CLASH OF THE LONGROOFS - THE MERCEDES-AMG C63 S E PERFORMANCE, THE BMW M3 TOURING, AND THE AUDI RS4 AVANT PITCHED AGAINST EACH OTHER

Production of estates, station wagons and avants - all the same thing, has been in a steady state of decline since the SUV started its rapid rise in popularity and people started wanting higher and more practical cars for family and long-range commutes. Luckily there are still some being made, and thanks to them coming from Germany’s Big 3, they have legions of fans that may just be enough to convince these automakers to never give up on the cars commonly known as longroofs. While they may not admit it, BMW seems to have only introduced an estate version of its most popular sportscar, the M3 Touring, thanks to the power of social media and actually listening to the wants and needs of its massive client base. The newly-introduced BMW wagon is powered by the same twin-turbocharged inline-six that we’re used to, and that means it’s powerful and fast and eats dead dinosaurs with gusto, as does the twin-turbocharged V6 in the Audi RS4. The latest incarnation of the Mercedes-AMG C 63 S estate is a bit different. Instead of a beefy 4.0-litre V8 powerplant with a soundtrack to die for, we now find it sees fitment of a much smaller capacity, petrol-fed turbocharged 2.0-litre 4-cylinder lump that has an electric motor making up the power and performance losses from the downsizing process. That iconic AMG V8 roar is now a thing of the past for the AMG estate, something that has seen the haters of the world aim their focus at the automaker. You’d swear the car had a soul to lose, and it just lost it. The thing is, even with the main powerplant being smaller, with the electric motor adding its contribution to the mix we find the new Mercedes to be quite freaking fast. The crew from CAR Magazine assembled all three of these longroofs and checked them out and compared the cars to see which is the best at the job of going fast in comfort.

Take a look at the YouTube video that sees the experienced CAR Magazine crew pit the three most popular performance estates against each other - not in the outright car-vs-car sense, but more a proper overall comparison. Our fav looks-wise is the BMW, our heart is with the Audi and our interest is in the new smaller capacity, electrically-assisted AMG. Which is your favourite of the fast three?: NEW Mercedes-AMG C63 S vs BMW M3 vs Audi RS4 | Why hybrid’s spoiled the AMG C63 | CAR Magazine

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