[jkp1187]

My wife and I were watching TOP GEAR on BBC-America last night, and Hammond drove the Audi RS6 Avant. It has a ridiculous V-10 engine putting out upwards of 580 BHP. He seemed enthusiastic.

I mentioned to her that, as impressive as the Estate (or "Station Wagon" as we call them here in the States,) was I couldn't quite see what the market for it was. If you wanted a performance coupe or sedan, that would be fun. If you wanted an Estate, you probably had more practical needs from the car, and the V-10 would just detract from the car's people/cargo-hauling mission. Especially when you factored in the car's extremely large price tag -- if you could afford that much for this vehicle, it seemed to me that you'd just as easily be able to afford a more practical (larger) cargo/people hauler while at the same time a smaller, more focused sports coupe.

My wife pointed out to me that many in Europe tend to have only one car, so having a single performance estate as their only car made a certain bit of sense -- a bit of practicality and a large dose of sport all in one. Families in the U.S. are more likely to have more than one car, whereas families in Europe may not have the physical space available to keep more than one car, regardless of their financial circumstances.

That explanation seemed to make sense to me. But I'm just curious -- is she right? What do you guys think?