Unexpected crutches for dealing with life’s nasty moments can manifest in many ways for you. It could be an adventure, a new hobby, a rekindled friendship—or a 621-horsepower Audi wagon showing up at your door. The 2026 Audi RS6 Avant is the same wagon we’ve all grown to love over the years—and I really mean love.

It’s the perfect do-it-all, the coolest daily, and really, the anti-SUV. It’s got presence and character, and, perhaps more fitting for my week with it, room for five, a 19-gallon fuel tank, and the ability to drive very fast on any road. Jerry Perez What do you do when your surroundings remind you of the very thing you’re trying to escape?

You leave them behind. You open the hatch, throw your bags in the trunk, and head out somewhere new. Ideally, a place where things feel fresh and light, and where the food and booze are good.

With my two teenagers in tow and a full tank of gas, I pointed the RS6’s long and sleek hood southwest and began our journey from Indy to St. Louis. Google Maps, brightly displayed on the vivid but now slightly aged-looking infotainment screen, showed 265 miles from door to door.

Four hours and 15 minutes was the estimate, but I knew we could make it in three hours and some change—easy. My almost-20-year-old riding shotgun played road trip DJ, making the lovely Bang & Olufsen sound system sing with mostly familiar tunes. We explored a bit of everything, from what I grew up listening to to what I like now, as well as some things we can all agree on.

Some Bad Bunny, Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish, 311, Rage Against the Machine, Santana, and Blink 182 graced those sweet speakers. But alas, it wasn’t long until my daughter, 14, lowered herself into the depths of TikTok and, with her AirPods on full blast, managed to fall asleep in the backseat. Speaks well of the ride comfort back there, I suppose.

Jerry Perez Better than the B&O stereo is the sound the 4.0-liter, twin-turbo V8 produces under acceleration. It’s deep, it’s velvety, and it reminds me that, no matter how quick and cool some EVs can be, this aural theater is the stuff that really raises your pulse and connects you to the machine underneath. The view of the well-designed cockpit, the feeling of the Alcantara-wrapped steering wheel in my hands, the mental snapshot of my kids enjoying a car dad can’t afford, and the smile on my face as I look back at the wagon after parking—they’re small but meaningful reminders that life happens in cars.

And when certain aspects of life suck, these gain even more importance. Money can’t buy happiness—that’s the honest truth—but it can make a bad moment seem a whole lot better. The miles flew by, and we were in the land of Budweiser in no time.

It wasn’t hard to find a good dive bar burger or some delicious BBQ from a hole-in-the-wall restaurant. The beer was good too. And if you’re a beer snob, I don’t wanna hear it.

I’ve got simple taste. Jerry Perez Even better, the Four Seasons in St. Louis offers, as far as I’ve seen in my years as a frequent traveler, the cheapest rate anywhere in the country for a double room.

It’s about twice as much as the “nice” run-of-the-mill chain hotel, but about eight times the experience. Worth it any day of the week. And the $163,000 RS6 having a nice, safe place to sleep was a plus, as was the valet’s look on their face: “Wow, you don’t see these very often.” Our time in St.

Louis was fun. It was easy, and it was the kind of quick getaway that you used to read about in short-form, edgy magazines: “48 Hours in XYZ, Here’s What To Do” type of thing. Nowadays, it’s all TikTok clips.

A car is just that, a car, and I’d argue that, like money, they can’t make you happy. I know that statement may come as a shock to some, considering my entire life revolves around them, but I do believe that cars can use their attributes to make us feel joy—even if only for a fleeting moment. Surely this isn’t the review you were expecting to read, and I hope that’s okay.

In fact, it’s more of a journal entry than a review—but as I’ve shared before, these boxes on wheels carry us through our journey on this planet, for better or worse. My weekend with a seriously cool wagon was definitely for the better. Sometimes we can’t shoo away the cloud hovering over us, but in an Audi RS6 Avant, you can outrun it. Jerry Perez Email the author at jerry@thedrive.com