From the June 2018 issue

Trying to save the wagon from the northern white rhino’s fate isn’t going to be easy. We’ve got work to do, but since you’re a loyal reader and you’ve heard our pleas before, we’ll keep it brief. Here’s the pitch: Wagons are more practical than sedans, have the space you need, are more fun to drive and more efficient than sport-utility vehicles, and look better than the sedans on which they’re based. But the message isn’t getting out. The stigma is an old and powerful one. Wagons have fake-wood paneling, represent suburban boredom, and we can sort of remember carpooling in the back of one with a neighbor who smelled like pee. Those first two things just aren’t true anymore. The new-era wagon’s rarity means that only iconoclasts buy them. Or weirdos. Our kind of weirdos. Dealers might stock one or two, if you’re lucky. Finding one probably won’t be easy. You’ve got to want it. I think I saw one in the back.

View Photos Marc Urbano Car and Driver

Things are different in Europe, of course. Over there, old folks buy sedans, and the four-door shape suffers the same sort of perception problem as the bepaneled family wagon does here. SUVs sell well, but the high cost of fuel has kept them from dominating the sales charts. Young, active Europeans, the kind who strap kayaks to roof racks and fill their Instagram feeds with photos of sunsets and pretzels, are the neo-wagon buyers. So it should come as no surprise that the wagons we gathered for this comparison test are from the other side of the Atlantic.

The Mercedes-Benz E400 4MATIC wagon, a stalwart of upper-crust America, is from Germany and is the most traditionally styled and upright of the trio. The Benz starts at $64,045 and delivers 329 horsepower from a twin-turbocharged V-6. All-wheel drive is standard, but the option catalog is massive. Kept near its base price, the Benz strikes us as a good buy, but its value degrades when loaded up with our test car’s $25,855 worth of extras.

Jaguar, a company that hasn’t imported a wagon since the X-type wagon nailed itself to showroom floors a decade ago, is reentering the American long-roof market with the XF Sportbrake S AWD. A 380-hp supercharged bolide, the XF wagon is arguably the second-best-looking Jaguar available today—the F-type still wears the crown. New for 2018, the Sportbrake comes in a single mechanical spec with the blower V-6 and all-wheel drive. Starting at $71,445, our test car came with nearly all the toys for $84,815.

View Photos Marc Urbano Car and Driver

Sweden still builds wagons, too, although to get a Volvo V90 T6 AWD, you’ll have to special order it. Dealers will stock the lifted and plastic-clad V90 Cross Country without your involvement, but the V90 will require you to convince your salesperson that you really don’t want the Cross Country they have in stock. For your trouble, you’ll get a gorgeous all-wheel-drive wagon with no cladding and Volvo’s supercharged and turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four with 316 horsepower. In this company, the Volvo’s $58,945 starting price makes it the least expensive. Even with nearly every option box ticked, the Volvo comes in at $69,340.

The group would have been larger, but Audi and BMW don’t import the A6 Avant and 5-series Touring, respectively. Instead, they direct wagon customers to the smaller A4 Allroad and 3-series Sports Wagon. So we set out in these three mid-size family wagons to spread the gospel and to find out which is the best. It turned out to be much closer than we’d ever imagined.

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“It’s the analog car of the three,” wrote one tester. What that means is that the Jaguar offers purer, less filtered, and more-direct controls than the others. In the curves, the lively steering provides the right amount of precision and works predictably to load up the suspension and tires. Despite its aluminum-intensive structure, the Jag weighs 4362 pounds, and while the mass is inescapable, the Sportbrake doesn’t make any false moves. Body control is good, and the car has an endearing willingness to be pressed harder and harder into corners. Switch into Sport mode and the eight-speed automatic is smart enough to call up and hold the right gear, making the metal paddle shifters on the steering wheel largely unnecessary. In this group, the XF pulled ahead in all but one of our subjective chassis scores and won the fun-to-drive category despite having less skidpad grip than the V90—0.87 g versus 0.94.

View Photos Marc Urbano Car and Driver

The analog experience does mean that some pops and buzzes come through, however. Jaguar’s supercharged V-6, derived from the company’s V-8, shakes the car slightly at idle and moans out 77 decibels under full-throttle duress, making the XF the loudest of the three wagons. There’s no shortage of output—60 mph comes up in 5.2 seconds—but smooth isn’t in the V-6’s lexicon.

There were no logbook complaints about the touchscreen infotainment system. It works quickly, and the climate controls are easy to intuit. But aside from the infotainment system, the rotary shifter, and the flip-open vents, the Jaguar’s cabin isn’t that special a place. Rear-seat space feels the tightest, and the interior design is plain. With the exception of the psuedo-suede headliner (part of the $2860 Premium Interior Upgrades package), the materials aren’t good enough for this price point. On the highway, we noticed excessive wind rush around the driver’s side-view mirror and window, as if the latter weren’t fully closed.

View Photos Jaguar interiors once epitomized luxury; even with the optional upgrades, the XF’s non-luxury materials and coal-pit cabin make us long for times past. Marc Urbano Car and Driver

No one liked the inexpensive-looking metallic trim on the face of the dashboard, and the vinyl wrapping the dash didn’t win it any points, either. We’d rather see more of the attractive gray-stained wood that’s on the door panels, along the top of the dashboard, and surrounding the rotary shifter.

More than a few times, the car’s shifter would refuse to leave drive or sport. Our solution was to shut off the car, which automatically puts the transmission in park. This Jaguar came to play, but to play in this group requires more refinement. We loved driving the XF Sportbrake, but in this segment, its rough edges kept it from placing higher.

