Luxury Wagon Showdown

Despite our love for wagons, these versatile haulers have fallen out of favor with the American public. They've actually been out for favor for several decades, so we're hoping they've been uncool long enough to make a trendy comeback. With fuel economy regulations tightening, but no apparent end in sight for Americans' desire for the ability to haul lots of stuff, the wagon could become more relevant.

The BMW 3-series and Audi A4 have offered wagon bodystyles for years and Cadillac is finally joining the wagon party with its CTS Sport Wagon for 2010. Cadillac needs the Sport Wagon and upcoming coupe version of the CTS to be a serious player in Europe where small luxury wagons are still favored over small SUVs. We sampled a 2009 Audi A4 Avant and a 2009 BMW 328i xDrive Sports Wagon right after driving a 2010 Cadillac CTS Sport Wagon to see how the cars compare. We weren't able to drive all three cars on the same day, but we did learn a lot about their relative strengths.