Latest news with #E-class
News.com.au
01-05-2025
- News.com.au
‘Worst idea': Grim texts before the shooting murder of Yusuf Nazlioglu
A man allegedly gunned down after he stole two luxury cars from a Sydney business told a friend the theft was the 'worst idea' on the day he died, a court has heard. Yusuf Nazlioglu was shot dead as he exited one of the vehicles in a basement carpark in Rhodes on June 27, 2022, when a hooded man opened fire. The jury presiding in the NSW Supreme Court trial of three men charged with his murder have been told the failure to return two Mercedes Mr Nazlioglu had hired may provide 'some explanation and motive' for the shooting. Last week, the jury was shown messages Mr Nazlioglu sent an associate on the encrypted app Threema in the lead up to his death. Those messages, the court heard, were found on a phone examined by police on June 28, 2022 – with a screenshot showing the texts were sent 'yesterday'. In the messages, the 40-year-old discussed the stolen Mercedes with an associate who mentioned falling out with 'mates' over the incident. 'These two cars was dumb idea,' the associate wrote. Mr Nazlioglu agreed, saying it was 'the worst idea lol especially when there is money owed' before revealing he had been 'very emotional' recently. 'Sometimes I don't want to be around no more,' he wrote. Mr Nazlioglu said his wife Jade Jeske, known as Jade Heffer at the time, had said it 'was the worst idea and the worst plan and I agreed with her'. Both men said they looked like 'dirty c***s' among their associates, who Mr Nazlioglu thought 'loved me and had a lot of respect for me' before what he called a 'straight rip'. He also said another person, involved in the scheme, 'pretended to be me' on the phone and told someone chasing the vehicles 'you not getting the cars back'. 'We should not of agreed to do it brother its (sic) a s*** go especially to mates,' the associate replied. Mr Nazlioglu, who the court heard was acquitted Comanchero boss Mick Hawi's 2018 murder, was shot eight times at his Walker St apartment block. The court has been shown crime scene images of a black Mercedes E-class allegedly at the centre of his death riddled with bullet holes. It was hired alongside a white G-class from a western Sydney business on May 17 and 18, 2022 respectively with the help of his wife. Earlier in the trial, the jury was shown CCTV footage of hooded and masked men entering the carpark and taking back the car on May 23. Then, on May 26, CCTV captured Mr Nazlioglu stealing it again after its owner parked the vehicle on Castlereagh St in the CBD. Crown Prosecutor Eric Balodis said Ms Jeske had noticed the black Mercedes while its owner was streaming live on TikTok from the location. Mr Nazlioglu, who still had the key, was later caught on camera unlocking the E-class and driving away from the scene. The men on trial – Abdulrahman Atteya, Mohammed Hosni Khaled and Mohammed Baltagi – have pleaded not guilty and deny any part in the shooting. The Crown alleges that although they held no personal animosity toward Mr Nazlioglu, they were acting for unknown persons. Mr Atteya is accused of being one of two men who lay in wait inside a Volkswagen Golf for Mr Nazlioglu at the carpark on the night he died. He is accused of being either the shooter or the getaway co-accused denies allegations that they helped in preparing getaway vehicles. Mr Atteya's barrister, David Dalton SC, told the jury his client was not involved at any stage and that Mr Nazlioglu had several enemies. 'Mr Nazlioglu had only been released (from prison) for some couple of months before he was in fact killed himself and there will be evidence, that as far as he was concerned, a number of people wanted to kill him.' The trial before Justice Deborah Sweeney continues.
