to your dream garage? You surely know what to do by now but just in case you don't, you can leave a comment below or on our Facebook wall/timeline or whatever it's called this month. You can tweet us as well @CarThrottle.