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As car enthusiasts, many of us have found ourselves complaining that we can’t have exactly what we want. But sometimes, as the Rolling Stones would say, “you get what you need.” Such is the case with the AMG tuned E-class estates that Mercedes-Benz has offered for about the last decade or so. Your ordinary customer wasn’t going to waltz into the Mercedes showroom and purchase a 469 horsepower five-door monster, but for the family man having issues giving up his sports car, it was the perfect compromise. This 2006 E55 AMG Estate was brought to our attention by our reader Ry and is on offer in Texas at a rather attractive price.
In case you missed it, Volvo released a stunning concept at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show. The Concept Estate is a modern take on what seems like an extinct breed these days: the shooting brake. The estate car is experiencing a little bit of a resurgence amongst enthusiast communities across the US, mainly due to fast five-doors like the Cadillac CTS-V Wagon and Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG Estate. However, the two-door estate vehicle, or shooting brake, is still a bit too obscure for the mainstream American motoring public. The MINI Clubman is about as close as we’ve seen lately to a two-door estate vehicle, and even that one had a third door on the side.
The Volvo P1800ES was a curiosity, built towards the end of the P1800 run for 1972 and 1973 only, with a little over 8,000 produced. The trademark glass rear hatch would go on to be copied in later Volvo hatchbacks such as the 480ES and C30. This example for sale in New York is a well sorted example in a sharp red orange color that looks idyllic against the autumn backdrop in these photos.
With the explosion of SUVs in the Mercedes-Benz lineup, we tend to forget there was a time when the mainstay utilitarian vehicle in the product lineup was the T-model, more commonly known on these shores as the wagon. While the first factory wagons from Mercedes-Benz were the W123s in the late 1970s, there were a few coachbuilt examples that appeared before that. One of these was the Universal model based on the W110 chassis. This example for sale in California gives the five-door fan a rare chance at combining classic Mercedes looks with the utility of an estate.
The E39 is a classic, handsome car that may well go down in history as the quintessential 5-series. The wagon was merely an extension of the good looks and capability, multiplied when they saw fit to drop the smooth M62 4.4 liter V8 in it. Manuals were available but extremely hard to come by, and while that would certainly be preferable, an automatic is well-suited for highway and family-hauling duty. With just 84k miles, this luxury wagon is roughly the same price as a VW Jetta TDI wagon of similar vintage. If you’re not too worried about gas mileage, I know for certain which one brings more comfort and speed for the money.
I’ve been seeing some insane E63 Wagons around town, and every time it blows my mind that that’s the way that some young families get to soccer practice in the Bay Area. I even saw a matte titanium gray S-edition street-parked in Palo Alto. They’ve been called “überexclusive,” but that doesn’t seem to apply in the land of tech. Over 500 twin-turbocharged horses in a station wagon sounds like a tuner magazine article, but it’s real, warrantied, production car life these days. While the transition to all-wheel drive may have snuffed the burnouts, I’d be dishonoring my nature to think that 0-60 in under 4 seconds in a wagon is anything less than true badassery.