News.com.au
23-04-2025
- News.com.au
Court shown moment Yusuf Nazlioglu stole luxury car before his murder
A jury has been shown the moment a man brazenly stole a luxury Mercedes from Sydney's CBD about a month before he was shot dead in an underground carpark. Yusuf Nazlioglu was gunned down in front of his wife after parking beneath his Rhodes apartment on June 27, 2022. Three men – Abdulrahman Atteya, Mohammed Hosni Khaled and Mohammed Baltagi – are on trial before the NSW Supreme Court, accused of roles in the 40-year-old's death. All three have pleaded not guilty and deny any part in the shooting. The jury has been told Mr Nazlioglu, who was formerly acquitted of murdering Comanchero boss Mick Hawi, hired two Mercedes vehicles from a western Sydney company in May 2022. 'Mr Nazlioglu did not return these vehicles,' Crown prosecutor Eric Balodis said during the trial's opening last week. The Crown alleges this provided 'some explanation and motive' for his murder. A message was passed on to Mr Nazlioglu's wife, then known as Jade Heffer, that a black E-class needed to be returned before the car was 'reported stolen or worse'. The business had Ms Heffer's driver's license on file, and men arrived at the couple's apartment on Walker St, Rhodes, on May 23. Footage played to the court showed a number of men wearing masks or hooded jumpers in the carpark before finding the car and driving it away. The court has heard that on May 26, the car's owner recorded a livestream on TikTok while on Castlereagh St in Sydney CBD. Ms Heffer saw the stream and spotted the car in the video. Mr Balodis said the owner, who is not accused of wrongdoing, was 'quite dedicated to TikTok' at the time and Ms Heffer recognised the area he was in due to its proximity to high-end jewellery stores. Mr Nazlioglu and his wife still had a key to the vehicle, the court heard, and about 40 minutes later they arrived on the scene in a white Mercedes. CCTV captured Mr Nazlioglu jump out of the white car and run over to the E-class before unlocking it, getting into the driver's seat and speeding off. The jury has also watched footage of the moment Mr Nazlioglu was shot eight times, and Ms Heffer – now known as Jade Jeske – gave evidence of what she heard and saw. She recounted seeing a man running toward her then-husband armed with a firearm before hearing 'about eight' shots. 'I knew that he was going to be dead,' she told the court. 'I didn't go and touch him or go over to him. I looked at him.' Mr Nazlioglu died the following day in hospital, the court was told. Mr Balodis said in his opening remarks that prosecutors do not allege the men on trial had personal 'animosity' toward Mr Nazlioglu, and that his murder was organised by unknown persons. Prosecutors allege Mr Atteya was either the shooter or the driver of a Volkswagen Golf used by the assassins on June 27, 2022. The other man believed to be in the car has left Australia, the court has heard. Mr Atteya's barrister, David Dalton SC, told the jury his client was not involved at any stage of the murder plot and that Mr Nazlioglu had several enemies. 'Mr Nazlioglu had only been released (from prison) for some couple of months before he was in fact killed himself and there will be evidence, that as far as he was concerned, a number of people wanted to kill him.' Mr Khaled and Mr Baltagi were not at the scene, the court was told, but are accused of preparing getaway vehicles including e-scooters to help the assailants flee. The trial before Justice Deborah Sweeney continues.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
2024 Mercedes-AMG GT63 S E Performance Is an 831-HP 4-Door Hot Rod
When we tested the Mercedes-Benz AMG Hammer back in 1986, we immediately appreciated its rare combination of supercar speed and four-door practicality. To create that 178-mph sedan, AMG stuffed a massaged 5.5-liter V-8 into an E-class, an upscale European interpretation of the oldest hot-rod formula around: Put a big engine into a small car. The 2024 Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S E Performance embraces that old AMG tuner credo with a modern twist—instead of dropping a bigger engine into the GT63, Mercedes adds a whole extra source of propulsion. Up front, you'll find the same 630-hp turbocharged V-8 that sent the 2019 GT63 S to 60 mph in 2.8 seconds and through the quarter-mile in 11.0 seconds at 125 mph. But at the rear, a 201-hp electric motor joins the party, powered by a 5-kWh battery and mated to its own two-speed transmission. The hybrid GT63 weighs in at 5252 pounds, a 570-pound gain over its predecessor. AMG minimized the PHEV poundage by making the tactical decision to disregard EV range and optimize the battery for performance. Thus the lithium-ion high-voltage battery weighs just 196 pounds, and the E Performance has an EPA-rated range of one mile. As comically bad as that sounds, the E Performance must be exceptionally inept at the EPA's test regimen, because even that small of a battery should be good for more than a mile of range—we saw an onboard range prediction of eight miles with a full charge. Those extra 570 pounds have a negligible impact on the E Performance's handling and braking, perhaps because the rearward position of the hybrid hardware imparts a slightly rear-biased weight distribution, with 49.3 percent of the car's mass sitting over the front axle versus 53.9 percent for the nonhybrid GT63 S. (The rear-cargo-area floor is bumped up to accommodate the hybrid components, dropping cargo volume from 16 to 12 cubic feet.) The 2019 GT63 S generated 1.03 g's on the skidpad and stopped from 70 mph in 155 feet, while the E Performance clings to the skidpad with 1.02 