The Luxury Wagon That Proves Practicality Can Be Fun

We have a deep-set love affair with the SUV here in the U.S., and while that doesn’t look to be changing anytime soon, we should also be eyeing up what the admittedly undercatered-for station wagon market has to offer. While certain SUVs may offer us a lot in terms of versatility, available luxury, and some performance guts, there is a wagon made by Audi this year that does all of that, but is more like a sports car to drive.

This luxury 2025 Audi performance wagon continues the legacy of some of the best luxury wagons ever created, and today, despite its purse-prying starting price, offers a huge amount of performance grit, everyday comfort, a luxury interior, lots of space for luggage and passengers, and more on-road kudos than most luxury vehicles. You can have it all; it is the full package.

Comfortable, Fast, And German: The 2025 Audi RS6 Avant

If you have been following Audi over the last year or so, you will know that we are talking about potentially their greatest modern model line: the RS6 Avant. You get a powerful engine under the hood, a very plush and sporty German interior, track-worthy DNA woven into the build, lots of room for long distances and hauling things around, and a seldom-seen build that is bound to turn the heads of drivers on our SUV-ladened roads.

There are two trims of this year’s exclusive RS6 Avant lineup: the RS6 Avant Performance and the very hard-to-buy RS6 Avant GT. Prices are high for both flavors, but if you are in the market for something unique, exceptionally powerful, fun to drive, exclusive, and useful to own, they are well worth the money.

Prices Are High, But What Don’t You Get?

Starting prices for this year’s RS6 Avant wagon lineup are an eye-watering $130,700 for the Avant Performance, and an even more luxe $200,000 starting price for the Avant GT. From where we are sitting, they look great, they are built for more than just comfort and practicality, they are exclusive, and they can take on some of the most potent cars on the market.

Only 660 RS6 Avant GTs are being built worldwide, and here in the U.S., we are only seeing 85 of them. So, without speculating too much, we think that if you get your hands on either trim, but especially the GT, you are looking at an investment model that will likely hold its value, could potentially go up in value, and will be very fun to own.

2025 Audi RS6 Avant Performance Specifications

At the center of what makes the Audi RS6 Avant lineup such a beast of a wagon to own is the motivation under the hood. Both the RS6 Avant Performance and RS6 Avant GT come equipped with the same animal of a bi-turbocharged V8. However, the GT is ever so slightly faster to 60 mph and has a higher top speed, courtesy of a lighter weight build and the limiter being removed.

Under the hood is an EA839 TFSI V8 that boasts twin turbos; they are positioned within the V (hot-V configuration) to reduce turbo lag and give you very responsive feedback, while the lightweight cast aluminum crankcase and plasma-sprayed iron-coated cylinder linings keep overall weight down and ensure that everything is smooth under the hood as it can be with such monstrous power.

Cooling is just as smart, with an electronically controlled oil pump feeding two separate galleries for the block and heads, which means everything is kept lubricated under heavy load and under hard cornering. The result: everything keeps ticking over in the most efficient RS fashion imaginable and makes the RS6 Avant a sports car-come-family hauler in the most potent way possible.

We’d say that the RS6 Avant is a sleeper wagon, and maybe you could argue that it is, but with this engine spurring things along with its Audi RS-grade aggressive look, raucous tail-end racket, and rare build, everyone is going to hear and see this thing coming.

RennSport-Grade Performance Goodies

The RS6 Avant’s engine is not where it ends in terms of performance. Not by a long shot. Both the Performance and GT are designed for proper track-worthy driving.

Both models are equipped with Audi’s eight-speed Tiptronic automatic transmission paired with Quattro All-Wheel Drive, so power is routed to all four wheels with far more finesse than your typical wagon. The Performance flavor also comes equipped with a sporty center locking differential, which is set as default to 40:60 front-to-rear, but when things get slippery, it can send up to 70 percent of torque to the front and up to 85 percent to the rear.

