mmitev

Today I transported a washing machine in the back of my car - I felt so good to see her capable of this I had doubts that it will fit, as the packaging was making it bigger, but it went in there like a dream

Its almost like realizing that your gorgeous new GF can also cook pretty well! or replace the brake fluid, for that matter

A few months ago I transported a huge table - we were at the shop and we just thought, why don't we just buy this table now, we can take it with us immediately. that would not be possible with a sedan.

Then also some pretty voluminous plants - I guess these would fit on the back seat of a sedan, but they would mess up the leather

Also, try transpoting your summer or winter wheels with a sedan

Two years ago, a friend took us on a short trip in his E60 and we had a kiteboard with us. The kiteboard was just average size, but it would not fit in the trunk, and we had to carry it in front of both passengers on the back seat. Aside from being terribly uncomfortable, in a frontal crash both would be instantly dead, as the metal edge of the board was sitting just a few inches in front of their throats. At this moment I thought, how pointless is having such a big car, when you simply can't use its size?

Last summer I did a 20,000 km road trip through Europe and the really convienient thing was to open the glass window in the rear gate, pull back the cover, and be able to browse throrugh the whole luggage and pull out exactly what you need.

The opening rear window is actually something I really really like - the ability to open just the glass window and use the trunk for small things. In tight spaces, or when it rains, its very neat. In daily usage, I use 90% the glass window and I think it would actually be more annoying to use the sedan's conventional trunk.

Also, I don't think that the sedan has the practical "shopping box" structure in the trunk floor, which is great to keep things from sliding and rolling around when you forget you're on a logistic run and just decide to enjoy the car

I guess you can call it "versatility" - the thing that europeans like about luxury/sporty estate cars, the one-tool-for-all principal. And the E61 is pretty darn good at that.

And, as a big bonus point, I like the looks much more than the sedan.

bigbadbull

Uh yes....

I was going to get a Ford Raptor after the 535i went to HPFP failure land, since I needed extra room for the wife's stuff, and the potential offspring down the road.
It basically was a SUV or truck , then we thought back to when we got the 535i sedan and how we wanted the wagon but could not swing it payment wise.

So we got a CPO wagon , and I use the extra "junk in the Trunk" a lot.
The E91 was just way to small, and the E60 had more cargo room...and that is a fact. I just could not live with a E71 unless it wad the turbo D, and the wait was way to long.

Al T.

.... Love the space but sure would like to have rear seats that actually fold flat when we need to move that extra long piece of furniture. This is our first BMW ( and unfortunately, the last, since the F11 will probably not make it to our shore) but it's also the first of our wagons/hatchbacks to not have true fold flat seats. Starting with a '57 Ford Country Squire, a '61 Buick Special, various VW Rabbits and Golfs, and some Saabs, we've always enjoyed the ability to take advantage of a flat load floor.
Does any on else find this a problem?

spr0cket

Can't fit our dog in the back of the 3 series... in fact can barely fit her in back of the 5 series
Though I did pick up 4 interior doors for the house last week - which was nice.

Kell

Not ordinarily, but we bought a Plasma TV recently and the fact that the seats don't fold truly flat meant it was only supported at two two ends. Not great.

xBMWx

I went from E60s to an E61 because we were relocating from Germany to Copenhagen. It was very practical from both a "loading things up to the roof" perspective (i.e. buying stuff for the new home / empty boxes / my wife going nuts shopping in Copenhagen )and bringing things forwards and backwards to Germany. Also there were better deals on Tourings at the time when I bought it.

But now that I'm living in Copenhagen, hardly need the car, and very rarely need to transport anything big, the E60 is more than enough. I think the E61 is a great look car and particularly classy looking -- maybe more so than the E60, but I am a saloon car fan and its some how more of a sports car in my mind than the E61, so went back to E60.

Funily enough, when we transported our friend's baby carriage, it fitted better in the back of the E60 than it did in the E61. I believe the E60's boot is actually a little wider, but the E61 can obviously be stacked higher. With the Folding Rear Seats in the E60, I find its more than big enough to transport everything we need -- but we don't have kids on the back seat (or the boot for that matter!)

I do miss my Panorama Roof though