g's of grip and hauls down from 70 mph in 158 feet; both wore similar 21-inch Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires. These numbers fall squarely into the category of "different, but probably not so you'd notice." What you do notice is the difference in acceleration. The GT63 S E Performance torches 60 mph in 2.4 seconds and trips the quarter-mile lights in 10.5 seconds at 131 mph. The nine-speed automatic uses a wet clutch rather than a torque converter, so launch control involves a real-deal clutch drop that torments all four tires as the contact patches struggle with a combined 831 horsepower and 1032 pound-feet of torque. The bonkers acceleration flattens out a bit as the electric motor nears its 13,500-rpm max and the rear transmission grabs second gear, which felt like it was around 60 mph even though Mercedes says the shift should happen around 87 mph (we noticed the upshift in the S63 E Performance as well). When the electric motor grabs its taller gear, the spike in acceleration feels like a turbo overboost function or a wee shot o' nitrous. Good fun, in other words. Mercedes says that it developed the E Performance's battery in collaboration with High Performance Powertrains, the British Formula 1 engine manufacturer, so it's unsurprising that the battery's output characteristics are tailored for racetracks rather than long commutes. For example, the battery can sate the 201-hp appetite of the motor for only 10 seconds, at which point output drops to a continuous 94 horsepower. (If that sounds like a problem, we'd encourage you to report back after you find a place where you can go wide open in a GT63 S for more than 10 seconds.) The battery enjoys an elaborate cooling system, with roughly four gallons of coolant routed to individually cool all 1200 cells and maintain a temperature of 113 degrees Fahrenheit. Rapid discharging and recharging is the name of the game—in Sport, Sport+, or Race mode, the V-8 will charge the battery as you drive, and regenerative braking can send more than 100 kilowatts to the battery. The slowest way to charge the battery? By plugging it in. But if you find an EV-only garage spot and want to take advantage, the GT63's onboard charger is good for 3.7 kilowatts. Given the complication of the powertrain—two sources of propulsion, two transmissions—it's amazing how harmoniously everything cooperates. There is no slack, no lurching confusion anywhere in the system. Check the E Performance's ridiculous top-gear 30-to-50-mph passing time: 1.9 seconds, which might be less time than it takes to say, "Uusikaupunki," the town in Finland where the GT63 is built. That sprint knocks 0.9 second off the nonhybrid GT63 S's time and matches the time posted by the Ferrari 296GTB. But conversely, in Comfort mode, the E Performance can settle down, mute its active exhaust, and slur its shifts like a decent member of society, if you're in the mood for that sort of thing. If you do find yourself on a track, the GT63 offers endless ways to tailor the car to your liking. Care to destroy some tires? There's a Drift mode that disconnects the front axle, and yes, you can combine it with launch control if you're looking to lay stripes into the next county. The AMG Dynamics settings influence the stability-control system, the all-wheel-drive system, and the electronically controlled limited-slip rear differential, and it's telling that the Pro setting isn't even the most aggressive. Beyond it is Master, which is paired with the Race drive mode and sets the rear-axle steering for maximum response on turn-in and delivers slightly oversteer-biased handling. To activate Master mode, you need to turn off stability control using the button on the center console, sort of like the two-key system for arming a nuke. If you do this on a road course, you can also enable the Track Pace function to log lap times and keep yourself informed on how a given lap is going—if your time's in red, you're off your target pace, and if it's in green you're ahead. But hey, no pressure. Besides adhering to the original AMG tuner performance credo, the GT63 S E Performance evokes the Hammer's sleeper aesthetic too—it's understated, especially for a car capable of hitting 100 mph in 5.9 seconds. But part of that understatement stems from the fact that this generation of four-door Mercedes-AMG GT is now six years old and a semi-familiar sight in the enclaves where such cars are found. In addition, the AMG GT four-door lineup spans a wide breadth of financial territory, and the E Performance hero model looks a lot like a GT43 that has 362 horsepower and costs about half as much. Our test car wore a base price of $196,050, and a pile of options brought that total to $216,410. The mechanically similar example we used for photography cost even more, thanks in part to its $6500 Manufaktur Signature Sunburst Yellow paint. Yet that flamboyant hue goes a long way toward advertising the GT63's exotic performance capabilities. Of course, you could just get it in black, avoid the $2850 AMG Aerodynamics package with its bold fixed rear wing, and let the neighbors think you've just got a nice luxury hybrid. Which this is. But it's also a poster car for the hybrid hot rod, with the electrified GT63 S crushing its nonhybrid counterpart's drag-strip performance without compromising its handling dynamics. Fuel economy even improves, albeit slightly, from an EPA-rated 17 mpg combined to 18 mpg. And if official EV range is only a mile, well, that's a mile more than it used to have. You Might Also Like Car and Driver's 10 Best Cars through the Decades How to Buy or Lease a New Car Lightning Lap Legends: Chevrolet Camaro vs. Ford Mustang!
