Audi Allroad 2000 test drive - 2006 SUV

Get up!

Range Rover and Audi Allroad Quattro. It is difficult to imagine another couple of equally dissimilar, but close to each other in spirit and functional purpose of cars. On the one hand, they are shared by La-Channel, three decades of fleeting automotive life and clearly expressed different weight categories. But look at how equally elegant and confident both of these cars on the beaten Bolshak and in a deaf forest more often look and you will understand why we brought these highways on one launch pad ...
We rushed through the sleepy Sunday suburbs on the off -road military training ground. Without the slightest problem, I got used to the ALLROD captain’s bridge in the interior of the latest models from Ingolstadt so much in common that after six months, at the wheel of A4, the salon of any Audi is perceived as a native house. How indifferent I reacted to the state-owned State Duma of Sedan-Susterka, so easily accepted and loved A6 Avant a large, spacious and cozy car for a successful person with an active life position. And performed by Allroad, acquiring exclusive elements of external plumage, massive bumpers and flaunted by the protection of the crankcase and gas tank, the German station wagon became simply a native city dweller with impeccable village genealogy. Range props from behind. Monumental as an English monarchy. Strict as a Victorian prosecutor. Fast as the avant -garde of Marshal Wellington from the times of the defeat of Napoleon. It is not the car of the icon of any high -society tramp, which is prone to majestically from time to time to move from a large road to a small one, and then delve into the distant corners of their estate inaccessible to pedestrians.
You sit in the bowels of this nautilus and feel like Captain Nemo, for a long time and for a long time left the vain world always running away from traffic jams. And the appearance of the Range Rover in a quarter century was so canonized that even the new generation of the model, the premiere of which will be held for a motor show in Detroita'2002, the designers left almost unchanged. The British cannot refuse an impeccable automotive taste Range really evoke respect for any inhabitant of the city stream, even the rude insides of tinted Moscow cubes from Mercedes. In terms of smoothness, the dynamic capabilities and the level of comfort provided during the ride, both cars deserve great respect. AlloDo with the Booturbo engine demonstrates an explosive temperament and is able to leave behind a good half much more sports in terms of image and convulsions of the fingers. Not afraid to put pressure on the gas and actively work with the steering wheel? Then feel free to pour the full tank, turn off the annoying mobile phone and go. Audi swallows any road with asphalt coating, like a completely passenger station wagon, and even with an increase in speed, even the domestic highway begins to seem an autobahn. The main thing is not to slip through the congress from the highway, because on the rational off -road Allroad also promises to give the driver a couple of acute, but pleasant sensations.
Range Rover refers to that class of British cars, which are customary to talk about sufficient. He does not provoke an active ride at all, but in mode acceleration-renewal behaves very convincingly. The only thing that should not be abused is the active work by the steering wheel in corners. Attempts to squeeze from this box all the juices end with acute attacks of marine illness, and it seems that the car is floating along the road quite evenly, but you are chatting along the seat, like a lonely lantern in the autumn wind. Therefore, accept as an axiom the statement of Range Rover is not late because it is in a hurry, but because it leaves in advance. A special conversation about the pendants of these cars. More precisely, about their amazing ability to lay a car racing along the asphalt road and lift it over more than 200 mm soil cut by loose scars, allowing to easily overcome obstacles impassable for ordinary all -wheel drive machines. Moreover, you manipulate all these mines-Vira using the only button on the central console, and the process of flattening generally is generally managed by electronics that responds to the speed of the machine. Convenient, logical, practical and very useful in nomadic life. You fly on the highway, you get light controllability, improved aerodynamics and complete control over the situation. You scrap your belly on the rut and do not stop where most off -road adventures that stoiled in fords on technology without special preparation are doomed to dry the oars. By the way, the Range Rover can still squat when planting passengers or loading and unloading of baggage. Just like the ship's ship at the foot of the Egyptian pyramids ...
Naturally, off -road is much more confident in the Range Rover hereditary SUV. The ability of this car to overcome the leales more than once and not two to amazement for some reason we decided in advance that we have a typical SUV, the lot of which well-groomed English lawns and lawns. But it’s not at all the off -road of the military training ground near Moscow. No, miracles in the world are not natural, the British passage limit begins much earlier than any army all -terrain vehicle. But much later than the AlloD driver starts looking for a tugboat. But on the highway, Audi easily takes a revenge for the losing on the off -road amazingly sensitive, responsive, friendly and ready to meet the wishes of the driver's apparatus. By the way, if the off -road abilities of Alload are exaggerated by the scenario for compliments by the press, then not much. 21 cm of road clearance is a very worthy indicator even for an adult class 4x4. The problem is that Torsen, no matter how unique, is a differential differential, it is not a handout with the ability to divide the transmission and strictly distribute the moment along the wheels and axes. Therefore, in the complete absence of the road, Allroad grazes and calmly waits for him to be pulled out on a more or less adequate to the capabilities of the car with a clearing.
Without a shadow of English humor, wealthy inhabitants of the vague albion say: we take Range Rover not to move out of the beaten road. And for the sake of confidence that if we ever have to move out of her, we can safely afford it!. Rational Germans are aware that a compromise is always a search for a reasonable middle. And I must admit that AlloD is one of the most successful automobile compromises over the past 100 years. True, confess to honestly you would climb the land with a belly of a car for $ 70,000? Or is it better to ride A8 Quattro every day, but to buy and bring Defender to the mind for trips to hunt and bring to mind? It seems to me that the second option is also a very good solution to the issue. Although both AlloD and Range Rover left a clear mark of their universal wheels in the soul ...
 