Both variants are set up underneath for real performance, but there are some slight differences. The Avant Performance boasts RS adaptive air suspension and controlled damping that adapts on the fly to driving conditions, while the GT benefits from adjustable coil-overs, stiffer anti-roll bars, and the already-mentioned lighter weight for even more fun in the corners.

Naturally, to make the RS6 Avant a real performance demon, the braking has to be up to scratch, and Audi has made sure that in both models it is. On both models, large steel rotor brakes and high-performance calipers are fitted to complement the straight-line speed you can achieve in them.

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Exterior Track-Ready Features Of The RS6 Avant

Both the Performance and GT models are the typical German-esque combination of function meets style. The Avant Performance comes equipped with wide wheel arches, aggressive front air intakes, and available 22-inch wheels wrapped in high-performance tires, all of which not only make it look the business but also provide a wide stance for raucous handling and help keep the brakes cool.

With the Avant GT, Audi has dialed things up a bit. You get a carbon-fiber hood and front fenders, the roof rails have been removed to save weight, and unique ‘Avus’ 22-inch wheels with GT-only finishing sit on all four corners.

The GT is also equipped with a very prominent rear diffuser, a more aggressive splitter, and a roof edge spoiler inspired by Audi’s very own racing heritage. They look great, yes, but they also help with airflow, downforce, and heat management of the brakes and engine.

While the RS6 Avant Performance is an absolute performance weapon, the lighter weight and added performance features of the RS6 Avant GT are going to make it even harder to get hold of than it already is. The Performance weighs in at a fairly substantial 4,982 pounds, but Audi has managed to shave off around 88 pounds from the GT’s curb weight.

What You Can Do To Make It Even More Potent

The RS6 Avant GT and the RS6 Avant Performance are built with performance in mind from the start, but there are a couple of things you can do to boost their potency a little more. At build, you can add the Black Optic Package to the Performance trim, which swaps out the chrome trim for gloss black trim, adds dark roof rails, and bolts on 22-inch sports wheels.

If the thunder of the V-8 isn’t quite rowdy enough, you can also add the RS Sport Exhaust System to deepen the twin-turbo’s tone to a snarling, metallic growl. Something you’ll want to add if you really want people to know you own this collectible beast.

Inside, you can also choose to add the Executive Package, which gives you a little more in the way of luxe comfort in the shape of massaging front seats, a HUD, more leather around the cabin, and soft-close doors. The business on the inside and the business on the outside.

Everyday Usability That Makes A Case For A Wagon Comeback

There is no denying that the FuelEconomy.gov estimated combined mpg rating of 17 mpg (14 mpg in the city and 22 mpg on the highway) and estimated fuel costs of $3,600 a year are high, but this is a very potent performance wagon after all.

Alongside high fuel costs, it is worth taking long-term overall costs into consideration. According to Car Edge, over five years, it is estimated that it will cost you $100,379 to own an RS6 base model. These five-year costs include around $13,500 in fuel costs, just shy of $21,700 in interest, and circa $4,400 in maintenance costs. The overall five-year cost is lower than the MSRP of the 2025 model, so these figures should be seen as a ballpark figure; we can presume it will be higher than that, but the fueling and maintenance costs are likely to be accurate. Performance cars are as performance cars do.

It is too early to tell if the 2025 RS6 Avant will lose money on the used market, but we can presume, because of its potency and general rarity, that it will hold its value fairly well. If you can look the other way at the high all-around costs, you’ve got yourself a very usable performance wagon with the 2025 RS6.

It Can Perform, But It Can Also Haul

We have established that the new RS6 Avant is a weapon, but it also offers up impressive space over two rows and cargo capacities that rival some smaller and mid-size SUVs. Up front, you get 41.3 inches of legroom, 57.8 inches of hip room, and 38.3 inches of front headroom, while your rear seat passengers won’t be cramped with 37.4 inches of rear legroom, 56.5 inches of shoulder room, and a respectable 39.3 inches of headroom.

