It’s no secret that the station wagon has fallen from favor in the U.S., a decline of the species that began with the advent of the minivan and was later accelerated by the boom in sport-utility vehicles. From Connecticut to California, soccer moms are cramming kids and groceries into large and unsporty implements like Dodge Caravans and Ford Explorers. In fact, even minivans have lost sales steam to America’s continuing obsession with trucks.
But even as station wagons disappear from the American scene—Chrysler, for example, doesn’t offer a single one—our friends in Europe, where wagons still sell well, continue to offer stimulating updates on this theme, reinforcing the fact that sport and wagon are not mutually exclusive words. Quite the contrary.
At a glance, this two-wagon face-off may look like a bit of a mismatch. One is powered by a 20-valve turbocharged inline five-cylinder engine with a four-speed automatic, and the other packs a 30-valve V-6 with a five-speed manual. Base prices are nearly $6000 apart. The Volvo V70 is bigger and will accept a good many more cases of beer (or crates of pickled herring) than the Audi A4 Avant. The forthcoming A6 Avant Quattro wagon will be much closer in size and price to the V70, but it doesn’t arrive until 1999. Anyway, cargo space isn’t the story here. And when you squint a little harder at the mouse type in our test results, you’ll notice surprising similarities in the things that matter to discerning drivers.