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To look at the V90 is to love it. Since you’re unlikely to see one in person unless you order it, we’re here to tell you it’s a stunner. Lithe and lean with a muscular shoulderline, the V90 has the proportions of a rear-driver despite its transverse engine.

View Photos Marc Urbano Car and Driver

About that engine. The super- and turbocharged 316-hp 2.0-liter inline-four is strong enough to propel the V90 to 60 mph in 5.6 seconds, but it never sounds soothing or sophisticated. In the interest of keeping the peace, Volvo does turn down the volume, though. A mere 74 decibels get into the cabin at full throttle, but the engine mostly hums in a dull way that’s unbecoming an object this beautiful. The EPA fuel-economy benefit of the double-blown four disappeared with our driving: In our 500-mile test, the V90 returned only 18 mpg, slightly better than the XF but worse than the E400.

Though the sounds may not soothe, the soft leather seats that are part of the Inscription trim level will calm any buyer’s remorse. Open-pore wood trim fills the interior, and leather wraps the dashboard. The V90’s cabin is as deluxe and refined as the E400’s extra-cost ($4900) Designo interior, although we did notice some slight bubbling of the leather covering the dash. Volvo’s large touchscreen handles most commands with ease, but it would be nice to have a button to disable the engine’s stop-start system instead of having to go through two steps on the screen every time you restart the car. An expansive greenhouse provides excellent outward visibility and an airy cabin, without the dreaded queen-bee appearance.

View Photos You wouldn’t run through an IKEA, so why rush this piece of Swedish design? Sit back and enjoy wall-to-wall walnut and the group’s best rear seat. Marc Urbano Car and Driver

The Volvo’s spaciousness isn’t an illusion; the V90’s rear seats are the most comfortable of the bunch. Open the hatch, and the cargo area is seriously deep with a divider that folds up out of the floor to keep your stuff from flying around.

Riding on optional ($800) 20-inch wheels, the Volvo sends judders and shakes through the structure on big impacts. Those 20-inchers also bring Pirelli P Zero summer tires, but to keep the field level, we asked Volvo if there was an all-season option. Volvo delivered the car on ultra-high-performance all-season Michelins, saying they are available to customers at no extra cost instead of the Pirellis. (On the 19-inch wheels, grand-touring all-season Continentals come standard.)

Even on the Michelins, the V90 outgripped and outstopped the E400 and the XF at the track. It also posted the best slalom speed in this comparo. Test-track handling put the V90 at the head of the class, but in the real world, the Volvo rolls excessively and the numb yet quick steering is at odds with the soft chassis. It feels a bit discombobulated. Unlike those of the Mercedes and the Jaguar, the Volvo’s automatic doesn’t wake up when the road turns fun, and by the end of the test, the brake pedal pulsed from warped rotors. The V90 will do whatever you ask, but it would really rather you settle down and stop asking so much of it.

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“It’s like the whole car is lubricated with syrup.” So started the logbook of the E400. It’s an accurate image: The steering, optional air springs ($1900), brakes, shifter, basically everything you touch in the E400 moves with a slow, deliberate, but silken movement. You float over the road, isolated by that Karo coating, barely hearing the strokes of the suspension. None of this makes for the sportiest driving experience. Instead, the E400 wagon impresses with sophistication and refinement, delivering an astonishing level of luxo-cruiser satisfaction, as it ought to with its insane $89,900 as-tested price.

View Photos Marc Urbano Car and Driver

Nothing fazes the E400. Only 64 decibels come in at 70 mph, and kicking it up to 100 barely raises the volume. The twin-turbo V-6 churns out the power with an ease that escapes the others. The run to 60 takes only 5.0 seconds, and the engine returned the best fuel economy (19 mpg). Switching the suspension to Sport stiffens up the old girl, but only to what we’d call Normal mode in any other car. Bending the E400 into corners reveals a willingness to please, as the automatic wakes up and the engine pulls hard on exit. All 0.85 g of grip is usable and the Benz’s body control is better than the Volvo’s, but the syrup in the steering keeps everything cloaked.

The optional Designo interior dresses the cabin in light and dark browns. The top of the dashboard is coated in a Ferrari-like tan leather that Mercedes calls Saddle Brown, while the seats are a lighter cream known as Macchiato Beige. Assembly quality and the materials are commensurate with the price, but it’d be easy to live without the $10,200 Premium 3 package. Downgrading to Premium 2 ($6600) keeps all the P3’s luxury features—including the highly accurate Burmester sound system—and ditches a few safety features we could easily live without, such as cross-traffic collision-avoidance braking, lane-keeping assist, and speed-limit assist. We could also live without the massaging seats ($1320), giant sunroof ($1000), and illuminated doorsills ($350), though we wouldn’t mind keeping the heated armrests and steering wheel ($1050). At least Mercedes provides the rear-facing third row for free.

View Photos Hard outer shell courtesy of AMG Line Exterior package and blacked-out trim. Two-tone Designo interior option brings a rich, creamy center. Marc Urbano Car and Driver

We tried sitting back there. It’s doable, but adults will be forced into the fetal position. Fold the third row into the floor and the Benz’s upright rear end gives it a slight advantage over the others in the cargo department. Second-row comfort is excellent, but the Benz lacks the kneeroom of the Volvo.

Even at nearly $90,000, a big disadvantage in the scoring, the Mercedes managed to eke out a win. That’s because it offers a better experience than the Volvo. An unshakably solid structure, zero evidence of cost cutting, a V-6 that’s all purrs and punches, and an interior of an even more expensive car are why it’s the winner. Take it easy on the options and the Benz’s price drops closer to that of the Volvo, but the V90 would still lack the cylinders and refinement of the E400. Turns out, the Benz’s syrup is satisfying and sweet.

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