Decision notes

Where I'm headed

A fun daily with the stance of an old sport wagon, the driver assist of a new car, and a price that lets the first owner eat the steep depreciation.

Last updated

01

Priorities

  1. Highest
    Driving fun and a sport-wagon feel

    The car has to be something I want on an empty on-ramp. The long roof and the way an Avant or a 3 Series wagon sits are the reference.

  2. Highest
    Top tech and driver assist

    Lane tracing and traffic-jam assist sit on the same shelf as the driving. This is a tie with the line above, ahead of everything else.

  3. Next
    Cost, after someone else took the depreciation

    Target is a roughly two-year-old car, the fast-depreciating kind, so the purchase price has already done a lot of falling.

  4. Required
    AWD

    All-wheel drive is mandatory. Rear-drive and front-drive cars are logged when they show up, then set aside.

  5. If EV
    Road-trip range, and 800V charging when I can get it

    An EV has to cover a real trip. 800-volt charging, with a short 10–80% stop, is the architecture I want. A 400-volt car can still win on how it drives.

The reference

  • Audi A4 Avant
  • Audi A6 Avant
  • Audi allroad
  • BMW 3 Series wagon

02

Shortlist

Ranked. The cents-per-mile figures sit next to a 28 MPG gas baseline of about 17¢ per mile, which is about $4.76 a gallon. Hybrid and gas cars scale from that. The Model 3 number is a separate winter road-trip estimate.

Cost per mile

28 MPG gas baseline17¢
Volvo V60 Cross Country, highway~15.4¢
Toyota Crown Signia~12–13¢
Tesla Model 3, winter trips~12¢

Crown Signia at about 38 MPG is 17¢ × 28 ÷ 38 ≈ 12.5¢, about 4.5¢ under the baseline. The V60 uses its 31 MPG highway figure: 17¢ × 28 ÷ 31 ≈ 15.4¢, about 1.6¢ under, and city miles cost more. The Model 3’s ~12¢ is about 5¢ under the same baseline and is an EV road-trip estimate. The i4, Ioniq 5, and Q6 e-tron stay off this chart so a fast-charging guess does not get presented as a fact.

01

BMW i4 xDrive40

2024 · AWD

The driver’s car. Closest thing here to the old 3 Series, with enough range to leave town.

  • EPA range 307mi
  • Highway, about 260–270mi
  • Charge 400V~200 kW

Cents per mile stays unpinned. Home charging and a highway fast-charge stop are different prices, and this tracker does not collapse them into one number.

Pros

  • Great to drive
  • AWD and real road-trip range
  • A 2024, so the early depreciation has already happened

Cons

  • 400-volt charging, around a 200 kW peak
  • Sedan body
  • Highway range sits below the EPA number
See the i4 listing

02

Toyota Crown Signia

2025 · AWD hybrid

The comfort and driver-assist pick. Strong lane tracing and traffic-jam assist. The sport-wagon itch stays unscratched.

  • Economy, about 38mpg
  • Cost / mile 12–13¢
  • Vs baseline, about −4.5¢

17¢ × 28 ÷ 38 ≈ 12.5¢ per mile, inside the 12–13¢ band.

Pros

  • Lane tracing and traffic-jam assist
  • AWD and cheap miles
  • Quiet, comfortable highway car

Cons

  • Comfortable, and soft rather than sporty
  • Crossover shape, away from the Avant and the 3 Series wagon

No live Crown Signia listing in this tracker yet.

03

Tesla Model 3 Long Range AWD

Sedan

The road-trip EV. Excellent Autopilot. The wagon brief is the compromise.

  • Road trips BestEV here
  • Winter trips 12¢/mi
  • Vs baseline, about −5¢

About 12¢ per mile on winter trips. That figure is from trip notes, separate from the MPG scaling used for the gas and hybrid cars.

Pros

  • Best road-trip EV on the list
  • Excellent Autopilot
  • AWD and a strong running cost

Cons

  • Sedan body
  • Less of the Audi and BMW chassis feel
See Model 3 listings

04

Hyundai Ioniq 5 AWD

800V

The fast-charging pick. HDA2 is a real assist suite. Highway range is the limit.

  • Highway, about 240mi
  • Architecture 800V
  • 10–80%, about 18min

Cents per mile stays unpinned. The 800-volt stop is the reason it is this high, and the highway range is why it is fourth.

Pros

  • 800-volt charging, about 18 minutes from 10% to 80%
  • HDA2 driver assist
  • AWD, and asking prices have been friendly

Cons

  • About 240 highway miles, so more charging stops
  • Crossover, away from the sport-wagon feel
See the Ioniq 5 listing

05

Volvo V60 Cross Country

Wagon

The body-style match. A true allroad wagon, the shape the A4, the A6, and the 3 Series wagon left behind.

  • Highway, about 31mpg
  • Cost / mile 15.4¢
  • Vs baseline, about −1.6¢

17¢ × 28 ÷ 31 ≈ 15.4¢ per mile on the highway figure. City driving costs more than that.

Pros

  • Actual wagon, with allroad stance
  • AWD
  • Gas, so the trip plan is a fuel stop

Cons

  • Highway economy is a small step past a 28 MPG car
  • Driver assist and cabin tech sit behind the leaders
  • Composed ride, short of a sharp chassis

No live V60 listing in this tracker yet.

06

Audi Q6 e-tron

Quattro · 800V

Audi, 800-volt charging, and strong range. Local clean cars are asking about $50k, which fights the depreciation plan.

  • Architecture 800V
  • Range Strong
  • Local ask, about $50k

Cents per mile stays unpinned. The decision on this one is the asking price and the shape, ahead of the energy math.

Pros

  • 800-volt charging and strong range
  • Quattro
  • A familiar Audi way of going down the road

Cons

  • Local asking prices around $50k
  • Newer, so less of the steep depreciation is behind it
  • SUV, away from the Avant
See Q6 listings

Ruled out

  • Porsche Taycan Cross TurismoPrice
  • BMW i5Price
  • Lexus RZRange
  • Toyota C-HRRange

03

Available vehicles

Model 3 and Q6 checks run through October 22, 2026. The i4 and Ioniq 5 listings were added October 23, 2026.

Loading listings…

Asking price is the figure recorded for that car. A doc fee appears when the listing published one beside the price. Cars marked “includes listed fees” or “includes shipping” already roll that cost into the number shown. These are public asking prices, and they can change.

04

Off the market

A car lands here when it is missing for two checks in a row, or the page says sold, removed, or not found. Days listed are only the days this tracker actually saw it. Comparable means it met the search: the right model year, AWD, a clean title, and about 25,000 miles or fewer.

Loading the log…