Forbes
22-03-2025
- Automotive
- Forbes
Test Driving The 577-Horsepower Mercedes-AMG E 53 Hybrid
Mercedes-AMG E 53 Hybrid is an exceptional everyday executive sedan with plenty of knockout punch. Mercedes-AMG is best known for its one-man/one-engine niche assembly process that builds the world's most powerful roadgoing turbo 4-cylinder, and of course twin-turbo V8s and V12s, which are placed in a range of Mercedes, Maybachs and AMGs, and also supplied to Pagani and Aston-Martin. Mercedes-AMG's E 53 straight-6 turbo hybrid powertrain delivers exactly the same power rating as the ... More hand-built twin-turbo 4-liter V8 placed in the AMG SL 63: 577 horsepower. Shown here at the vehicle's world launch, running through the Alps. But AMG also tunes and tweaks mainstream Mercedes powertrains, like we find here in the new E 53 Hybrid. Mercedes-AMG's E 53 straight-6 turbo hybrid powertrain delivers exactly the same power rating as the hand-built twin-turbo 4-liter V8 placed in the AMG SL 63: 577 horsepower. You don't really think that's a coincidence, do you? My test car with Gandolph the garden E 53 4MATIC+ has a turbocharged 3-liter straight-6 ... More with 443 horsepower, 68 more than the mainstream version. Most importantly, the AMG-specific electric motor adds a walloping 354 lb. ft. of instant-on torque, more than double the electric torque of the mainstream E 450. Mercedes has called their mid-range car an E-class since 1993, but the company itself has produced such vehicles since 1926. Contributing factors are a turbocharged 3-liter straight-6 that produces 443 horsepower between 5800-6100 rpm, 68 horsepower more than the mainstream E 450 version. It delivers a fine straight-6 yowl without being obtrusive, without going Full Boy Racer. Thanks to thoughtful plug-and-play engineering, that tasty combustion power is bolstered with an AMG electric motor that spools up 354 lb. ft. of instant on-demand electric torque, more than double the electric torque offered in the mainstream E 450 version of this powertrain. That muscular electric motor's torque is the real difference that makes this E-class a worthy AMG tuner car for those who value the benefits of exemplary performance but don't need a snarling beast of a high-performance car. 21-in. AMG forged wheels wrapped with Michelin tires measuring 265/35 up front and 295/30 at the ... More rear. Note massive brakes. AMG steel spring suspension works well in the city and on the mountain, but AMG might consider offering the Mercedes airbag suspension as an option. It would likely be close to plug-and-play in the factory assembly process, and thus fairly easy to implement. Less price than steel springing, but plusher. For short periods of time in the RACE START calibration, the powertrain produces 604 horsepower. AMG E 53 has about 40 miles of real-world pure electric range, give or take. Use combustion all the ... More time and the battery will maintain reasonable charge for big bursts of acceleration. Pure electric drive is an amusing tool in my native California, allowing folks like My Lovely Attorney to travel to a downtown tower a few times a week on pure electric, but it's far more useful in European and British 'green' city centers zero-emission propulsion is the price of entry to the mile square city. AMG E 53 has about 40 miles of real-world pure electric range, give or take. That's an amusing tool in my native California, allowing folks like My Lovely Attorney to travel to a downtown tower a few times a week on pure electric propulsion, with aa brief overnight charge to the small battery pack. But it's far more useful in European and British 'green' city centers zero-emission propulsion is the price of entry to the mile square city. It's a measure of both the electric motor's potency, and the demands of engineering relatively low volume vehicles to suit different world markets. Optional MBUX Superscreen Package is the visual and functional centerpiece of the E-class interior, ... More the helm for Mercedes-Benz Interstellar Exploration. Superscreen includes a 12.3-in. co-pilot's display, and a 14.4-in. central multimedia screen melded into a glossy surface some might call The Black Mirror. The driver's gauge pod is a separate but visually complimentary screen also mounted on a polished black background, creating the illusion of an unbroken touch-sensitive expanse stretching from A-pillar to A-pillar, the entire width of the dash panel. Superscreen is