Forget the M3 Touring, you want a Golf R Wagon
Enthusiasts are justifiably excited about the imminent arrival of BMW’s M3 Touring, but why can’t South African buyers have a more affordable rapid station wagon as an alternative to the horde of Performance SUVs? Other markets certainly do…
Cars.co.za recently reported that BMW SA will start delivering the BMW M3 Competition Touring – the Bavarian brand’s 1st station-wagon-bodied M car since the V10-engined E61 M5 Touring – late in 2024. It will go head to head with the iconic Audi RS4 Avant as an undeniably cool, non-conformist option for performance-car buyers. It’s not a coupe, it’s not a sedan and, importantly, not a crossover or SUV.
Believe me, the introduction of the performance SUV is one of the greatest disservices that the motor industry has done to the motoring public. It heralded a period of lunacy where the prowess of all-wheel-driven 3-tonne skyscrapers was pushed and measured with, wait for it – not off-roading capability, but lap times from Germany’s most famed (no prizes for guessing which) race track.
Now, as physics-bending as something like the Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT may seem, an SUV shod with semi-slick rubber and spinning its wheels in almost all of its gears on a greasy road has its practical limits in anyone’s language. Plus, not everybody covets the automotive equivalent of a Timberland boot, even when, in rare cases like the Porsche, it’s breathtakingly fast and eye-wateringly expensive, but also quite hopeless as an off-road vehicle (despite what its large tyres and tall ground clearance may suggest).
“Well, hatchbacks don’t have high centres of gravity and are more practical than coupes and sedans”, I hear you say. Yes, the Audi RS3 and Mercedes-AMG A45 S are both excellent, but unless you’re a fan of motoring’s ultimate chastity belt – the Venter trailer (not that there aren’t other brands of waentjies) – you wouldn’t dream of fetching your newly bought washing machine from a retail outlet or undertaking a weekend trip with 4 passengers (and their luggage) on board with one of those performance hatches.
Therefore, those who lust after vehicles that offer spaciousness and tremendous speed – but abhor the knuckle-dragger image of a hot German SUV – are left with precious few practical options…
Allow me to present the performance estate. Prime examples will annihilate traffic light grands prix yet are no less comfortable than the bread-and-butter models they’re platformed on, have an unsurpassed usability factor and, unlike SUVs, can go around corners quickly without their occupants getting seasick.
So, back to the new BMW M3 Touring. It’s bound to be the Bavarian brand’s finest performance estate yet (even if that old M5 probably emits a more soulful soundtrack), but for the privilege of having the newcomer’s 390 kW/650 Nm at the disposal of your right foot, you need to part with R2.2 million. Its rival, the B9-gen Audi RS4 Avant is still a compelling proposition several years after its launch and even seems a bargain at R1.5 million, that’s too rich for most new-car buyers’ blood, as the saying goes.
However, there’s a solution – though sadly, only for those living in selected countries other than South Africa. Since 2015, Volkswagen has been selling a stretched version of the VW Golf R, called the Golf R Wagon in Australia, -Estate in the UK, -Variant (remember the eponymous locally-built Type 3 Beetle-based one from the late 1960s?) in Germany and the infinitely cooler-sounding -SportWagen in the US.
Watch: Driving every Golf R! From the original VR6 to the Golf 8 R
With the same mechanical underpinnings save for a 50-mm extended wheelbase as its sibling, what’s not to like about the Golf R Wagon (let’s just call it that for now, even if the Golf 8-based R, um, variant is no longer offered Down Under… it sounds a bit less yeehaw than SportWagen)? There is that sub-5-second 0-100 kph sprint time; 235 kW and 420 Nm of torque delivered through all 4 wheels; a loading capacity of 611-1642 litres and even a 1.9-tonne towing ability. All while sipping a claimed 7 L/100 km.
And because no car company can resist the urge to offer a cash-grabbing optional extra or ten, also on offer is an R Performance Pack, which raises the top speed to 270 kph, introduces a Drift mode as well as a Special mode that turns everything up to 11 (in a nod to the This is Spinal Tap mockumentary?).
