The Audi S4 Avant is a very cool looking wagon, especially in this battleship grey. If like me, you enjoy driving then you will love the way it goes too. It's very fast and clings to the road, which makes the rest of your journey after school drop off a lot more fun and the powerful engine sounds awesome!
So let’s find out if it’s a heart-over-head decision to choose the Audi S4 Avant, and whether this sporty wagon can be a practical BabyDrive and family car too?
Of course it can! The great thing about wagons is you don’t have to compromise on boot space, they have heaps of it! The S4 is no exception, we could easily fit a twin stroller or double pram in the boot with plenty of room for shopping too.
Fourteen shopping bags fit in the boot of the Audi S4 Avant. Although I haven't reviewed any other wagons of equivalent price and performance we can compare it to the ones I have, which are all of half the price but almost all are equal in capacity.
A medium-size dog will fit in the boot of the Audi S4 Avant too.
Where we always have to compromise with wagons and sedans is the low roofline. For the first couple of days we’d say to each other ’Wow this is low’ and then we found by day three we were used to it and didn’t notice it anymore.
We didn’t have any bumped heads getting ourselves or the kids in and out even posting bub in and out of her rear-facing child seat was okay and reaching in to do up the child restraints was okay for me at 162cm tall and Hubby who is 184cm.
Two child seats fit really nicely in the back seats, though it was a little fiddly posting the top tether anchorages through to the boot to connect them because you’re working in a tight space but once they’re in and connected the child seats fit nicely.
The top tether anchorages for the outer seats are on the backrests and for the central seats is just behind the headrest.
We couldn’t fit a third child seat in the middle but I found I could just squeeze in there, shoulders cramped, and I’m 162cm. The three top tether anchorage points give you flexibility for positioning of the child seats, which is good.
Legroom is really good in the Audi S4 Avant. We found with a rear-facing child seat behind the driver, a 182cm or taller passenger can sit in front of them. If it’s on the passenger side then a taller passenger would fit.
Storage is good throughout the Audi S4 Avant, with door bins that will hold refillable water bottles…
…as well as two cup holders in the front and back, wireless phone charging dock and front and rear USB sockets.
There are front and rear aircon vents which are great for keeping the rear passengers cool too.
The media system is slick, modern and easy to use in the Audi S4 Avant, with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto so you can access Spotify and ABCKids Listen apps etc for family journeys.
The sat-nav in the Audi S4 Avant has Google Maps so you can get a great visual on the media screen, which I found easy to follow.
The front camera is very helpful when parking and the image is crystal clear…
…and the reversing camera images are equally clear and you have different angles to view from too.
You can turn the parking sensors off on the screen as well as with a button on the dashboard, which is alongside the auto engine cut-out that you may wish to turn off too so that it doesn't disturb your little ones every time you stop at the lights.
The joy of the Audi S4 Avant is the drive for me, in the same way as the Audi Q8. The drive cocoons you from the usual outside road and wind noise while driving, which adds to the pleasurable drive. I love that it can be a comfortable and practical family car and then cling to the road and be a lot of fun to drive when it's just the adults in the car!
Not forgetting to mention the very comfortable and massaging front seats which you control through the media screen.
The interior of the Audi S4 Avant is beautiful, in the model I tested it had red leather upholstery with red stitch detail along the central console and dash.
The Audi S4 Avant has not been through the ANCAP safety crash testing but comes with eight airbags as standard. (The regular Audi A4 got five stars in 2015).
BabyDrive Indepth
BabyDrive Indepth - Storage
How big is the boot of the Audi S4 Avant?
The joy of wagons is they have a lovely big boot and the Audi S4 wagon is no exception. I haven't tested anything that compares in terms of price and performance to the Audi S4 wagon. However, comparing the size to other less expensive wagons I have tested the Audi S4 is slightly smaller. The Audi S4 Avant will hold fourteen shopping bags, which is the same as the Subaru Levorg, whereas the Skoda Superb, Skoda Octavia, Volkswagen Golf Alltrack Wagon and Mazda6 Atenza Wagon all fit fifteen shopping bags and the Volkswagen Passat Alltrack Wagon fits sixteen shopping bags.
