no.radar

<img src="http://www.autoweek.com/grafix/newtoplogo.gif">

Headline: TRAILBLAZING--IN STYLE.

Full text: "A dirty Audi A6 4.2 quattro sitting in the driveway may impress your yuppie neighbors more than any rough-and-tumble truck. Who in their right mind would take a $54,175, 300-horsepower luxury car into the grit and grime? Only someone who knows the value of quattro driving, the build quality of an Audi--and who actually LOVES that active lifestyle portrayed in so many car ads. Besides, it's not about image; it's about attitude."

Then there's a photo of Finman's 4.2.
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/12452/audicows2.jpg">

Truck vs. 4.2?? Quattro as an off-road feature?? Impressing yuppie neighbors with a dirty A6??

I have ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE what their point is. Okay, the other featured vehicles on the page are the Hyundai Santa Fe, GMC Envoy and (the late) Ford Excursion, but if they want a high-end German import off-road counterpoint, what the hell's the allroad... and they even feature a tuned 320hp allroad in a full-page article on the following page!

WTF?? Slow car-news week? Lazy editors? AoA guys popping for breakfast all week @ Autoweek offices??

Aldous

That's just an odd piece of writing, no matter how you look at it????

Definitely

Every week AW does a 'lifestyle' feature on three or four cars they've tested over time. The writing clips are in response to a rehtorical question or hypothetical situation they posit in the upper right hand corner of the page. Then they try to have some fun with what they write. Read that upper right hand corner piece to gain perspective on the text and it will probably make (a little more) sense.

A6Mainer

Yea... what Definately said... if you read AutoWeek all the time you understand... 20 years here..

Greg Slater

Last weekend, enroute to hiking destinations, I drove my 2.7T (with sport package, and thus stiffer, lower suspension, with 45-series tires) over roughly 60 miles of mostly very rough gravel roads, with lots of sharp rocks and dips and bumps and so on. For about 30 miles of that, the only vehicles I saw were 2 Jeep Cherokees, one pickup, and probably 100 or so dirt bikes. And then there was my '02 A6. At one junction, there was a group of about 30 dirt bikers hanging out taking a break, and then along comes Greg in his A6, with the A/C running, and the CD player spinning (perfectly fine, by the way). I got quite the look from those guys.

I AM considering getting a compact 4x4 truck to support these adventures, but in the meantime, my Audi isn't about to back away from the opportunity to go play in the woods. It's just itchin' for winter to get here...

srosie

Sport version is 20mm lower than non. Off road at your own risk, imho. Dumb blurb, imho.

Driver8

I'm such a newbie...16 years here