inescapable, and sucks you in. AMG E 53 straddles the line between mainstream Mercedes and AMG high-performance. Nudging it closer to the high-performance AMG vehicles, E 53 has a steel spring suspension, which delivers real precision in aggressive cornering. Only occasionally do the vicious road conditions of my native Los Angeles jangle the rear springs. This system must be a dream in Germany or France, or in states like Minnesota that maintain their roads to the highest EU standards. I'd love it in the Texas Hill Country. With driver seat set for my six foot two+ frame, there is adequate rear foot room, and ample ... More shoulder, and head room, even for taller passengers. Tall folks must duck their heads toward the forward portion of the door surround when easing in. Children and adults of median height will love it. But if I had one suggestion for the product planners, it's to consider offering E 53 with an AMG version of the mainstream airbag suspension rather than only with the spring suspension. Here in Los Angeles, as in much of coastal California where the roads and highways are broken and brutalized due to overpopulation, a plush airbag suspension paired with this punchy hybrid powertrain would serve well, very well indeed. Keep the AMG steering and excellent 2-valve damping, the bigger AMG wheel/tire package, the excellent roll-rates (meaning how quickly and how far the car heels over in cornering), and the predictability all that fine AMG engineering provides, and you have a fine Executive Express for life in California. AMG's rejoinder would be that this is a performance car and thus the greater precision and control of steel springing is best, but I suspect the airbag take rate in California might be worthwhile. Placed on the dashtop is a selfie camera, part of the Superscreen option package. When in Park, the ... More driver can log into Webex and Zoom conferences. For better or worse, now you're never beyond reach. The co-pilot's screen can display video while the car is in motion, though the screen is masked such that the driver cannot see it, cannot be distracted. E-class offers the optional Superscreen dash, a polished black ovoid panel that creates the illusion of an unbroken touch-sensitive expanse stretching from A-pillar to A-pillar, the entire width of the dash. There are in fact three screens. Driver's instrument binnacle, which offers a wide range of display options. The central console, which offers more menu options and layers than I can count. And then the right-side touchscreen display, which converts a passive front-seat passenger into a useful co-pilot able to control a range of systems, including navigation, comms, audio and more. Burmester mesh speaker grilles are a beautiful graphic element inside. Burmester 4D Surround Sound ... More system is standard on Pinnacle: 15 channels, 21 speakers, and 730 watts. Superscreen brings a design Wow Factor for first-time passengers, which is worth the price of admission. One quickly figures out which friends are open to the world, open to the technology of the 21st Century, and which would prefer to live in 1983, or even 1953. People either love and admire or disparage the Superscreen 'Black Mirror.' Keep a soft cloth in the central storage bin to sweep the black mirror, as it tends to attract dust, just like a big desk computer's retina screen. Mercedes-AMG is headquartered in Affalterbach. AMG offers the driver assistance package from Mercedes' depthless well of subsystems, and well worth the $1950. The 30-degree surround camera system and real-time animated plan views of the car during parking are standard. Once this technology is experienced, few people will choose to live without it. AMG tuned up the mainstream Mercedes hybrid to produce 577 HP. Because the engine is a tuned ... More mainstream piece, it does not carry the signature plate of its builder, as do the one-man/one-engine engines of AMG's high-performance vehicles. Combustion power is bolstered with an AMG electric motor that spools up 354 lb. ft. of instant on-demand electric torque, more than double the electric torque offered in the mainstream E 450 version of this powertrain. That muscular electric motor's torque is the real difference that makes this E-class a worthy AMG tuner car for those who value the benefits of exemplary performance but don't need a snarling beast of a high-performance car. My test car, seen here in red, had the AMG performance seating