Special feature: A farewell to Volvo V70
When it comes to building traditional station wagon with utility in mind, those who are seeking to buy European would definitely have Volvo in mind. That’s similar to what you have to buy a Subaru when buying a traditional Japanese station wagon with AWD.
Everything else from Volvo’s 245, 745 and 765 have always been the definition of what an utility vehicle stands for. While they aren’t as stylish as Audi Avant, Volvo’s boxy wagons have always been practical, highly utility, handles decently with good enough powertrains to match their unique character. 850 T5-R sportswagon used to be the first wagon to enter BTCC in the early 90s with great result. As with 850 T5-R, 850R and V70R AWD; Volvo wagons are as good as it gets.
When Volvo invested heavily into the XC70 Cross Country, which is basically a jacked-up V70, in North America. They have put less resources into traditional wagon like V50 and V70. We have seen the hugely successful XC60 and XC90 crossovers, which are extremely practical thanks to Volvo’s expertise on buidling utility wagons. In 2011, Volvo will be dropping V70 in flavor of XC60 and XC70 due to “customer demand”. Although the incoming V60 based on all-new S60 will be more stylish and less practical given its rounder looks, its pretty much unsure whether Volvo will bring it across the ocean.
We can pretty much count how many station wagons left in the market right now. Impreza has changed from wagon to hatchback. Outback has replaced Legacy wagon. 5-Series Touring won’t be coming over in flavor of the pointless X6 and 5-GT. Mercedes has firmly believed GLK can taken the place of the C-Class wagon, although E-Class wagon will be debuting soon. Audi remains commit to their Avant even with limited engine choices. Good luck if you can find some Passat wagon in VW showroom. Even Saab isn’t sure whether 9-3X will replaced 9-3 SportCombi when this quirky Swedish brand reestablish itself by the end of this year.
Perhaps most consumers don’t even know those crossovers are basically a guessied-up wagons……….
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