A twin stroller fits in the boot with three shopping bags.
A tandem pram fits in the boot of the Audi S4 Avant with six shopping bags beside it.
The boot space and its functionality are really important. I like to have a big boot space and little side wells or areas I can divide things into. So something I don’t want to move around while I’m driving such as kid’s lunch bag or her wet swimming gear can be sectioned off in a little well where it’s not going to spill or get squashed by the rest of the things in the boot.
Hooks for securing shopping bags to are also favourites of mine, I like being able to secure the bag containing more fragile things like eggs so they don’t move around on the journey.
I measure the boot space in freezer shopping bags, prams and dogs. Not because I think all there is to a mum’s life is food shopping, prams and dogs. (Although it can feel like it sometimes!!) But because these are visually mesurable items we can all associate with. For me, the car company boot measurement of litres is not an amount I can easily visualise and 400L in one car may differ in usability to that in another due to the configuration or shape of the space.
The single pram fits in the boot of the Audi S4 wagon with five shopping bags beside it.
The Nano compact stroller fits in the boot with ten shopping bags beside it.
Or you could fit a medium-sized dog in there!
The boot of the Audi S4 Avant is nice and flat and carpeted, making it great for emergency nappy changes! There are small netted storage areas on either side behind the wheel arches and I particularly like the elastic strap storage on either side too which we found great for holding the kids' balls so they didn't roll around the boot.
How good is storage inside the Audi S4 Avant?
Storage in the cabin of the Audi S4 is good throughout. There are two cup holders in the central console that will hold a re-usable or disposable coffee cup. Behind them is a small lidded storage we found handy for keys.
Behind that is a shallow central console storage box, it has a wireless phone charging pad, USB-C socket and just enough space alongside for your sunglasses.
There is no glasses case in the ceiling which was disappointing but there are lit vanity mirrors in both front visors.
There is a small ledge and 12V socket and USB in front of the cup holders.
The glove box is large enough to hold my wallet with all these manuals in the Audi S4 wagon but an iPad won't fit.
The front door bins of the Audi S4 will hold a large refillable water bottle.
The rear door bins of the Audi S4 Avant will also hold a large refillable water bottle.
There are net map pockets on the back of both front seats that will hold but not conceal an iPad.
There are two USB ports and a 12V socket in the back of the central console to allow rear passengers to charge devices.
There is a fold-down armrest in the central seat back with two small cup holders. They will only hold a coffee cup but a reusable water bottle wouldn't fit securely.
There is a lined and lidded storage tray there too, which is great for rear passengers phones.
BabyDrive Indepth - Noise
How noisy is the Audi S4 Avant?
The Audi S4 Avant wagon is a pretty quiet BabyDrive, like other luxury cars I have tested the passengers are cocooned from a lot of the usual exterior noise and stimulation. The drive is smooth and the Audi S4 grips the road. It is comfortable when you have the family onboard and then can be hard and fast when you want to have some fun without the kids in the back.
There are driver assist instructions and warnings that come up in the screen in front of the steering wheel which I found a bit bossy during my week driving the Audi S4.
I found you could adapt a lot of the driver-assist settings to your liking within the media screen.
The media screen in the Audi S4 is a modern and easy to use system.
The Audi S4 has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto too, which was great for easily connecting my phone and made it easy to listen to all the kids' apps and podcasts while driving.
The camera image quality is excellent. It is crisp and clear and you have a bird's eye view alongside the other camera view too, which is helpful when parking a long wagon like the Audi S4. You can select between different camera angles in the bottom right of the screen and it is very easy to mute the parking sensors with a button on the bottom left of the screen.
The front view camera is just as clear as the rear and I found it useful for not knocking the low front bumper on kerbs when parking.
