No, actually I was 36, err I should say what, like 32 when I bought my first one? It was a 2006 Audi A4 Avant, but I’ll be honest, something about that car just clicked with me. The practicality of an SUV, the handling of a sedan. But the biggest draw – being different. America is notoriously anti-station wagon. In 2019, station wagons represented a sum total of 1.4% of all new car sales. SUVs for that same year? 50% even. And for me, 50% is way too common. 25% is too common. Hell, even 5% is too common for my tastes.
I want to drive something unique. Something that I’ll see maybe once every two weeks in passing. Or something I’ll see one or twice a year in passing. You know what I’m talking about too – something that ends up with a nod or a wave, that recognition between drivers that yeah, we’re driving something special.
That 2006 Avant I mentioned earlier was a true unicorn. 3.2-liter V6 motor, 6-speed manual transmission, all-wheel drive, S-Line trim. It was one of those cars where there were barely triple digits of them sold during its production run in the US. It had a quarter million miles on it, but that car, with a new set of snow tires, was an absolute tank in the snow. At the time I had never, and have not felt since, the confidence in the snow that I felt in that car. Low end torque, a six-speed transmission, the Quattro all-wheel drive system, and those tires – it was unbeatable. I was hooked.
So when it came time to address the fact that my reliable daily driver wasn’t as reliable as I wanted, it was time to move on. But I knew I had to get another wagon…
Allroads lead to home
Carvana is just bad news for an automotively obsessed computer nerd. Buy a car online, sight unseen? Brilliant. I wanted a newer car, one that I could get a warranty on. One that hadn’t been eclipsed by the next generation yet. And it had to be a wagon. Oh, and it had to have those four rings on the hood. So what options did I have? The only option was Audi’s B9 generation A4 Allroad. And in all honesty, it was not a bad option, not in the least.
Okay. Maybe it was a bit taller than I would have preferred. After all, Audi’s B8 generation was the last one to have a true A4 Avant, a true wagon version of the sedan. The Allroad is meant to be closer to crossover than a regular old wagon. Taller, more muscular, with some matte-painted fender extensions to give it that “offroad” feel. Audi had their crosshairs on the Subaru Forester probably. In any case, I knew lowering was always a possibility, so there wasn’t much to dissuade me from pulling the trigger.
I can’t say for sure how long I truly looked for an Allroad to call mine, but it probably wasn’t as long as it should have been. You know, millennial instant gratification mentality and all. But I found this one on Carvana, and started the ball rolling.
All in all the process was very straight forward and simple. Paperwork to fill out and send back and forth, and the wait for the car to arrive.
And that kids, is how your father met his new daily driver
Since that fateful day in 2019 I was hooked on wagoons, but didn’t know it truly till the Allroad was mine. I am its second owner, the first being a lessee. They put a total of 41641 miles on it during their ownership, and I’ve since doubled that and then some. My last record as of today is 86078 miles. We’ve been to Nebraska and Texas and all the states in between. I’ve invested, if you can call it that, over 50% of what I paid for it, back into it in the form of modifications and upgrades. The car has only ever threatened to strand me once, in the mountains of Tennessee, but we made it through.
So consider this an introduction to the Allroad. I hope to further document the places it’s taken me and the fun I’ve had customizing, modifying, and upgrading. After all, it can’t be just like every other Allroad out there right?
-AB
