The Allroad give you considerablly more power to work with (250 or 310,
depending on which engine you choose) and the versitility of the air suspension
system. With it, you can set the car lower for an "Avant like" stance and
sports car handling or higher for the kind of ground clearence you'd need for
snow, light flood or bumpy terrain conditions. It gives you 95% of the
versitlity of a real 4x4 with 100% of the benefits of a car sized and car based
vehicle, including gas mileage. The A6 Avant is a very nice but far less
versitle vehicle, and I'd suggest driving the Volkswagen Passat too as it will
save you money, but will not be quite as large.
Steve Grauman