2005 AWD Family Wagons

You're looking at this picture and asking yourself what these four vehicles have in common. Okay, here it is: Getting you and your family to Wally World or Wal-Mart even if that means negotiating foul weather, twisty roads, or hundreds of miles of arrow-straight highway. These are the new all-wheel-drive "all 'rounders."

We've come a long way since the Wagon Queen Family Trucksters of our childhood--and with gasoline prices tickling $3 a gallon, 4x4 V-8 sport/utilities now seem about as hip as dial-up modems, cigar bars, and the Macarena. In their place, wagons--that's right, wagons--have crept back into our peripheral vision and our garages. Cleverly disguised in various shapes and sizes, these new-generation utility/wagons are more space- and fuel-efficient family haulers. Aside from heavy-duty towing and rock crawling, the four examples pictured here accomplish all most SUVs are ever asked to do in this country--and more. So get over your wagon stigma. They're here. Get used to it.

Some might argue that the Cadillac and Subaru are sport/utilities and the Dodge and Volvo are station wagons. Not so fast. The line that's separated those camps in the past is getting fuzzier every year. Each of these vehicles is based on a unibody car platform: The Cadillac SRX is derived from the CTS sedan; the Dodge Magnum comes from the Chrysler 300/Dodge Charger sedan; the all-new 2006 Subaru B9 Tribeca is an expanded version of the Legacy/Outback platform, and the Volvo XC70 is a descendant of S60/S80 sedans. Despite their car origins, these wagons' maximum interior cargo volumes fall between 69.5 (Cadillac) and 74.4 (Subaru) cubic feet. As a reality check, America's best-selling sport/utility, the Ford Explorer, has 13.8 cubic feet of cargo volume behind its third row, 44 cubic feet behind the second row, and a maximum of 81.4 cubic feet with everything folded flat.

These wagons employ some type of AWD strategy, but no low-range gearing (see "What's the diff?"). Six-cylinder engines power three; the Volvo is a turbo five. The base prices start as low as the Dodge Magnum's $28,725 and go up to the Cadillac SRX's $39,035--yes, that's a wide range, but it shows there are at least four ways to construct, equip, price, and market an AWD wagon.