Curios: Why the Avant? and why White?

[Harry Weinert]

Hi all,

I'm just curious...? I see a lot of White cars these days, and I've noticed that a lot of the new A6's (and other new cars) that are being bought are mostly of the Avant model, and not the Saloon.

My question... why?

Understandably it's all down to personal preference, - however I've never, ever liked a white car, how and why have white cars become popular?

I have also never liked large square boot cars,.. and wonder why a lot of people seem to prefer the Avant model over the saloon? - of course, this one can be explained by "family car", "need the space for shopping/kids/dog".

Just curious that's all! - what's the attraction?

[boidy]

the avant...... all round practicality.

Even when i reach old age i'll STILL have an avant.

[zollaf]

for a start, audi can make an avant look sexy. most makers bodge their saloon into an estate to forfil a market. audi do this, but also have a long histor of making estates look great and go fast. look at the original rs2 and rs4, only available in avant form. as for white, god knows.

[Sam]

According to a few articles (here and here) it's all thanks to Apple.

My next car will be white, but it's nothing at all to do with Apple, I just think it suits the vehicle I've chosen.

As for avant/estate;







:drool:

[zollaf]

ooof, splat, need to clean my monitor.

[CharlesElliott]

I think the other reason that there are a lot of Avants is there are not many estate options in that class. BMW 5 series or Mercedes are about the only choices.

[ukgroucho]

Avant vs. saloon? Why NOT. Gone are the days when "estate" cars drove somewhat differently from saloons and suffered significantly more cabin noise.
As zollaf points out, Audi have a good track record of making Avants look nice. Are they "nicer" than the saloon version? Dunno - tis in the eye of the beholder but I suspect that if you did a poll it would be a relatively even split as to which people prefer. And you do get that extra practicality. Years ago (company car days) I went from Cavalier SRis hatchbacks (I had 3 in succession) to a Passat saloon. Bigger car internally than the Cavalier, not as quick but drove nicer and probably handled as well if not better... but I missed the practicality of the hatchback for those moments when you needed to get something tall (or a LOT of stuff - like camping gear) in the car. Next car was an Audi 80 Avant.. then A4 Avant, Then A6 Avant and now the allroad.
It really hits home when you're driving down the motorway (quite normally) with it loaded above the windows in the back and you pass saloons with roof boxes...

As for white... I think partly because the standard Audi colour offerings are not always the most exciting so unless you want to shell out a bunch of cash you are somewhat limited. Black is a nightmare (super hot in summer and shows every splash of road grime in winter) so white tends to be the fallback.

When I bought my allroad - even though I was willing to pay for the 'standard' metallic / pearl upgrade (but not the roll your own colour £2500 malarkey) - the metallics / pearlescents they offered were uninspiring. I wanted the allroad body kit to stand out so it needed to be a lighter colour and that was either glacier white or silver (but LOADS of the 1st gen allroads were silver so I wanted something different).

You look at the colour charts in the catalogs and you think there is plenty of choice but actually - unless you want to buy the "roll your own" option there are only a few good ones. Just look at the number of threads discussing various gray options etc. I must confess if Garnet Red had been available for the allroad I might have been tempted.. whippy's car looks really smart.

[Doctle Odd]

Avant vs. saloon? Why NOT. Gone are the days when "estate" cars drove somewhat differently from saloons and suffered significantly more cabin noise.
As zollaf points out, Audi have a good track record of making Avants look nice. Are they "nicer" than the saloon version? Dunno - tis in the eye of the beholder but I suspect that if you did a poll it would be a relatively even split as to which people prefer. And you do get that extra practicality. Years ago (company car days) I went from Cavalier SRis hatchbacks (I had 3 in succession) to a Passat saloon. Bigger car internally than the Cavalier, not as quick but drove nicer and probably handled as well if not better... but I missed the practicality of the hatchback for those moments when you needed to get something tall (or a LOT of stuff - like camping gear) in the car. Next car was an Audi 80 Avant.. then A4 Avant, Then A6 Avant and now the allroad.
It really hits home when you're driving down the motorway (quite normally) with it loaded above the windows in the back and you pass saloons with roof boxes...

As for white... I think partly because the standard Audi colour offerings are not always the most exciting so unless you want to shell out a bunch of cash you are somewhat limited. Black is a nightmare (super hot in summer and shows every splash of road grime in winter) so white tends to be the fallback.

When I bought my allroad - even though I was willing to pay for the 'standard' metallic / pearl upgrade (but not the roll your own colour £2500 malarkey) - the metallics / pearlescents they offered were uninspiring. I wanted the allroad body kit to stand out so it needed to be a lighter colour and that was either glacier white or silver (but LOADS of the 1st gen allroads were silver so I wanted something different).

You look at the colour charts in the catalogs and you think there is plenty of choice but actually - unless you want to buy the "roll your own" option there are only a few good ones. Just look at the number of threads discussing various gray options etc. I must confess if Garnet Red had been available for the allroad I might have been tempted.. whippy's car looks really smart.

There's a guy down the road from me has a brown Astra estate. Who in Gods name buys a brown car?

[EssexGonzo]

According to a few articles (here and here) it's all thanks to Apple.

My next car will be white, but it's nothing at all to do with Apple, I just think it suits the vehicle I've chosen.

As for avant/estate;







:drool:

Lovely.

My first Audi was an 80 Tdi Avant in 1984. Not because I needed it but because it looked far better than the saloon. As have MOST Audi avants........except for the C6 which exactly why I have the saloon. The C6 saloon shape is (IMHO) the best looking A6 to date.

It I were getting an A6 now it would be an Avant. Or possibly an A7

[Pennyroyal12]

I had an A5 Quattro before the A6 and the most frustrating aspect was getting large items into the boot - limited by the distance between the top of the bumper and bottom of the rear window. When I was looking to replace it with something more practical, I was surprised that the A6 saloon suffers the same problem. Plus, the Avant list price is only £2000 higher than the saloon vs £5000 higher for the 5-series Touring.

White was my preferred solid paint choice - I was trying to keep the list price down for BIK purposes - if price were no object, I would have gone Quattro again