A small sport wagon – Audi calls the S4 “The Sports Sedan with a Fanny Pack” – the S4 combines a twin-turbo 2.7-liter V6 with a six-speed manual gearbox and quattro all-wheel drive to create a car that makes no logical sense, while also making the world a more interesting place in which to live. The S4 Avant -- built on the previous generation A4 platform -- could be bigger (rear seat room is tight at best), do with less horsepower (it has 250), and cost less than the $43,350 of our tester, but where’s the fun in that? This car revels in its illogic, and we can all thank God for that.

Judging the S4 by rational measures would be futile. There’s nothing rational about this car. It runs like a scalded cat, has high-performance tires that work with the all-wheel drive system in the dry while going missing in the cold and snow, and it couldn’t carry four average-size adults and their gear in comfort if it tried. By any practical appraisal, the S4 makes no sense at all, and is a dismal failure as an everyday automobile. But it sure is fun.