Text Alexey Mochanov, photo Alexander Nozdrin
 
How do they look:
Nikita Rozanov
 
Outside:
At first glance, the idea to compare the design and style of these two SUVs may seem useless. Indeed, what can a comparison of cars, which, by and large, are separated by three dozen years? It was in 1970 that Rover first showed the public his legendary Range, instantly baptized by a farmer in a tailcoat. Then it was the very embodiment of automobile fashion, which, by the way, for the first time in the world could be correlated with a utilitarian SUV. Its boxed shape and flat sides inspired a considerable number of stylists. In the early 90s, the car received a new design, became softer and more balanced in proportions. But all the same, the image of a strict tailcoat, which was drawn in the 70s of the old Rover, was indestructible. And moreover, a somewhat dry, boxed style has survived this time well and even entered the 21st century. Audi in the design is a complete antipode: In the appearance of AlloD, it is difficult to find a couple of straight lines. All forming is subject to a rather complex curve, which draw the main lines and form the surface. The branded features are also peculiar in design. And if ALLROD demonstrates how fashionable today, the absolute resemblance to all other members of the Audi family, then Range is proudly individual and rejects the family with all means. Truly the age of the present and century past ...
Results:
Audi Allroad QUATTRO corporate, very bright and modern design with finely placed accents characterizing the level of road and off -road abilities of the car.
Land Rover Range Rover high -quality and slightly dry design from the last century. It is morally outdated and requires speedy replacement.
Inside:
Naturally, both cars inside are as different as outside. And surprisingly, despite the English patriarchate, the Range Rover style does not make impressions of irrevocably outdated. The architecture of the instrument panel of both cars is classically t-shaped and has a developed and multifunction console with the same layout of functional zones and control units of various service functions. Naturally,, as always, in the composition of the English panel, a well -known constructive feature dominates, taking into account the possibility of crossing the right to the left wheel. The rudders, by the way, are heavy and solid four -spoke. The seats are fully consistent with the dynamic characteristics. The Audi pillows and backs have a pronounced sports relief, in Rover they are more flat. However, the same stylistics dominates in everything else: the upholstery of the doors, the design of the luggage compartment, wooden finishing details.
Results:
Audi Allroad Quattro everything is as always high quality, stylish and whole, but sometimes unnecessary correctly. And I want a little more strokes, specific for the character of AlloD.
Land Rover Range Rover inside the car does not make the impression of a morally outdated thing. The spirit of luxury, the quality of materials and the verbosity of the details are captivated.
 
 

A source: Cars