Features / 30 April 2026 / Warren Hawkins

The only station wagons left in South Africa

Station wagons – or touring or estate cars – once represented the pinnacle of what a family car could be, and to a certain extent, the few that remain in South Africa still do.

Subaru recently announced that the soon-to-be-introduced new Outback would no longer be a station wagon, but would instead be a rugged SUV.

This leaves South Africa with only four remaining station wagons, and not a single one with a price tag under R2 million.

The outgoing generation Subaru Outback offered motorists three options under R1 million, including the R839,000 Field derivative, the R889,000 Touring, and the R999,000 XT.

Its imminent exit leaves the BMW M3 Competition Touring M XDrive as South Africa’s “budget” station wagon offering, with an eye-watering R2,233,506 price tag.

For this price, buyers can expect a high-performance touring car with a powerful 3.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine, delivering 390kW and 650Nm to all four of its driven wheels, thanks to an 8-speed automatic gearbox.

The BMW station wagon is no slouch, as evidenced by its 3.6-second acceleration from standstill to 100km/h, and 280km/h top speed.

This performance does, however, make the German tourer rather thirsty, as it burns through an average of 10.4 litres of petrol every 100km.

If the M3 Touring represents the cheapest station wagon in South Africa, buyers might wince at the price of the top-end offerings.

The fully electric Porsche Taycan 4 Cross Turismo station wagon has a starting price of R3,322,000, with prices rising all the way to R4,514,000 for its Turbo specification.

For this price, buyers can expect no less than 320kW and 610Nm from its two motors, all the way up to a whopping 650kW and 890Nm in its Turbo spec.

This allows the base version to sprint from 0-100km/h in 4.7 seconds, reaching 220km/h, while the turbo version accelerates to 100km/h in 2.8 seconds, and tops out at 250km/h.

These cars don’t represent the tourers of old, the ones that carried families to their holiday destinations year after year; they are now more closely related to sports cars and high-performance vehicles.

South Africa’s last station wagons

As the Subaru Outback station wagon slowly makes its exit, to be replaced by an SUV version of itself, the Japanese tourer leaves only four German offerings behind to take its place.

Below is the list of station wagons that will be left in South Africa once the Outback is replaced.

Click on their underlined prices for more information.