Review: 2009 Euro Wagon Shootout: BMW 535xi Wagon, Mercedes E350 Wagon, Volvo XC70 T6, Volkswagen Passat 2.0T Wagon

Station wagons, or "estates" as they are known across the pond, occupy that strange place in the auto market between SUVs, minivans and sedans. On the surface, wagons promise the holy grail of cargo schlepping and fuel sipping. But they're not as sexy as a sedan, not as practical as a modern crossover and they can't haul as much crap as a minivan. In the new world "station wagon" brings up PTSD style flashbacks of 1970s Country Squire wagons with a roof-rack and eight kids in the back on the way to summer camp, 8-track blazing, and your dad at the helm wishing he had a terrier and a 240Z instead. Thankfully, this is not your dad's Oldsmobile Customer Cruiser. For this comparo we've selected the BMW 535xi Wagon, Mercedes E350 Wagon, Volvo XC70 T6 and the Volkswagen Passat 2.0T Wagon.

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Spy Shots: BMW 5-Series Touring

Who needs a 5-Series PAS when you've got one of these? The next BMW 5-Series Touring is out testing, and despite the fact that it looks as long as a football field and it's buried under cladding, it doesn't look awkward or ungainly - something that cannot exactly be said for the coming Mercedes E-Class wagon. The BMW wagon isn't expected to debut until the latter portion of 2010, but there are hints that the car will get the 400 hp, twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V8 - perhaps for an M Touring assault on Mercedes' E63 AMG wagon? The family carrier is also hinted to offer turbodiesels and three transmission options: 8-speed automatic, 7-speed DKG, and 6-speed manual. [Source: Global Motors]

 

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VIDEO: BMW gives sneak preview of new X6 M

The BMW X6 remains something of an enigma, specifically, why does it exist? Nonetheless, it does and BMW is working on additional variants including a two-mode hybrid for release later this year and an M version. We don't have much detail yet on the X6 M, but BMW has put a video up on YouTube with Bernd Limmer from M GmbH demonstrating a prototype. The X6 M will evidently have a higher output version of the current twin turbo V8, probably hitting the magic 500 hp mark. The xDrive all-wheel-drive system is also being re-jiggered to send more torque to the rear axle. That should help reduce the understeer that the nose heavy V8 X6's are prone to. So far there is no word on when we will see the X6 M in the flesh, but either the Geneva Motor Show in March or Frankfurt Motor Show in September seem's likely. Follow the jump to see the X6 M for yourself in high-res video. Thanks to xeyad for the tip! [Source: YouTube]

 

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Photos: New models at the LA Auto Show

Click to view more photos of new models at the 2008 LA Auto Show. (Credit: Corinne Schulze/CBS Interactive) It seems like every year vehicles get bigger and more powerful, but recently we've been seeing a trend toward smaller and more efficient. While new models are still getting their ...

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CES 2009 Preview: FLIR helps BMWs detect pedestrians

FLIR, the maker of BMW's night-vision system, will be at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week showing off its PathFindIR thermal imaging camera. The company says its system isn't confused by oncoming headlights, works well in cold weather and can even see through fog, dust and smoke. FLIR also says its camera is based on the same technology used by the military to provide a 36° field-of-view of the road ahead. We plan to check out the company's claims in the 6 Series they're bringing to CES. Maybe they'll even let us take it out and recreate that urban rumor of 200-mph desert highway sprints with no headlights. No, probably not.

 

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BMW heiress blackmailed by survivor's grandson

Reports are surfacing from Munich where Susanne Klatten, the richest woman in Germany and heiress to the Quandt family fortune, is alleging she has been blackmailed. The Quandt family, which owns controlling interest in BMW, was outed in a recent documentary outlining the family's wartime activities that included close ties with Adolf Hitler and the use of slave labor during the Holocaust to make batteries and munitions for the Nazis. According to the reports, Klatten, now married with three children, met a man in a bar with whom she entered into an affair. With the aid of an accomplice, the man secretly filmed their encounters and tried to extort some $51 million from Klatten to keep the matter quiet. The accused blackmailer, Helg Sgarbi, has reportedly done the same with other wealthy German women, but in this instance has claimed motives stemming from his Jewish grandfather's subjugation in the Quandt's factories during the Holocaust. Klatten approached state prosecutors when the ransom demands grew, and Sgarbi is now being held in police custody. [Source: Inside Line]

 

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For Sale: BMW Z4 with 551HP M5 V10 Engine

Germans love power and speed. While most of us would have been more than content with a stock BMW Z4 M, the owner of this Z4 that's for sale on a German online vehicle marketplace found that an inline-six with 343 HP couldn't satisfy his lust for speed. So what more reasonable than to throw in a BMW M5 / M6 sourced 5.0-liter V10 engine. But even the M5 V10's 507 HP weren't enough for our German protagonist who decided to replace the Z4's inline-six with an even more powerful, Hartge-prepped version of the V10 delivering a hefty 551 HP. The engine is mated to a six-speed manual gearbox. Aside from a set of Hartge 20-inch alloy wheels, the Z4 V10 is all stock on the outside. The asking price for the V10-powered German roadster is a not-so-easy-to-swallow, 97,900 Euros which comes to about $137,700 US with the current exchange rates. Source: Mobile , Via: Autogespot

 

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