Luxury Sport Wagons

If you think of a wagon only as a "station wagon" with fake wood on the side and ocean-liner handling prowess-the ho-hum precursor to sport/utilities and minivans-you've got a lot to learn.

Even though American manufacturers have all but abandoned wagons in lieu of the more popular sport/utes, Europeans buy thousands of them each year. Travel the streets of Europe, and you won't see many sport/utes or minivans. Instead, you'll come face to face with sport wagons. Fun-loving, gear-hauling, and great-handling machines that make a lot of sense. To test the latest players, we took five of Europe's finest sport wagons on a trip to some of California's tallest and most beautiful mountains. The machines: Audi A4 Avant, BMW 540i Sport, Mercedes-Benz E320, Saab 95, and Volvo V40. The roads: tight mountain switchbacks, long, steep grades, and wide, sweeping corners. Our goal: to see if today's European sport wagons are worthy of the California Alps or are just upgraded versions of your parents' '70s log-sided battle barge.