With a ‘wagon already a compromise between a van and a hatchback, Volkswagen could have easily made additional concessions by settling for the lesser Golf GTI as a platform, except instead, the Wolfsburg-based brand went all-out with the R. And the product is much, much better for it.
Not to be outdone, Mercedes-AMG until very recently offered a rival for the VW in the CLA45 Shooting Brake. The latter’s more powerful, pricier and arguably more elegantly styled than the Volkswagen, but at the cost of less interior space, an aesthetically challenged cockpit and more compromised ride quality.
(But really, any of the two will do.)
For obvious reasons, no self-respecting driver should ever desire a wannabe soft-roading SUV, which is why the Tiguan R won’t do. You can forget about sedans, too, because if you’re lugging loads, they have practical limitations that cannot be overcome without the attachment of image-denting appendages such as trailers and roof boxes. Also, should a hatchback ever be more than a household’s 2nd car?
Octane-infused households tend to split their automotive acquisitions between a van or SUV for one partner and a sportscar for the other. But if you had a Golf R Wagon, you wouldn’t need both, would you?
It so happened that Volkswagen SA offered estate and SV versions of the Golf not that long ago (I found a few examples listed on Cars.co.za), but the popularity of double-cab bakkies and the proliferation of crossovers/SUVs killed off most ‘wagons. BMW, for example, imported only a handful of E61-gen M5 Tourings, but effectively killed off the estate body when the E91 BMW 3 Series Touring’s production ended (here are examples); the brand focused on awkward-looking Gran Turismo variants thereafter.
Sad because you can’t get a Golf R Wagon? Consider these…
Okay, I grant that the Golf R Wagon or the CLA 45 Shooting Brake may still be a little too tame for some performance-car aficionados. Fortunately for them, these super-sledgehammer ‘wagons are all available in the used car market, although, in the case of the ‘Benzes, you may need a bit of luck finding them.
Mercedes-Benz’s Affalterbach-based performance division – AMG – blessed most Three-pointed Star models (even the now-mercifully-defunct R-Class and, of course, several SUVs), but there have been a few rapid estates too, such as the 6.2-litre V8-powered C63 AMG Estate and the ungainly-styled CLS63 AMG Shooting Brake (5.5-litre twin-turbo V8). They’re rare, and unashamedly brutal, beasts.
Search for a used Mercedes-Benz estate on Cars.co.za
Watch: How to buy a C63 AMG (W204) – Common problems | cost of parts | test drive tips
Ultimately, the Four-Ringed Emblem reigns supreme in the land of performance station wagons. For at least two decades, Audi has produced S- and RS-badged station wagons (called Avants in the brand’s parlance) courtesy of its Neckarsulm-based quattro – now known as Audi Sport – division.
See also: Modern Classic: Audi RS4 (B7) Buyer’s Guide
Highlights include the B7-based Typ 8E 2nd-gen RS4 Avant that debuted in the mid-Noughties with its sonorous 4.2-litre V8 engine, a 6-speed manual gearbox and quattro all-wheel drivetrain. That car was such a landmark that Audi decided to dedicate the RS4 nameplate to the estate body shape for the 3rd- (also 4.2-litre V8-powered) and current, 4rd-gen version (now with a 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6 motor).
Find a used Audi S4- or RS4 Avant for sale on Cars.co.za
Rejoice, wagon-loving petrolheads, because the South African market received all of those models, as well as the Ingolstadt-based marque’s halo ‘wagon – the RS6 Avant. Debuting as the C5-based Typ 4B in the early Noughties, the 1st-gen RS6 Avant was a hairy-chested roadgoing projectile courtesy of its 331 kW/580 Nm bi-turbo 4.2-litre V8 engine, 5-speed Tiptronic auto ‘box and quattro drivetrain.
Find a used Audi RS6 Avant listed for sale on Cars.co.za
In 2008, it was succeeded by, wait for it, a 426 kW/650 Nm 5.0-litre V10 turbopetrol-powered 2nd-gen RS6 Avant quattro (Typ 4F), which was made available only in Avant guise in Mzansi (I believe). The same applies to the 4.0-litre twin-turbo 3rd-gen model (Typ 4G) and, finally, the current iteration, of which Jacob Moshokoa recently reviewed the 445 kW/850 Nm Performance version. Watch that video below.
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