• Impressive interior space front and rear
• Large, square boot, but smaller than Merc’s
• Useful extra touches to boost versatility

The A6 Avant is already a practical executive wagon, although not quite as practical as its rivals at least in terms of outright boot space on offer.

However, you’d do well to find it really lacking unless you regularly pack the back of the car up to the roof, as the 565-litre load area is a deep, square shape with a flat load area, low loading lip and some neat touches that make life a little easier.

For example, the load cover retracts automatically as the electric tailgate raises, so you don’t have to worry about moving it out of the way yourself. There’s an extra cover/load net attached behind this that attaches to the roof and acts as a guard – this can also be attached to the back of the rear seats when they are folded down, to act as a netting bulkhead between the whole load area and the front seats.

Finally, there are small areas to the side of the squared-off boot, load rails along each side and tie-down points for a flexible load space, plus levers in the boot to fling the rear seats forwards and free up a total of 1,680 litres of space.

You won’t be getting as many large, square items into the boot of the A6 as you would in an E-Class All-Terrain, though. The rear window is quite steeply raked which impinges on outright boot space, although this is only likely to become an issue if you regularly carry bulky items that won’t fit under the regular load cover.

Elsewhere in the cabin, the A6 is roomy. Up front there’s a good amount of space on offer for adults to get comfy, the door bins are a decent size (if not as big as in rivals), and there’s some extra room beneath the armrest (but not much).

In the back, legroom is very generous but the central tunnel eats into foot room for a middle-seat passenger, while headroom is also good. Dark headlining makes it feel a little darker than you’d expect, though.

Audi A6 Allroad safety

• Five star crash safety rating from Euro NCAP
• Saloon’s score applies to the Allroad and Avant
• Long list of standard safety kit, with more available at cost

The A6 Allroad has a total of nine airbags which, in combination with a strong build and a range of safety and driver assistance technology helped to get it a five-star score from Euro NCAP when tested in saloon form in 2018. The rating applies to the Avant and Allroad body styles, too.

In terms of safety and driver assistance kit, lane-departure warning is standard on all cars, with an automatic e-call system that automatically alerts the emergency services in the event of an accident. On top of this the A6 Allroad comes with all of those airbags, as well as various stability control systems.

On Sport models you can add a pair of packs (that come as standard on Vorsprung cars) if you want to boost the driver assistance technology:

Tour Pack – featuring adaptive cruise assist, predictive efficiency assist, traffic-sign recognition, Pre-Sense Basic (closes windows and sunroof and tensions seatbelts if a crash is detected) with emergency assist and high-beam assist

City Assist Pack – blindspot monitoring, pre-sense rear (prepares the car for a rear-end crash if it is detected) and cross-traffic assist front (detects crossing traffic to the front and side and takes measures to avoid an impact)