You can also turn the parking sensors off with a button on the dashboard. On the same row of switches is the Auto engine cut-out button so you can turn that on and off there too if you find it disturbs your kids when you stop at lights and junctions.
The front seats have a very nice massage function that you control through the media screen.
The sat-nav is excellent in the Audi S4, it has Google Maps so you can get a great, very detailed view…
…which can be easier to follow than the basic map view.
Becoming a parent I soon realised there are some noises and sounds I feel are unnecessary and I could happily live without if it meant my baby stayed asleep!!
That often the distraction of my screaming, distressed baby is more dangerous when driving than not having a lane departure warning for example.
If it is the lane departure warning beeping that creates distress with my baby then which is safest?
It’s where I think we need to be able to strike a balance and choose when we can mute the warnings or swap them to a vibration in the steering wheel or flashing light perhaps?
A lot of these noises come with the increase in technology and especially linked to safety features and alerts. For me these all have their place.
Another thing I have realised is I spend my time in a lot more places where small children roam, parks, beaches, play gyms, swimming lessons, daycare centre etc. I have become more aware that when I’m reversing or manouvering in the car parks I have to tripple check for small children running around behind me or being in my blind spot when reversing. For this I LOVE reversing cameras, I just don’t like their beeping sounds!!
I have become so much more aware of safety and potential accidents or hazards since having a child and so I love the peace of mind that I get from the cameras and sensors combined with my own vision from windows and mirrors as I don’t trust cameras alone.
The windows of the Audi S4 wagon are nice and quiet to open and close and I found I could come to a stop and get out with the engine running without sounding any baby-waking alarms.
Since becoming a mum I spend A LOT of time parked up somewhere with a nice view while my daughter is asleep in the back! If it's hot I need to leave the engine running and the aircon on but I do like to get out and drink my cuppa tea in the fresh air while enjoying the fact my limbs are free from said dangling child!!
So this is a very important test as I have found that sometimes I have been held hostage by a cars BEEEEPING alarms when I have taken off my seatbelt or opened the door while the engine is still running!! (I only stand outside the car, I am not a bad mother!!)
The Audi S4 wagon has a door lock button on the driver's door…
…as well as window locks in the driver's door control panel.
The driver display also clearly tells you your distance to empty which is another great BabyDrive feature.
The distance to empty display becomes extra important as a mum because getting fuel with a baby is a whole new world of difficult. If they are screaming in the car you definitely do not want your journey prolonged with a fuel stop! If they are asleep the turning off of the engine, doors opening and locking and unlocking, then re-opening the doors and closing, starting the engine again, beepers going off because you haven’t got your seatbelt on when you start the car or because you blink in the wrong direction, do you take them out of the car when you go in to pay? If you do will you get them back in the seat again or will they have a complete meltdown and you’ll be stuck on the fuel station forecourt with a screaming baby!! Hopefully you are starting to gather the anxiety that what was once a simple fuel stop can be for a mum!!!!
For this reason the distance to empty display can let you know if you have enough fuel to make it home with bub and then go out and get fuel another time when you will not have to take bub with you.
There is an SOS call button in the ceiling where a sunglasses case would usually be.
The cruise controls are on a stalk behind the steering wheel. I found them quite easy to use once I was used to their position and the cruise control was incredibly accurate at high speeds on motorways as well as at slower speeds on undulating roads.
BabyDrive Indepth - Car Seats
How many child seats fit in the Audi S4 Avant?
There are top tether anchorages in the back of both the outer seats in the Audi S4's second-row seats and the central top tether anchorage is at the top of the seatback behind the headrest. They are all clearly labelled and within plastic guides which makes them nice and easy to locate and connect to.
It has ISOFix points in both of the second-row outer seats too. They are also within plastic guides and easy to connect to.
