Performance wagons are finally having a moment.
For years, Audi and BMW refused to bring their hottest estates Stateside, claiming there was no market for six-figure, Porsche-hunting longroofs here. Audi finally relented in 2021, bringing us the latest RS6 Avant, and BMW recently followed suit with the hybridized M5 Touring.
Both hi-po wagons are selling surprisingly well, according to their manufacturers. The RS6 just had its best half-year ever, helping lift Audi Sport’s overall sales by 41 percent in the first half of 2025, and BMW is seeing "higher demand" for the M5 Touring compared to the sedan in the US.
So, what’s behind the sport wagon renaissance?
My personal hypothesis is that as the crossover has come to dominate US roads, station wagons—once defined by faux-wood paneling, bench seats, and lazy V-8s—have become the niche, upmarket choice for which buyers pay a premium. Wagons combine the practicality of an SUV with the driving dynamics of a sedan, and add a dash of enthusiast street cred for good measure.
Wagons’ newfound desirability has affected the used market, too. For a prime example, check out the values of used Mercedes E63s. Long the sole German performance wagon sold in America, W211- and W212-generation E63 wagons command a roughly 40-percent premium over their sedan equivalents on Bring a Trailer and Cars & Bids. This phenomenon, known informally as the “wagon tax,” affects everything from base-model BMWs and Volvos to the aforementioned E63s.
The "wagon tax" is a symptom of supply and demand. People bought fewer new station wagons compared to their sedan counterparts; automakers stopped offering them; now, demand on the secondhand market far exceeds supply. Yet even as this demand clearly exists, automakers are still killing off mainstream station wagons, reducing supply even further.
Longtime wagon stalwart Volvo stopped making the V60 Polestar Engineered earlier this year, and just announced that it’s ending production of the V90 this month. The writing’s on the wall, with CEO Jim Rowan all but confirming the V60 will be phased out, too.
Wagons combine the practicality of an SUV with the driving dynamics of a sedan, and add a dash of enthusiast street cred for good measure.
BMW no longer offers any wagon short of the $127,675 M5 Touring here, while Mercedes only offers the E-Class longroof as a body-cladded All Terrain model that starts at $77,250 delivered. Hell, even the new Subaru Outback looks more like a traditional SUV than a wagon.
The successes of the RS6 and M5 Touring reflect a desire for wagons that automakers are acknowledging at the very top, performance end of the market. For the past two decades, car companies have restricted the supply of wagons, citing economics, while pushing SUVs that are heavier, less efficient, and more expensive. (Paradoxically, they’re also easier to get past US fuel economy regulations, though that may not matter anymore.)
In the early 2000s, several automakers offered wagons at a variety of price points, but dealerships sometimes tried to steer buyers into more profitable SUVs. In 2001, my mom wanted to buy a red E39 BMW 540i Touring, a car that I tracked down and wrote about last year. Several dealerships flat-out refused to sell her the car, claiming she wouldn’t like it and urging her to consider an X5 in a tamer color instead. She persisted, eventually finding one dealer willing to order the car she wanted.
I often wonder how many folks gave in and just bought the ML-Class or RX instead of the E Wagon or IS SportCross they wanted, signaling to those brands that wagons were unsellable. Today, that 540iT is with an enthusiast in Georgia who swapped in a manual transmission. If I had to guess, it’s worth around $20,000 now, a far cry from the five to seven grand of an X5 or 5 Series sedan of similar vintage.
In an automotive landscape starved of manual transmissions and physical buttons, these features—once considered basic equipment—have been recast as premium novelties. In much the same way, the few wagons left are being pitched as luxury goods to a generation raised on crossovers and SUVs.
This dynamic may not last forever. BMW has stated that if the M5 Touring succeeds, it could bring the smaller M3 Touring here, though it’ll still be an expensive, niche proposition. Mercedes is bringing the 604-horsepower E53 hybrid wagon here later this year for around $100,000. Electric vehicles on dedicated “skateboard” platforms could allow automakers to introduce more bodystyles at lower development costs, and many already look downright wagon-y in pursuit of aerodynamics and range (ahem, Polestar 3).
But it will take more than a few six-figure hits to get wagons back into the mainstream. At least one major automaker would need to commit to a multi-model wagon offensive, cornering the market and spurring others to compete. It’s a risky bet, especially with an uncertain economic backdrop. Most companies are likely to play it safe with profitable crossovers and SUVs.
Still, the success of the M5 Touring and RS6 Avant proves that there’s life for the station wagon in America. Perhaps that means good things to come—and more affordable things to come, as well.
