Four-wheeled Friend

Having an interest in cars is not really the done thing these days, its not terribly eco-friendly let's face it but when one needs to escape for a while to bumbleville it's certainly not going to be served by this country's rather inadequate public transport system. So therefore the mind wonders to what might be the best motor for the job? With a long drive along the M4 in store tomorrow afternoon and a weekend of muddy lanes what would be the perfect mode of transport?

For many years now The Established Man office have been lusting after a Range Rover, big, comfy and a schoolboy dream but they now tread a fine line between rap star and Sloane, obviously ours would be filthy as our current car collection is, and it wouldn't be a 'Chelsea Tractor' of sorts. We would actually take it off-road, a rarity these days and they have gotten more eco-friendly of late with cleaner diesel engines. In town it can sometimes like be steering an oil tanker in the small streets of Hampstead but in the hills it is the beast of choice. Farmer Giles would have a Land Rover Defender but on a motorway run it's still not refined enough and can resemble doing power plates in a motor car.

But what else is there to choose from for the hermit like existence that we here lust after on regular basis? Audi is always on the tip of our tongues whenever a motor-esque debate kicks off, we love our compact yet prestigious A3 but for a longtime have been thinking an Allroad is the perfect urban/rural mode of transport. Its a normal A6 estate but one with four-wheel drive..quattro is in Audi's blood after all. It looks more meaty than the average A6 and is a delight to drive in and out of town, particularly with a 3.0 litre diesel engine. There's also the Audi Q7, the enormous 'proper' four-wheel drive, it's the closest thing to driving a Hummer in this country and we're not convinced. A smaller Q5 launches soon so expect a report when someone here manages to blag one for the day!

What real tickles our tastebuds is the prospect of crossover four wheel drives, much like the Allroad. Audi is planning a smaller Allroad based on the A4 which has us alight with excitement and MINI also have been testing a car in Germany which could hail the first ever 4x4 mini, if that's the case our order will be one of the first.