These are the remaining wagons on sale in South Africa

Wagons were once relatively popular in South Africa, but the rise of crossovers and sport-utility vehicle body styles have all but killed the estate car in Mzansi.

It seems the only apologists for the genre are motoring journalists and funeral directors, but even the latter group have moved on to more inventive customised creations with stretched underpinnings, gullwing doors and the like.

If you are the kind of buyer who likes the appeal of a long-roof design, increased cargo capacity and without the high centre of gravity that creates dynamic compromises with an SUV, there are options. But you will pay dearly because of the remaining five estate cars in the country, four are high-performance German vehicles.

Subaru Outback

Let us kick off this brief overview in sensible fashion with a wagon stalwart from Japan: the Subaru Outback. While the model has always espoused crossover-type elements, with a slightly elevated ride height and a distinctively outdoorsy flavour, the manufacturer categorises it as an estate.

Pricing kicks off at R839,000 for the standard Field model, powered by the normally-aspirated, 2.5-litre, four-cylinder boxer engine (138kW/245Nm). Its luggage compartment offers a useful 522l, which expands to 1,267l with the seats folded. If you frequently traverse dirt roads and need room to haul, the practical Scooby remains an endearing pick.

Audi RS4

Onto another all-wheel drive wagon which, while not suited to dirt roads, draws spiritual influence from a certain rally-bred racer. The original Quattro is almost always referenced by Audi, even in discussion about its modern day performance wares. It is a heritage worth bragging about, in fairness.

Audi’s new RS4 traces its lineage to the RS2 Avant of the 1990s which, you might recall, saw involvement from Porsche. Unlike that model, which used a five-cylinder unit, the contemporary successor packs a 2.9-litre, turbocharged V6 (331kW/600Nm), with a claimed 0-100km/h sprint time of 4.1 seconds.

Undoubtedly a very spirited conveyance for your groceries, with 495l of space on offer, or 1,495l if you fold those seats. Yours for R1,562,600.

BMW M3 Touring G81

Audi had the monopoly on potent performance wagons until a month ago, when BMW entered the chat with its M3 Touring, the first-ever wagon iteration of the iconic nameplate. Well, we should rephrase: the first-ever production series wagon iteration of the breed. Remember that old one-off E46 concept they teased fans with?

The M3 G81 is sold in xDrive Competition form locally, with a price-tag of R2,218,506. That gets you performance that is just about identical to the sedan and two-door expressions, wielding a quoted 0-100km/h sprint time of 3.6 seconds.

On paper, it blows the Audi into the reeds not only on acceleration, but also in terms of output, with a 3.0-litre, turbocharged straight-six delivering 390kW/650Nm. A tantalising prospect, but you may have to fight to get one as BMW said its allocation for our market is already spoken for.

Audi RS 6 Avant

In the larger D-segment, Audi has a unique selling point in the RS 6, sold only in Avant form. Sold in high-output Performance guise, it costs R2,370,300.

Under the skin, the model is nearly identical to the RS7, but packs the obvious benefits of a wagon body style. The boosted 4.0-litre makes a wonderful noise, thrusting the estate car from standstill to 100km/h in a claimed 3.4 seconds. Outputs are 463kW and a whopping 850Nm.

Making full use of that 565l luggage compartment (1,680l seats down), you would certainly want to ensure your labrador or camping equipment are properly fastened down.

Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo

Porsche briefly offered the Sport Turismo variant of its Panamera in Mzansi, an alternative for those who want similar practicality to a Cayenne, but with sleeker looks. In its absence is the Cross Turismo variant of the electric Taycan.

It might look like a minor difference over the standard car, but the Cross Turismo gives you up to 1,212l of storage space with the seats folded, while its regular counterpart is capped at 407l. It carries a significant premium, however, priced from R3,201,000 four the four-wheel drive base model compared to R2,868,000 for the standard rear-wheel drive car.

The electric powertrain of the Taycan 4 Cross Turismo delivers 320kW/610Nm, with a quoted 0-100km/h sprint time of 4.7 seconds.