and that's almost all automatics. try getting your hands on a 6-speed manual!

 

I guess it's all relative on one's term of rare. I do agree that there aren't too many e61's in the US. However to put it in context, only 680 1M made it to the US which to me is considered rare. If you wanna compare apples to apples with full size high performance wagons, there's only been slightly under 2200 CTS-V wagons produced so far for the US in it's entire run. That number is even big though compared to the~200 W211 Mercedes wagons produced and around similiar numbers for the W212 series wagons. Now that is what I truly call a unicorn.

 

Hang on... Are you saying the current E wagon W212 (not the AMG model of it), only 200 have ever been produced for the US? I can't believe that. Maybe per year, but even then, seems pretty low. Maybe the AMG version for its entire run so far...

 

Sorry meant to say the AMG models since we were only talking about the 4000 figure for E61's which would be more apples to apples comparison. Otherwise we should lump in the pre LCI models as well since those models are more of a fair comparison to non AMG wagon models.

 

You are comparing the AMG E wagon run to the E61? To the M5 wagon, ok, but how is that apples to apples, instead of the regular E wagon vs. the E61?

 

Yeah M5 wagon would be apples to apples but we don't get it here. We were specifically talking about e61 LCI which is all 535iX turbocharged here in the states and the highest hp 5 series wagon that BMW has stateside. I'm not trying to say they are in the same league performance wise but comparing the rarity of top wagon models available in the states of various manufacturers. A more apples to apples would technically be the merc 550 wagon model in terms of performance.

The E61 pre-LCI like a 530iX would be a better match for e350 wagon in terms of both HP ratings and performance IMO.

I think if you also count the Pre-LCI E61 models, it's not as rare as one might think. The figures below are worldwide but a good portion of that I'm sure has made it to stateside as well.

Year Touring
2004 31,342
2005 50,670
2006 49,654
2007 49,311
2008 45,462
2009 36,987