Both grades of the RS6 Avant also come equipped with 40/20/40 split-folding seats, which allow you to lay things flat in the back. You get 30 cubic feet of cargo space with all the seats in place, and a maximum cargo capacity of 59.3 cubic feet when the seats are folded away. That is the same maximum capacity as the 2025 Mazda CX-5 boasts with its seats down, while the RS6 trumps the CX-5’s cargo capacity with all seats in place (29.1 cubic feet).

Comfort Features That Rival Luxury SUVs

This is where it gets better if you want a wagon for the long journeys and a calm environment when you’re pinning it; the 2025 RS6 boasts features that would make many luxury SUV owners jealous. It showcases four-zone automatic climate control, so there can be no arguments from anyone in the front or back; you get heated and ventilated front seats wrapped in Valcona leather, complete with RS-specific stitching, and ambient lighting subtly illuminates the cabin.

Up front, Audi’s Virtual Cockpit 12.3-inch diagonal digital gauge cluster dominates the view and boasts full-HD resolution. Here, you can toggle between traditional displays and the sportier RS displays that show you boost pressure, oil pressure, lap times, and g-forces. In the center stack, a 10.1-inch upper touchscreen handles navigation, media, and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and vehicle settings, while below it, sits an 8.6-inch lower touchscreen that handles climate, seat controls, and other comfort features.

Even in the rarer and raucous GT, comfort isn’t ignored. The ride remains composed, you get nicely bolstered seats, outside noise is muted, and the blend of performance and comfort features makes it both a very handy wagon for spirited driving and long-haul slogs.

How The 2025 RS6 Avant Stacks Up Against Other Performance Wagons

The European market is still enjoying more wagons than we are. Our market unfortunately fell away with the rise of the SUV, but this year, we can get our hands on some very potent performance wagons that we think make a case to bring back more wagons to our roads. This year’s biggest rivals to the Audi RS6 Avant are undoubtedly the 2025 BMW M5 Touring and the 2026 Mercedes-AMG E53 Hybrid.

The M5 Touring is available this year with a starting price of around $120,000, so it is already somewhat cheaper than the RS6, and for that money, you get a 717-horsepower 4.4-liter bi-turbocharged V8 that gets you to 60 in around 3.3 seconds, and 57.6 cubic feet of storage space with the seats folded away.

However, rest-to-60 times are on par with the RS6’s, while cargo space is a lot less with all the seats in place in comparison, with just 17.7 cubic feet available. There is no denying that the comfortable interior, M suspension, techy cabin, and overall aggressive stance of the new M5 Touring make it one of the best performance wagons we can get in the U.S.A., but because of the rarity of the Performance model and the even rarer GT grade, we think that the RS6 clinches it.

There is a very strong argument that the could be worth looking at over the RS6. Starting prices will be $93,350, so a huge amount cheaper than both the M5 and the Audi, and with all the seats down, you get a massive 64.6 cubic feet of storage space.

Performance guts also meet practicality here. The AMG E53 Wagon boasts a 577-horsepower turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six hybrid mated to an AMG SPEEDSHIFT TCT nine-speed automatic transmission, which not only gets you to 60 mph in as little as four seconds, but can also achieve an estimated 52 MPGe in the city and 64 MPGe on the highway. You also get the ever-loved AMG attention to performance features and a hand-built mill under the hood. It really does pose a risk to the RS6.

But, there is no escaping the fewer horses under the hood and the slower 0–60 mph times. Plus, while inline-six engines are relatively rare today, V-8s are becoming even more seldom-found, and if you want a unique car in the form of a performance wagon, surely you want something with some real V muscle under the hood to complete it. The Audi RS6 Avant is rare, an exceptionally powerful model, and is filled with high-end luxury goodies, and if you can get your hands on one, we see a future collectible in the works.