package. It holds the hips and rib cage without being painful on a long drive or threatening to bruise as track day seats can. It's an example of smart low-volume production, tailoring this car perfectly to its everyday purpose. Look at the tall hip bolsters, which might seem foreboding, yet when dropping into the chair and potentially landing sensitive high-value body parts on the hip bolster, there's no threat of emasculation or bruising. Nor is there threat of a woman stretching or tearing a fine linen skirt or silk dress when kicking out her legs. The bolsters have the feel of those high-density sponges your better half uses in the shower. Yet they provide excellent placement of the hips for the sort of performance driving one can sanely indulge on the road. Leave the severe castrator side bolsters to vehicles that might see plenty of track day action. This is, after all, an executive 4-door sedan, not a hypercar. AMG performance seating package. It holds the hips and rib cage without being painful on a long ... More drive or threatening to bruise as track day seats can. It's an example of smart low-volume production, tailoring this car perfectly to its everyday purpose. Look at the tall hip bolsters, which might seem foreboding, yet when dropping into the chair and potentially landing sensitive high-value body parts on the hip bolster, there's no threat of emasculation or bruising. Nor is there threat of a woman stretching or tearing a fine linen skirt or silk dress when kicking out her legs. Mercedes-AMG offers performance and high-performance cars with combustion engines, gas-electric hybrids, and pure electric. It's an unfortunate chess board created by world politics, forcing car companies to develop multiple powertrain systems, and only the very strongest and capable can pull it off. Having driven both AMG EQS electrics, examples of Mercedes and AMG hybrids, and a wide range of Mercedes and AMG combustion cars, Mercedes proves it has unrivaled engineering depth. Only a few other companies can match Mercedes and AMG. Situated in the borderlands of high-performance, Mercedes-AMG E 53 is an exceptional everyday executive sedan with plenty of knockout punch. Test car finished in optional Patagonia Red from the Mercedes and AMG atelier, MANUFAKTUR. ... More Mirror-like finish. Worth every penny. In the garden, archery lane in the background.
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
What's Up with the Wagon Market in the U.S.?
The U.S. wagon market peaked in the mid-Seventies, when dozens of offerings flooded the category and these middle-class suburban schleppers accounted for 10 percent of new-car sales. In subsequent decades, however, new automotive forms—the minivan, then the SUV—found favor as family haulers, and the longroof's popularity plummeted. It is now at its nadir. In the past five years, wagon sales have flatlined, hovering at just over 1 percent of the U.S. market, and nearly all of that is the Subaru Outback. What about the sport/luxury wagons that we love? 'That's been right around 0.2 percent,' says Alexander Edwards, president of Strategic Vision, a research and consulting firm. 'It's an insignificant part of the market. But even 0.2 percent of 16 million sales is 32,000 cars.' Enough to keep some manufacturers interested, if capriciously. At the low end of this category, in 2019, Volkswagen discontinued its Golf Alltrack and Golf SportWagen models. After 2023, Mercedes offered its long-running E-class wagon solely in jacked-up 4Matic All-Terrain guise, no longer sending the U.S. the robust AMG E63 iteration. Volvo, which is defined in this country by its wagons, similarly just canceled its V60 T8 Polestar Engineered wagon, offering the States this mid-sizer, and the larger V90, only in lifted Cross Country form. Meanwhile, BMW has decided to bring its racy, $122,000 M5 Touring to the U.S. for the first time while denying Americans any other 5-series (or 3-series) estates. This echoes Audi's likely strategy shifts. While Audi currently offers its Avant in compelling hot-rod RS6 guise at nearly $128,000, the recently announced replacement of the A4 with the A5 hatchback seems likely to kill off the A4 Allroad wagon here, and the automaker has hinted that the U.S. won't receive the handsome standard next-gen A6 wagon either. Likewise, Porsche has purged American variants of its gas-powered Panamera Sport Turismo wagon while maintaining a half-dozen versions of its electric Taycan Cross Turismo. Why all of this movement? Well, the pie slice available is minuscule, so automakers battle to cross-section it as best as possible. 