Fast estates have a somewhat beguiling personality. However it was not Germany or anywhere in Europe that is credited with creating the forefathers of the modern super estates. It is America. For decades, manufacturers in the US were stuffing honking great V8s in to wagons such as the Chevrolet Nomad and Dodge Coronet. Granted they handled like a bowl of Weetabix, but the idea was there. With performance SUVs slowly eroding the fast estates’ foothold in the market, we thought it a good idea to take stock of the best fast estate cars you can buy. The Audi RS 6 is one of the leading lights in the fast estate world. Some will argue the Ferrari GTC4 Lusso isn’t a ‘proper’ estate, but if you consider that it is just leaning a little harder on the left of the performance-practicality balance, it becomes easy to see why it made this list.
While the performance is strong here, practicality is not. The rear is just about big enough to get two adults and a smaller human buckled in, and 520-litres of boot space is a tad underwhelming. The SEAT Leon ST Cupra leads the way for fast SEAT wagons. It can measure up to the likes of the Volkswagen Golf R estate thanks to the 296bhp four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine it shares with it. The four-pot gives it a top speed of 155mph and 0-62mph is over in just 4.9 seconds - the latter made possible thanks to the 380Nm of torque. While you pay nearly the same money as you would for the Golf R estate (upwards of £31k), the Leon is available with a manual gearbox, with the VW is not. One of the SEAT’s party pieces is driven carefully and you can tickle the 40mpg mark, but then again, where is the fun in that? The Skoda Octavia vRS estate is a cracking performance wagon, in both diesel and petrol forms. It comes in various guises, starting at just under £27,000 for the 2.0-litre TSI 230. Driving a Octavia vRS won’t be a complete revelation, but the subtle driver appeal and practicality makes for one mighty impressive package.
Try to drive it on a corner (or just plain cornering) and you'll feel some degree of under steer, but this is not a huge problem. Even at high speeds, the ride is well composed and you won't feel any time to stop for some vomit break (a testament to the beefy suspension) and stays true to its on-road mission. If you plan to bring it up to the mountains or ford it on floods, you've read the wrong choice dude. The advent of car based SUV's (or crossovers as what automotive journalists would mention) had every automobile manufacturer have one in their line up and every customer or motorist line up at the dealerships to have their hands on one. The BMW X5, age notwithstanding, is a perfect companion when accomplishing duties inside the city. And now, you can have one for the equivalent price of a brand new mid-size SUV or a high end crossover. Just set some funds for maintaining one, since BMW maintenance are not for the lazy ones.
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