Audi responds to demand, will bring its fiery RS6 wagon to America

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  For the last few years, if you wanted an insanely powerful but still practical Audi, you could by an RS7 Sportback. But in 2020 you’ll also have the option of this, the RS6 Avant station wagon. [credit: Jonathan Gitlin ]

FRANKFURT, GERMANY—Although the station wagon is not quite extinct, there is no denying that it belongs on an endangered species list. People just don’t buy them anymore—especially in the US, where buyers have voted with their wallets for the higher seating position and compromised dynamic ability of the crossover. Which makes Audi’s decision to finally bring its spicy RS6 Avant wagon to the US all the more remarkable. Truth be told, the news that one of the fastest wagons was US-bound actually slipped out of Audi HQ a little under a month ago, and since the model was on display at this year’s Frankfurt auto show, it seemed wise to go take a closer look.

The RS6 is a product of Audi Sport, the company’s racing arm. Audi Sport takes the company’s track-honed knowledge and also applies it to variants of the brand’s more mundane models. More often than not, this results in some truly sublime automobiles that defy Audi’s traditional reputation for building attractive cars that just aren’t fun to drive; compare a TT to a TT-RS for vivid proof of this. And for 25 years, the RS6 has been the tip of Audi Sport’s spear when it comes to transporting four people and a lot of their luggage (or two people and even more stuff) as fast as possible across Europe, regardless of the weather.

Here in the US we’ve had to settle for the RS6’s closely related sibling, the RS7—if one can describe my all-time favorite Audi model as something one must “settle for.” Now, though, well-heeled Audi customers will have a dilemma on their hands: starting next year, they’re going to have the option to buy either one.