It’s a car-nerd cliché that wagons rule. But which car designs are really optimized to look best with a long roof?
Believe it or not, it took me 30 years as a car enthusiast to come around to “station wagons are good.” It’s a car-nerd cliché that wagons rule, but typically, I prefer two-door coupes. That is, until I met the BMW F31—the wagon body of the F30 (2010s) 3 Series. What car do you think looks better as a wagon?
I recently bought a 2017 BMW 330i wagon after a long and circuitous car search. I’m looking forward to reporting back on that process. But after a few weeks, I’m still completely in love with its long roof design. It almost feels like a four-door version of the iconic BMW “clownshoe” (station wagon coupe).
The Mercedes CLS wagon is another modern luxury long-roof car I’d forgotten about until last week, when I saw one slinking its way down a costal road in southwestern Portugal. Man, that thing looks like an absolute beast—more specifically, a serpent of some kind.
But really, I might have to give it to Audi for having the biggest lineup of cars that look best as wagons. The Audi fleet, pretty much throughout its entire history, always looks to me as though it’s designed for everything to be a wagon. And we haven’t even started talking about Swedish automakers.
That’s what the comment section’s for—I’m really looking forward to reviewing your suggestions for this one.
