If you don't really know what kind of car you want, this could be the one for you. You quite like 4x4s, but then they're a bit tacky and showy aren't they, especially on the school run? You've got a kid, or two, but you haven't quite surrendered your youth and secretly you'd like to be driving around in something fun, probably with no seats in the back. You're definitely not quite ready to go down the Volvo estate route anyway. You probably have some sort of outdoor pursuit you like to pursue at weekends. And there could be a cottage, possibly in Wales. Oh, and you've got £36,630 to spend on a car.

If you do have £36,630 to spend on a car you could do a lot worse than spend it on this one. It is killer. First of all it looks great doesn't it? Underneath it's an Audi A6 estate - or Avant as they insist on calling it (the word estate seems to have been dropped by carmakers as a turn off, but Avant is a lot more embarrassing). Anyway, the A6 Avant has been sent to the gym. It's higher, wider and chunkier. Toned in fact, but not too much. The Audi allroad is Pitt, not Schwarzenegger.

It's good inside too. The posher the car, the more cut off you feel from the outside world, and when the door of this one clunks classily shut you feel totally cocooned in your own smug leathery little world. Nice. Mine had a modern dark green interior, which was almost successful but spoilt by the obligatory strip of walnut veneer. It seems that if you spend a lot of money on a car you expect to see the evidence that a tree has died in its making, even if it looks all wrong. But you are rich, and this is your right. Otherwise it's comfortable and elegant, with all the seat positions, lumber support options, cupholders and mapflaps you'd expect for your 30 grand.

We went to Shropshire - which is almost Wales - to a cottage. It was bank holiday, and the roads were chocker. But this car is even fun in a traffic jam. Small cars look up at you enviously. And the big Shoguns and Landcruisers look down jealously too, because they know you've got something altogether more desirable. Once you've basked in that for a bit you can make the GPS navigation map zoom right in so it even tells you the names of all the canals you're crossing - quite educational, no? OK, how about this? Practise your Spanish by switching the navigation language: "Siga por la caraterra hasta nuevo aviso." And then forget how to turn it back to English so it only speaks Spanish, for ever. The real fun begins when the traffic grinds completely to a halt, as then it allows you to switch on the telly. Big Brother on the M6, how about that?

Off the motorway at last, and it all kicks in: 2.7 litres, V6, 250bhp, permanent all-wheel drive. The allroad drives more like a sports car than an estate - I mean Avant. Big 4x4s feel uncomfortable on fast A roads; not this one. If you want to take part in the experience a bit more, you can switch from automatic to Tiptronic so you can flip through the gears yourself. Wey-hey. Sorry if this is all getting a bit boysy, but it felt boysy. In this car you really do feel like you could take on the world. And win.

So it's great on the road, but what about off it? We tried to find some steps to drive up, like in the advert, but there aren't any like that in Oswestry. But we did find a muddy track that disappeared ominously into a forest. This car has four different height settings, ranging from low for cruising fast along motorways to high for steps and muddy tracks. You just press the button on the dashboard and up you rise, as silently as a soufflé - and if you forget, it will change automatically of course, to suit the road.

There's something not quite right about getting this car all dirty. Not that it doesn't cope well - it took mud, rocks, steep sideways slopes all in its stride, much more capably then any of those so-called sports utility vehicles. But when we emerged on the other side of the forest looking bloodied and muddied with twigs and leaves hanging off all over the place, it seemed a terrible shame: we'd been so shiny and elegant half an hour before. Like playing rugby in an Armani suit. Except that an Armani suit isn't great to play rugby in, whereas this car is great to drive along muddy tracks in. In a Land Rover you want to get all messy, but in this one you're probably better off in the knowledge that you can, rather than actually doing it.

Another small moan. The navigation system had no idea where it was in the lanes of Shropshire, and kept on telling us so, still in Spanish of course. And on the way back to London it went into a complete sulk and absolutely refused to tell us where to go. Also the TV reception wasn't so great up there... But that - and the walnut - aside, this car is gorgeous, and you should get one. If you've got £36,630 to spend on a car of course.

The lowdown

Audi allroad quattro

Price: £36,630. (The turbodiesel is £32,550 but it only does 129mph)
Top speed: 147mph 0-60mph: 7.4 seconds

Consumption: 15.7mpg (urban)
On the stereo: Ride of the Valkyries

At the wheel: You - in your dreams

Where to go: Anywhere