Allroad to Nowhere: what happened to lifted estates?

What could be better for tackling the treacherous M2 than an A4 Allroad? I can’t quite believe it: there are now no lifted estate cars on sale in the UK. With confirmation that the new Subaru Outback won’t be coming here, they’re all gone. What ever happened to the Seat Leon X-Perience, Vauxhall Insignia Country Tourer and Toyota Corolla Trek? Then there was the Skoda Octavia and Superb Scout duo, Mercedes’ All-Terrains, Volkswagen’s Alltracks, Volvo’s Cross Countrys and Audi’s Allroads. If they’re seemingly so unpopular, why do I love them? First, a history lesson – and it starts with, of all people, the Americans. A nation of households owning multiple land yachts creating a new segment for practical compact cars. Enter, in 1979, the AMC Eagle Wagon, with raised suspension and full-time four-wheel drive. It was another original idea from an ingenious company fighting ‘the big three’ on a shoestring. The Eagle struck a chord with buyers in rural and snow-prone areas – before being killed by Chrysler’s purchase and eventual shuttering of AMC. Spiritual successors followed in the form of the 1994 Subaru Legacy Outback (the model that really kick-started the trend), the 1997 Volvo V70 XC and 1999’s A6-based Audi Allroad. Soon everybody was at it: Peugeot had the 508 RXH, Saab the 9-3 X and Alfa Romeo the 156 Crosswagon, to name a few more. To me, such cars present themselves as the perfect all-rounders. That is to say, slightly more versatile estates. They combine the benefits of better handling, fuel consumption and styling with the all-terrain ability of an SUV. In fact, most of them could probably outperform the average school-run SUV on the rough stuff. And yet despite the number on offer, they were never actually that popular. I suppose that sensible estate car customers don’t need four-wheel-drive capabilities (let’s be honest, with modern tyres, pretty much no one does) and SUV buyers like theirs purely because they enjoy sitting higher up than other road users. As a result, they’re now all gone in this country (bar a few more months of the front-wheel-drive Ford Focus Active Estate and the six-figure Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo), and even in Europe Mercedes and Audi are the only ones still pursuing the idea. I’m an owner of a low-slung estate who has no real need for four-wheel drive, but on the apocalyptic roads of rural-ish Kent, I regularly find myself wishing for additional suspension travel and a chunk more tyre wall. It turns out that in today’s Britain, the perfect all-rounder is not a BMW 3 Series Touring but an Audi A4 Allroad (with a diesel V6, obviously). I’m off to Autotrader, then, while praying that Audi will bring the next A6 Allroad here.

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