What's the difference?
The Audi A4 allroad is the off-roader of the A4 line-up. I’m using the term ‘off-roader’ loosely here because this wagon is obviously best suited to daily duties in a city and suburbs, with perhaps an occasional foray into very light off-roading, i.e. driving on a well-maintained gravel or dirt road with few, if any, corrugations, and in dry weather only.
But that’s not a negative factor because the great thing about adventures is that they can be scaled to suit you, your lifestyle and your vehicle of choice.
However, is this allroad your best option for a comfortable, nice-driving all-rounder? Read on.
Okay, this is getting crazy. It feels like barely a week of 2024 is going by without another value-focused, pure-electric SUV hitting the Australian new-car market.
And this is the latest, the Chery Omoda E5, a compact, five-seater with the performance and range to challenge some other relatively recent arrivals.
It joins the internal combustion Omoda 5, variations of which have proliferated in the roughly 18 months it’s been on sale here.
This is CarsGuide’s first look and we’ve assessed everything from value and practicality to safety and driving performance. So, stay with us to see if this EV could be your entree into the world of battery-electric SUVs.
The Audi A4 allroad 40 TDI quattro S Tronic is a nice-looking wagon that’s fun to drive.
It’s packed with tech, adequately functional for daily life and it’s also capable enough off-road as long as the driving surface is nothing more challenging than well-maintained gravel or dirt tracks in dry weather, and you’re not planning a rough-and-tumble expedition into remote bushland.
As I mentioned earlier, the great thing about adventures is that you can scale them to suit you and your vehicle and the allroad offers a nice stepping-stone for people who’d like to experience the outdoorsy lifestyle, before perhaps diving deeper into it.
The Chery Omoda E5 gets solid ticks for value, practicality, performance, efficiency and a great ownership promise.
But its suspension compliance isn’t in line with class standards and some of its safety assist features aren’t as refined as they should be. Both of which matter in a car likely to be used by families day-to-day. Its price and specification are strong drawcards and that will get it over the line for many. But we think this Omoda E5 would still benefit from some judicious fine-tuning.
Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.