Luxury Wagons

BMW 3 Series still tops the list

The BMW 3 Series (*Est. $36,025 to $37,925) just collected its 14^th All-Star award from Automobile Magazine and its 17^th straight 10Best trophy from Car and Driver. With its smooth handling, ample power and comfort, it's the wagon reviewers love to drive most.

The series includes the BMW 328i (21 mpg in EPA tests) and all-wheel-drive 328xi (20 mpg). The wagons include plenty of luxury features as standard equipment, such as rain-sensing wipers, heated mirrors and windshield washer jets, a moonroof and more.

Still, the BMW 3 Series compact wagon offers less cargo volume (61 cubic feet) than the less expensive Subaru Outback, and testers say large adults will find it cramped. Reviews say the controls (for the radio, headlights, etc.) can be unnecessarily complicated. However, reliability has been good, and reviewers say the BMW wagons are just plain fun to drive -- a nice plus in a family car.

The step-up BMW 5 Series, which includes the all-wheel-drive BMW 535xi wagon (*Est. $55,800), makes testers at Edmunds.com wonder whether they should crown it "the perfect car." It offers more power than the 3 Series and even more luxurious standard features. However, it is also very expensive, gets relatively weak gas mileage (18 mpg with a manual transmission) and earns only a "marginal" rating in side-impact crash tests at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. As a result, the BMW 5 Series wagon is not recommended nearly as often as the less expensive 3 Series.

Other luxury wagons vary in safety, fuel economy

The U.S. government has slapped a $2,100 gas-guzzler tax on the Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG wagon (*Est. $88,500), an ultra-high-performance special edition that costs $50,000 more than the BMW 3 Series. Reviews don't recommend it nearly as often. The E63 is the most expensive and powerful station wagon you can buy, with a hand-built 507-horsepower V-8 engine. It also gets the worst gas mileage of any wagon, according to the EPA (15 mpg mixed). The other Mercedes-Benz E-Class wagon is the much more mainstream E350 (*est. $57,250). The automaker's 4Matic all-wheel-drive system is standard equipment, and the car gets slightly better mileage (18 mpg), but that's still less than other luxury wagons. Regardless, Edmunds.com makes these wagons two of its top picks for the 2009 model year. Ride and handling are excellent, testers say, and Mercedes-Benz's luxurious interior offers seating for seven and a roomy 69 cubic feet of cargo space. Past reliability has been an issue, but the E-Class had a redesign for 2007, so reliability of the current car isn't yet known. An all-new, completely restyled Mercedes-Benz E-Class arrives in 2009 as a 2010 model.

We found better reviews for two other runner-up luxury wagons: the ultra-safe, all-wheel-drive Audi A4 Avant (*Est. $34,850) and the ultimate cargo-hauling wagon, the Volvo V70 (*Est. $32,900).

The Audi A4 Avant is the only wagon to earn perfect scores in every crash test at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Critics say it's also luxurious without breaking the bank, and that it drives comfortably and proficiently, delivering better gas mileage (23 mpg mixed) than other luxury wagons. However, even reviewers who like the A4 Avant admit its styling is far from unique, and it doesn't burn down the highway. The step-up Audi A6 Avant (*est. $53,310) likewise includes Quattro all-wheel drive and gets top safety scores, but its more powerful engine achieves only 21 mpg.

The Volvo V70's plethora of available safety features impresses critics. For example, you can get a sensor that tells you when a car is creeping up in your V70's blind spot, or a remote human-heartbeat sensor to alert you if someone's lurking in your car. The V70 also boasts a vast cargo bay (72 cubic feet) and a slew of optional nets, dividers and liners to organize it. Testers say the interior is simple and refined, and you can add dual DVD screens for the kids. Fuel economy is only average, though, at 20 mpg. Reliability has been so-so, according to J.D. Power. Unfortunately, the all-wheel-drive version, the Volvo XC70 (*Est. $37,250 to $39,500), fares worse: its fuel economy is only 18 mpg mixed, and it is the least reliable wagon in one major consumer survey.

Near the bottom of the reliability pack are the Saab wagons: the Saab 9-3 SportCombi (*Est. $32,565 to $45,660) and the similar -- but bigger, heavier and more expensive -- 9-5 SportCombi (*Est. $42,450 to $44,045). These wagons offer as much cargo room as the Volvo wagons, but their safety scores are mixed. So are their style ratings; for every reviewer that finds Saab's ignition-switch-on-the-floor quirks refreshing, another finds the Saab wagons silly and cheap-feeling. Apparently, U.S. consumers are firmly in the latter camp; U.S. Saab sales fell 35 percent in 2008, and when Alex Dykes at The Truth About Cars went to a Saab lot for a test drive, the batteries on all 12 wagons were dead. "Apparently so few people actually buy one that the batteries go dead before they can shift them," Dykes reports.