Station wagons are often misunderstood for uncool family workhorses filled with diapers and dog hairs. Sometimes they're the ride of choice for mass murdering psychopaths. Very rarely though, we get some really cool station wagons that redefine "cool". Here's the list of some of the best.
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When Audi bought Lamborghini in the early 2000s, two things happened: Audi got access to Lamborghini engines, and Germany and Italy were reunited in a bid to conquer the world once more. The RS6 Avant was born from this, a hyper-manic wagon powered by the 5.0 liter biturbo V10 engine from a Lamborghini Gallardo. Despite the AWD Qauttro drivetrain, the Lamborghini engine's power easily overwhelmed most drivers (571 bhp, 479 lb ft of torque).
BMW M5 Touring
Take a V10 BMW M5, slap on a big, practical boot to the back, add slightly bigger brakes to pull all that extra weight to a stop and you have the M5 Touring. Its performance figures are very close to the M5 sedan, which means this is a very capable station wagon indeed. It took the fight to the C5 Audi RS6 Avant, and we're still waiting to see an F10 M5 Touring take the fight to the new C6 RS6 Avant.
The new one was released recently.
Volvo 850R
The ride of choice for James May in Top Gear's Africa special, the 850R was a fast Volvo which looks like it can't move an inch because it began life as a brick. Brick styling adds to the charm of this biiiig Volvo, the sedan version of which was turned into a very successful BTCC racecar. This has the same engine, with Volvo's rock solid safety features and reliability making sure the 850R finds its place in the history books. And not just because it was used to find the source of the river Nile, either.
This front end is usually replaced by an R34 GTR front.
Nissan Stagea
The Stagea, like all things Japanese, is quirkily, nerdily cool. The top spec Autech 260RS uses the twin turbo RB26DETT NEO engine that is found in Skyline GTR's, complete with AWD and five speed manual gearboxes. The WC34 series Stageas often undergo a nose-job, with people grafting on the face of an R34 Skyline onto their cars. The newer M35 gets similar treatment with the R35 GTR front, and are powered by the newer generation VQ series V6 engines. The Stagea shares so many mechanical parts with the Skyline that many call it the Skyline wagon.
Volvo makes a curvy car: shocker!
Volvo P1800ES
Ultimate European choice of station wagon in the 60′s. The P1800ES, and the similar Reliant Scimitar, were funkily styled lifestyle wagons which were more useful than feisty. They weren't built to go fast, but they looked great and looked like the prefect hippie car for Europe. They ended being used by Swedish farmers to carry wooden logs, but that's besides the point.
Alfa Romeo 156 Sportwagon GTA
Alfa GTAs are notorious for being brilliant performance cars that suffer from shoddy build quality. The Alfa 156 is one of the prettiest sedans made after the 2000s, and its slightly quirky styling was amplified in Sportwagon mode. With a 3.2 liter V6 engine and a 6 speed manual transmission (241 bhp), as well as Brembo brakes and stiffer suspension, the Sportwagon was directed towards the "lifestyle" crowd, a wagon which offered very good looks and brilliant performance instead of full on family ferrying duties. Its undoubtedly one of the best looking cars in this list.
Surf boards just out of sight
Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser
The Vista Cruiser was the ultimate land yacht for the Americans before the 70′s oil crisis hit. Used by families and ultimately handed down to teenagers who had to work day and night with odd jobs so that they could feed the hungry beast, the Vista Cruiser became an ultimate symbol of the 70′s. Surfers loved the car, and it was a huge hit in California, where the roads and parking lots were wide and long enough to fit the behemoth. Eric Foreman, the scrawny teenager in the hit TV show That 70′s Show, begged and pleaded his dad so he could have it, and regretted it for the next seven seasons.
Chevrolet Bel Air wagon
The 1954 Beauville station wagon added a different dimension to the legacy of the Bel Air, which had already gotten its fair share of love from the American population. It featured a full range of options, creamy smooth six and eight cylinder engines, automatic gearboxes, hydraulic suspensions, and all the chrome Chevy could find. Nowadays they can be found with wild paintjobs and in slammed and chopped state, while others keep them restored to pristine stock condition.
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