Two child seats can be installed in the back of the Audi S4 Avant very comfortably. I found there wasn't room for a third between them but I could just squeeze in there with cramped shoulders when I needed to, which is handy and I'm 162cm. Having the three top tether anchorages gives you the flexibility of where you want to position your child seats.
Legroom is great in the Audi S4 Avant, being a wagon, that and boot space is where it excels! We could fit a 182cm driver in front of a rear-facing child seat or an even taller passenger in front of a rear-facing child seat on the passenger side.
Now being a low roofline wagon, I was expecting the Audi S4 wagon to be hard to post Bub into her child seat from outside the car and to have some bumped heads but I actually found posting bub into her rear-facing child seat okay. The inside is spacious so I wasn't having to work in a cramped space. Inside the ceiling is high enough that posting Bub into their seat from inside is okay too.
Australia being a country of weather extremes; blazing sun and torrential rain, mean you may find it easier to put Bub into their seat from inside the car sometimes. If it’s hot you can get the air-con going, cool the car down and not stand out in the sun while you fasten them in or shelter from the rain and not get soaked yourself whilst you’re doing it. So it is important to test whether Bub can be easily installed from either direction!
There is plenty of room to feed bub in the back if you only have one child seat installed.
BabyDrive Indepth - Drive & Comfort
How comfortable is the Audi S4 Avant? And How good is the Audi S4 Avant to drive?
The front seats of the Audi S4 Avant I tested are beautifully upholstered in quilted red leather. The quilting and stitching will make cleaning spills etc tricky.
The seats are very comfortable. They are easily adjusted with the controls on the side of the seat base. One of my favourite things about the seats is the adjustable side cushions that you can move in and out to hug the sides of you, making the seat feel individual to you.
Of course, I have to mention the very enjoyable massages you can choose from within the media screen!
The quilted red leather seats in the back of the Audi S4 Avant I tested made me a little nervous when travelling with children!
For a mum travelling in the back with bub, the seats are very comfortable, there is a hump in the central footwell and the central console comes quite far back so there is no room to put your feet on top of the hump, so you will have to straddle with your feet.
For the first year of my babies lives when we would go out as a family, if I wasn’t driving, I would travel in the back with them so it’s important to check the back seat comfort as you may be spending a lot of time in them! They were never something I gave any thought to before but I definitely notice a good or bad back seat now!
The steering wheel is fully adjustable in/out and up/down as well in the Audi S4 wagon.
The air vents in the front of the Audi S4 appear to run across most of the width of the dash. Actually, there are still four vents, two underneath the media screen and one at either end of the dashboard.
For the second-row passengers, there are vents in the back of the central console.
The aircon for front and rear passengers is easily controlled on the dashboard.
Visibility out of the rear side windows and rear windscreen of the Audi S4 Avant is made worse when you have child seats in the two outer second-row seats. I found the side mirrors and clear rear and front view cameras very useful when parking.
One thing I have noticed since being a mum is I hate it when I reach a destination or get home from being out and Bub has either done really well in the car or she is screaming her head off and I have done really well to keep it together for the entire journey (usually the latter!!) and it takes 10 minutes to park the car! It can be really stressful. Usually I dread parking new cars as they take longer in our tight apartment block carpark, but the Audi S4 Avant was relatively easy to park using the cameras to help.
BabyDrive Indepth - Safety
How safe is the Audi S4 Avant?
The Audi S4 Avant has not been through ANCAP crash testing (the regular Audi A4 got five stars in 2015).
It has eight airbags as standard, front airbags for driver and passenger, side airbags for front and rear passengers, head level curtain airbags for front and rear outboard passengers.
Some of these safety features are also features that drive me crazy as a mum! Like the lane departure and forward collision alert or the parking sensor beeping sound. I want all the safety technology AND to be able to mute the sound when Bub’s asleep!
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About Tace Clifford
Tace Clifford founded BabyDrive in 2017 after discovering a huge information gap in mainstream car reviews that left new parents and expanding families in the dark when it came to one of the biggest purchasing decisions of their lives.
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