Which wagon to buy?

The OP was not serious, but lots of good wagon ideas.

tuna55 wrote: If pick-a-part stuff is that bad near you, you can buy a parts car 740 or Mustang or whatever, swap the parts, and sell the parts car with the auto stuff when you're done. Go to a swap meet, T5s aren't that special.

I don't have room for the cars I currently have... and definitely not for any more...

And at all of the swap meets I've been to, vendors seem to think T-5 casings are cast in gold...

Forgive me... maybe the OP wasn't serious, but I usually try to give serious answers before going with the silly stuff.

petegossett wrote: Fwiw, the Magnum was available with a 5-spd, but only behind the V6.

5 speed automatic....

The magnum only looks big compared to some of the other suggestions here.

Yes it's ~10 longer and 6" wider than your 940. but compared to the last generation Taurus wagon (not the freestyle rebadge) it's only 1" longer, 1" wider and 1" taller.

It's waaaaaay smaller than a B body wagon or county squire - which is probably why it seems so small on the inside.

Update: So I went to the BMW dealer and drive a newish 530xi wagon. I was disappointed. Yeah, it's very fast and very smooth. But way too much electronic and luxury junk. And... the rear section is only 42" wide at the most. (You can put 48" wide lumber in a 940 wagon.) And.... the BMW manual does not list a towing capacity at all! (Yeah I know I could to with it anyway) It's just too much $ and too fancy for my taste. So my BMW dream has kinda been spoiled.

I still wonder if I'd like an older BMW wagon with a manual. The salesman was an idiot, but he claimed the BMW wagons are geared differently and have different suspension (softer) than the sedans. Anybody know if that's generally true?

I'm still driving the Volvo, and realistically I will keep doing so until it dies or I win the lotto. I'm kinda hoping the AW71 slushbox will fail so I can get off my ass and put a manual in it. But the darn thing seems bulletproof.

Yeah, I've done tranny swaps on a few cars. And yes, all the 740 clutch parts will bolt into a 940 chassis.

Thanks to all of you for your input, this is fun.

ekauppi7 wrote: I still wonder if I'd like an older BMW wagon with a manual. The salesman was an idiot, but he claimed the BMW wagons are geared differently and have different suspension (softer) than the sedans. Anybody know if that's generally true?

I don't know about generally true, but the gearing part is true in my e46 wagon. The wagon's have a shorter rear end in them, supposedly to make up for the extra heft of the wagon. I wish it wasn't that way though, as my highway mileage suffers as a result. The car turns 3500 rpm at 75 mph.

Ian F wrote:

tuna55 wrote: If pick-a-part stuff is that bad near you, you can buy a parts car 740 or Mustang or whatever, swap the parts, and sell the parts car with the auto stuff when you're done. Go to a swap meet, T5s aren't that special.

And at all of the swap meets I've been to, vendors seem to think T-5 casings are cast in gold...

Imagine trying to purchase one from the 'Stang crowd . . .