Estate cars are good for transporting families and furniture – but dull as ditchwater, right? Wrong, says Darius Sanai, as he compares two estates with Ferrari-level performance
The incontrovertible facts of life can be hard to digest in motoring terms. Your heart says you need a Ferrari or at the very least a Porsche. Reality dictates that you need a car that can transport children, dogs, boxes of Krug and the odd sculpture, sometimes at the same time.
But there’s no need to deposit the joy of driving into the nearest dumpster and go out and buy a Volvo estate. Help is at hand from the two giants of German sports saloon manufacturing, Mercedes- Benz and BMW. Each of these companies now produces a high-performance, driver-focused machine (that’s a station wagon to those from the other side of the pond) that also happens to be a big, practical estate car.
BMW’s secret weapon is the M5 Touring, an estate version of its ubiquitous 5 Series saloon, equipped with the 507bhp V10 engine and sports suspension from its M5 rocket flagship. In the Mercedes corner is the newcomer, the C 63 AMG Saloon, which crams a 6.3-litre, 457bhp V8 engine and suspension from its AMG racing division into the body of a family-size C-Class estate.
Both models can hit 60mph (96km/h) from zero in well under five seconds, and, in theory, they should combine the best of both worlds: the agile sports car and the roomy family-plus-dogmobile. But which one is superior?
While they look similar on paper, the two are quite different when you inspect them more closely. The BMW is bigger: the exact match from Mercedes would have been the AMG-tuned E-Class, one size up from the C; but the E-Class is being replaced soon and the C is brand new. Also, the BMW has a seven-speed manual gearbox, with clutchless gear-changes activated by paddles on the steering wheel, while the Mercedes has a seven-speed traditional automatic. Minor points, maybe, but not for car enthusiasts.
I tried the Mercedes first. We have no dogs, despite the best propaganda efforts of my small children, but I loaded the family into the car and set off for the British countryside. First thought: holy moley. This car is fun. That may sound obvious in a car that can hit 60mph in 4.5 seconds, but fast doesn’t always equate to fun in German cars: some can be quite clinical. Not the C. It’s an agile, willing, sporty thing, eager to change directions, blasting down the motorway like a greyhound on amphetamines, always communicating to you. It feels muscular and taut, even at traffic-jam speeds.
On winding country lanes, it was equally brilliant: the suspension’s superb damping meant that bumps didn’t unsettle it and it absorbed the curves with aplomb. The children loved it too, being particularly amused by the way the my wife’s sunglasses flew off her forehead every time I hit the gas for the V8 to blast us forward with a roar. (This was usually followed by another kind of roar, as the driver received some strongly worded driving advice from his wife.)
Importantly for the world we live in, the C is also a highly enjoyable car to drive sensibly down to the shops, although its marvellous agility does tempt one to flick between lanes like an Egyptian taxi driver rather than act one’s age – definitely a plus point in my book.
The C is not just awesomely fast, beautiful to handle and extremely practical: it is one of the most exciting cars I have driven. It’s actually more fun than some of the more expensive offerings from higher up AMG’s own food chain: as enjoyable every day for an enthusiast as a Porsche 911 Carrera S or even a Ferrari F599 Fiorano (I had one the week before, so I know), while being able to carry the family and pets.
How would the M5, currently regarded as king of the estate cars, measure up by comparison? It feels a lot bigger, for starters: in a good way, in that there’s more load area in the boot, and a bit more space for passengers. But to drive it feels larger and almost cumbersome by comparison, not helped by steering that feels bizarrely numb for such a racy vehicle.
It also demands more of the driver, with its clutchless manual gearbox, and an array of settings, which include a button on the centre console that increases power from 400 to 507bhp when you press it. (Annoyingly, it deactivates every time you switch off.)
The V10 engine sounds awesome and the car feels extremely solidly planted. The ride is smooth, too, and a tad more luxurious than the Mercedes’s. Pootling around crowded roads with the family on board, the M5 felt more like a good estate car than a racing car that happened to be an estate. In ordinary driving, there was no thrill: its turn-in to corners lacked sharpness, and the engine isn’t strong on low-down torque. It was only when the roads emptied that things transformed. I flicked the car from roundabout to roundabout, using the brilliant electronic differential to maximise traction on exit, balancing it on the edge of its grip, bashing the V10 against its 8,200rpm rev limiter. The V10 sounds and goes wonderfully between 5,000 and 8,200rpm, and similarly the handling is fabulously entertaining when the car is being thrown around. Enthusiasts will like the way the cornering line can be balanced with the super-responsive throttle.
The M5 is a car which comes alive when it’s pushed to its limits; on a racetrack I suspect it would easily better the AMG. So which you buy depends on how often you want to take the family and dog onto a Grand Prix circuit. I tend not to, so my winner, by a surprisingly clear margin, is the AMG. In fact, it’s a very good reason to have a family (and a dog), if you don’t already. – Darius Sanai
LUX RATINGS
Mercedes C 63 AMG Estate 19/20
BMW M5 Touring 17/20
(18/20 if you live next to a racetrack)