'They're trying to use whatever they have to outmaneuver the competition,' says Brian Moody, an analyst at Cox Automotive. 'So if they can offer one little advantage to the buyer, they'll try that. And if that doesn't work, they shift and try something else.' For BMW and Audi, the decision to lead with boss wagons is predicated on consumer demand. 'We received literally thousands of inquiries from customers asking us to bring the RS6 Avant to the U.S., as the predecessor was not offered in our market,' an Audi spokesperson says. A BMW spokesperson echoes this reasoning: 'We've had an outpouring of customer enthusiasm for high-performance wagons here since the launch of the M3 Touring in other markets.' These German archrivals also disdain ceding sales to each other, no matter how niche. 'Frankly, we were the creators of the performance-wagon segment with the 1994 RS2, and we have offered RS4, S4, RS6, and S6 Avants over the years,' the Audi spokesperson says, throwing impressive shade. 'So we were ahead of all the competitors.' Mercedes and Porsche spokespeople both cited diminished market returns from the performance-wagon subsegment as the reason for their departure. But Volvo, which has perhaps the most complex brand relationship with high performance here, seems conflicted about abdicating. The automaker's CEO recently said there's a possibility its future won't have any wagons at all. That doesn't mean all love is gone for its long-roofed models, though. 'There's always been a small group of discerning enthusiasts who also appreciate something rare, unique, and maybe even unexpected,' a Volvo spokesperson says. 'From a volume perspective, a V60 T8 Polestar Engineered is more exclusive than many exotics.' This sentiment aligns with Strategic Vision's data, which cites these wagons' exclusivity as key to their appeal. 'The thing luxury-wagon buyers want most from their vehicle is a sense of individuality, something that makes them stand apart,' Edwards says. 'A wagon is like a convertible. It's 'I've got a vehicle that nobody else has.'' Yet these vehicles are stealthier than a drop-top. 'They offer great dynamics with exceptional functionality that allows customers to stand out without screaming 'Look at me,'' the Audi spokesperson says. Edwards's findings corroborate this. 'Owners believe these luxury wagons are significantly more refined,' he says, than offerings in other high-performance and exclusive vehicle categories. Wagon buyers are, not surprisingly, a particular lot. According to Edwards's data, they're 12 percent younger than the average luxury-vehicle buyer. They're 44 percent more likely to identify as Democrats. And they are significantly more likely to live on the coasts. Audi and Mercedes note that of their entire customer base, these owners have some of the highest household incomes, and they are among the most loyal and passionate as well. 'It's such a weird group,' Edwards says, in sum. So what's the prognosis here for wagons? It's anyone's guess. Volvo's rep hints at shapes that defy categorization. 'As technology evolves,' he says, 'we are confident there will be new styles and approaches that will quickly become as iconic as the wagon.' And against expectations, Audi, Porsche, and Mercedes all suggest that we may see the category diversify, especially given the upcoming electrification offensive. 'Given the handling, aero, range, and other advantages, maybe it's time for the Avant to make a comeback,' the Audi spokesperson says. Edwards is not so certain. 'My guess is that market share for these vehicles will shrink in 2025 as OEMs offer more unique options,' he says. 'So, consumers who want to express their individuality can do so in other ways—with electrification and other features out there.' This raises the question of why these automakers send wagons here at all. 'There is still a global marketplace where some of these platforms have some relevance,' Edwards says. 'The Germans and Swedes have always been more interested in wagons. It's part of who they are. So, not doing a wagon seems counterproductive for what they think they represent.' He pauses. 'The real answer is, frankly, hubris.' You Might Also Like You Need a Torque Wrench in Your Toolbox Tested: Best Car Interior Cleaners The Man Who Signs Every Car
