Allroad to Nowhere: what happened to lifted estates?
With confirmation that the new Subaru Outback won't be coming here, they're all gone. What ever happened to the Seat Leon X-Perience, Vauxhall Insignia Country Tourer and Toyota Corolla Trek? Then there was the Skoda Octavia and Superb Scout duo, Mercedes' All-Terrains, Volkswagen's Alltracks, Volvo's Cross Countrys and Audi's Allroads.
If they're seemingly so unpopular, why do I love them? First, a history lesson – and it starts with, of all people, the Americans. A nation of households owning multiple land yachts creating a new segment for practical compact cars.
Enter, in 1979, the AMC Eagle Wagon, with raised suspension and full-time four-wheel drive. It was another original idea from an ingenious company fighting 'the big three' on a shoestring. The Eagle struck a chord with buyers in rural and snow-prone areas – before being killed by Chrysler's purchase and eventual shuttering of AMC.
Spiritual successors followed in the form of the 1994 Subaru Legacy Outback (the model that really kick-started the trend), the 1997 Volvo V70 XC and 1999's A6-based Audi Allroad. Soon everybody was at it: Peugeot had the 508 RXH, Saab the 9-3 X and Alfa Romeo the 156 Crosswagon, to name a few more.
To me, such cars present themselves as the perfect all-rounders. That is to say, slightly more versatile estates. They combine the benefits of better handling, fuel consumption and styling with the all-terrain ability of an SUV. In fact, most of them could probably outperform the average school-run SUV on the rough stuff.
And yet despite the number on offer, they were never actually that popular. I suppose that sensible estate car customers don't need four-wheel-drive capabilities (let's be honest, with modern tyres, pretty much no one does) and SUV buyers like theirs purely because they enjoy sitting higher up than other road users.
As a result, they're now all gone in this country (bar a few more months of the front-wheel-drive Ford Focus Active Estate and the six-figure Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo), and even in Europe Mercedes and Audi are the only ones still pursuing the idea.
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