I was recently in Stuttgart, and I tell you, the good citizenry of southern Germany is doing its part to make sure wagons don’t go extinct. They’re everywhere, which pretty much explains why German car companies are basically the only ones making wagons these days (and Volvo … and also the Subaru Outback). Now, we don’t get many of them, including the Audi A6 Avant. We do, however, get the two most interesting versions of the A6 Avant: the A6 Allroad and the RS6 Avant.
According to the specs, both the Allroad and RS6 Avant have 30 cubic-feet of cargo space behind its back seat. That would be more than the V90 Cross Country, which has a listed spec of 25.5 cubic-feet (it’s less than the Mercedes E63 at 35 cubic-feet, but I haven’t tested that).
I’ll tell you right now, though, there’ll be a lot more to this test than just tossing the bags in and calling it a day. The Avant has tricks up its sleeve.
As you can see here, this is a very looooong space. I used to own a first-generation A4 Allroad, and while the general shape, height and feature content (more on that in a second) was comparable, the length is the big difference here.
You can see how my Allroad did when compared to the Volvo V60 Cross Country.
Above left is what you find when you lift up the floor. I guess you could store something down here.
Above right is what you find when you remove that big plastic bin-ish thing under the floor. A huge subwoofer and definitely not a full-size 22-inch wheel and some rubber spackled upon it.
In other words, no luggage help here.
The Avant has a roll-out cargo cover in a cartridge like oh-so-many vehicles, but this one plugs into a power-operated track that automatically raises and lowers the cover when you open and close the hatch.
As the cover exists and there’s really no place to put it in the car, I will be testing with and without the cover.
As with every Luggage Test, I use two midsize roller suitcases that would need to be checked in at the airport (26 inches long, 16 wide, 11 deep), two black roll-aboard suitcases that just barely fit in the overhead (24L x 15W x 10D), and one smaller green roll-aboard that fits easily (23L x 15W x 10D). I also include my wife’s fancy overnight bag just to spruce things up a bit (21L x 12W x 12D).
First, a word about loading. This is something I discovered with my A4 Allroad (which also shows their heights are almost identical). Although my biggest bag fits under the cargo cover, the two cartridges (more on the second soon) prevents it from going all the way to the seatback and creates a sizeable gap. I used to stuff random stuff back there if I ended up loading like this, but for this A6 Allroad/RS6 Avant test, I put the big bag on its belly for the various Tetrises you’re about to see.
Test 1: Cargo cover covering the bags
All the bags did NOT fit underneath the cargo cover, as the green bag was left behind. The fancy bag is also obviously not in the greatest shape.
It’s hard to tell because of glare, but the cover still managed to close over the bags despite them sticking up above the cover’s height.
Test 2: Cargo cover in car, but retracted
All the bags now fit, as you can see above left.
There is also room left over. With that extra space, I could fit a small Under Armour duffel bag and a second medium-sized black roll-aboard. I removed it from above the green bag (above left) and moved it atop the other medium black bag (above right), therefore showing two of them could theoretically fit.
This is a very good outcome. There are a TON of SUVs that cannot fit the six standard bags with the cargo cover still in the car.
I have removed the cargo cover, but now we come to the second cartridge hiding behind it. It’s the Avant’s standard roll-up cargo net. I had one of these in my A4 Allroad and I used it all the time.
Basically, this feature allows me to circumvent one of the primary Luggage Test rules: Do not load to roof. Doing so hampers or eliminates visibility, and most importantly, poses a safety risk by allowing bags to fly into the passenger cabin. The cargo net prevents things from flying into the cabin.
Test 3: Cargo cover removed, cargo net in place, visibility maintained
As the above header says, here I loaded up the RS6 Avant almost to the roof, but as the terrible photo above right shows, you can still see out the back. When I’d use the cargo net in my A4 Allroad, this is pretty much what I did.
In terms of stuff, this swaps out the imaginary second black bag from Test 2 for a 38-quart Coleman cooler. We’re now in big compact SUV territory like a Honda CR-V or Hyundai Tucson.
Test 4: Fill’er up
This is the most stuff I could fit in the back of the RS6 Avant. To the Test 3 amount I’ve added a small briefcase (under fancy bag) and closed off the visibility hole with a standard duffel bag and a tiny cooler bag.
Now, Luggage Test rules mean this doesn’t really count since rear visibility is eliminated and there’s no digital rearview mirror as a workaround. The cargo net does satisfy the safety requirement, however.
So yeah, that’s a helluva lot of stuff in a wagon. Just one more reason why I deeply love the RS6 Avant, and would probably be awfully fond of the A6 Allroad if that should ever find itself way into my driveway.