My sister-in-law kind of wants a new A4 Avant and I keep trying to convince her to try out the diesel once they start coming out, what's the word on this? I can imagine a loaded up diesel avant is going to be very expensive (from what I've read here so far). Maybe they will sell like crap and Audi will cut deals on them.

I've pulsed AoA on this topic (TDI Avant specifically, TDI A4 generally) and was last told that the only planned TDI that's for sure definitely coming over is the Q7. They're evaluating other options but I took that to be blah-blah-blah. The anticipation that was spouted about by the auto-rags earlier in the year that we'd be seeing TDI A4 and A5s by the middle of 2009 was greatly exaggerated. If they were coming in mid-2009 we'd already be hearing about it now.

I'm still holding out hope that Audi will bring what I really want - a 3.0 TDI Avant - but the odds of that happening are roughly equivalent to those of me ending up in a hot tub with Natalie Portman in the next 48 hours. i.e. not too good.

We're lucky we have Avants at all based on the interviews I've seen with Audi execs. They're very skittish about Avant take up in NA. They're also skittish about TDI take up. So they're skittish^2 about offering a TDI Avant for fear of the scenario you describe.

but not this year. Pricing is anyone's guess. 3.0TDI avant w/ a 6spd manual would be an amazing car... but unfortunately you can't get any avant w/ a manual :(

are significantly better than that of the A4 Avant TDI ever coming to the U.S.

<ul><li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8e6-IeQ0aw">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8e6-IeQ0aw</a</li></ul>

you can get the 3.0 TDI quattro in 6 speed and tiptronic in the UK.