What makes the wagon so desirable

The wagon is dying. The good ol’ 2 box is not long for this world (at least in the states) as it is being killed the disease known as the SUV. For instance: The Mercedes GLE class is outselling it’s E-class counterpart 23-1. In total, there were just 110,030 wagons sold in the U.S. The leader, the Subaru Outback, should be classed as a CUV (just my personal opinion, the Outback is too big for a wagon). Even if people are buying wagons, it might as well be a crossover. The Volvo V90 twins are the best example for this. In 2017, there were 901 Volvo V90s sold. Not too bad, right? Well, 98% of them were the lifted, off-roaded V90 Cross Country. The standard car sold just 14. Yeah. 14 units. The Cross Country outsells the normal one 57-1. But, while some SUVs are decent (Jag F-Pace, Lamborghini Urus), some are just flat out terrible (insert CUV here). When it’s all said and done, just about any petrolhead loves a good wagon. Not just that, but here are a list of advantages to the SUV.

However...

First the term “wagon” needs to be defined. It varies from person to person, but C&D has a pretty good definition. Known as the “Golden Rule,” it says “Low and long. These proportions are what make a wagon look more like a car than a truck, and in these cars, they are similar: a length about 2.6 times their length, and a width 1.3 times the height. Recently departed wagons such as the Dodge Magnum and E61 BMW 5 series had the same ratios. This is our modern-wagon golden mean.” You can come up with whatever definition you want, but for me, a wagon needs to be car based, while being longer and maybe just a little lower than the car they are based on. Before I jump in, there is some opinion ahead, proceed with caution

Styling

As for looks, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. One one end you have cars that were designed by people who know how to make a wagon coughVolvocough. Then you have those who seem to have never seen such in their lives. Take this Mercedes C-class for instance. The top (sedan) looks like a miniaturized S-Class, very elegant, sleek, and even though I prefer the previous gen, it’s a very handsome machine. Then compare that to the hideous monstrosity below it. That’s the current gen C-class wagon. If you think that’s bad, the E-class is even worse. Of all the contenders in this segment, the only people who seem to mess it up is Mercedes (and maybe Subaru but for this, I’m going to exclude the outback as a wagon and the Impreza is a hatchback.) Audi does a great job with the A4 and A6 (not to include the S and RS and even the Allroad models as well,) BMW does a spectacular job with the 3 and 5 series touring (now go one and make an M version. You know you want to) and even Ford does a good job with the Focus and Mondeo (Fusion in the states) estates. Some companies even offer even better ones in the form of S4/RS4 and S6/RS6, Alpina B5 Touring, Focus ST estate. Let’s not forget the masters at Volvo with the V60 (and hopefully V90) Polestars. Well, with Mercedes, it’s kind of hit and miss. The RS4 and RS6 are the best non-Volvo estates out there. The C63 AMG S is a bit of a different story. Same for the E63 AMG S (below). Now it might appear that I’m biased towards Mercedes, but I’m not. I love the fact that they are sticking with an 8 cylinder rather than six, they have one of the widest model range varieties in the industry (*Porsche and Dodge laughing with the 911 and Charger/Challenger in the background) and they are just very nice luxurious cars. A poor person’s Rolls Royce (except Rolls is owned by BMW, umm…A poor person’s Maybach!) I think they just need to get their styling department back in order

Performance

Next is performance compared with their sedan counterpart. Obviously this doesn’t make any sense because the sedan will always perform better because of it’s lighter weight, shorter wheelbase, etc. However, even though they are lugging around about 200 or so more pounds of weight, and they are a tad bit longer most times, that doesn’t mean they aren’t boring. I mean, the picture above has a combined output of 1208 horsepower and enough torque to rip the space time continuum in half. Then you have that E61 M5 with its outrageous V10. It’s not like the numbers are that far off either. The sedan Audi S6 does 0-60 in 3.8 seconds. The Audi S6 Avant does 0-60 in 4.6 seconds. That’s a far cry from being close, but that’s not bad seeing as the latter weighs several hundred pounds more. The E63 AMG S does 0-60 in 3.3 seconds while the wagon does the same task just 0.1 seconds more. That is absurd seeing as the latter weighs about 330 pounds more.

Practicality

The main point of a wagon is cargo space. Lots and lots of cargo space. In fact, the V90 you see above has 20 cu. ft. of cargo space with the seats up. That shoots to almost 70 with the seats down. By comparison, the S90 has 13.5 cu. ft of space. The V90 has more than enough space to haul around your belongings and your dog (or two).

In conclusion

The wagon is an amazing creation. To quote Car and Driver, it says “It’s the quintessential American Vehicle.” It’s capable of just about everything a car can do and it’ll beat an SUV in almost any test on the face of the planet. However, in the market on an SUV overdose, the wagon will soon be no longer with us, and that’s a sad thing…

Thanks for reading!