The Great Wagon Revival of the 21st Century has yet to begin in America, though Europeans still have many choices. The CarWow YouTube channel decided to tease us with a new video pitting a trio of wagons against one another. It’s not a direct comparison, either, with each of the cars – a BMW M340i Touring, an Audi S4 Avant, and a Volvo V60 T8 – featuring a unique and different powertrain.
The Volvo’s setup is the oddest ball of the bunch, featuring a supercharged and turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder paired with an electric motor to make 387 horsepower (288 kilowatts) and 472 pound-feet (640 Newton-meters) of torque. The BMW features the brand’s tried-and-true turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six making 374 hp (278 kW) and 368 lb-ft (500 Nm) of torque. The Audi is also different, featuring a 3.0-liter V6 diesel engine producing 347 hp (258 kW) and 516 lb-ft (700 Nm) of torque. The three cars feature all-wheel drive.
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The first race from a dead stop has the BMW taking the lead and holding onto it through the finish line, completing the quarter-mile in 12.4 seconds. That’s a full second ahead of the second-place Volvo at 13.4 seconds. However, the Audi wasn’t far behind, finishing it in 13.5 seconds. The rolling race with all settings set to auto had BMW winning, but the Audi and Volvo traded finishing places. Another rolling race in manual mode had the same result.
The final test CarWow often performs is a brake test. Here, the Audi excelled, stopping in the shortest distance. The BMW came in second with the Volvo taking third. The Volvo’s regenerative braking system could account for the extended stopping distance, though it wasn’t too egregious. The race doesn’t answer any hard-pressed questions, though it’s interesting to see how differently automakers are approaching powertrains.