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Chevrolet Nomad
Chevrolet Nomad, 1955–1957
The American take on the idea, and still one of the best-looking. The Nomad grew out of a 1954 show car styled under Harley Earl that put the Corvette's face on a two-door wagon body, and Chevrolet turned it into a two-door "sport wagon" for the showroom. At $2,571 in 1955 it was one of the most expensive Chevrolets short of the Corvette itself, which tells you it was sold on style first. The two doors make the rear seat awkward to reach, but the long flat floor behind it is real wagon space. Pontiac's Safari shared its chassis and roofline if you want the same shape with a different face.
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Aston Martin DB5
Aston Martin DB5 Shooting Brake by Radford, 1965
The car that made the shooting brake a grand tourer. Aston Martin's owner David Brown wanted a DB5 his hunting dog could ride in, and the coachbuilder Harold Radford rebuilt the car from the windshield back with a long roof and a rear door. Only 12 were built by Radford, eight of them right-hand drive. That rarity is the catch: one sold at auction for £848,750, so this is a car to admire and dream about rather than one to fill with lumber. Everything ahead of the windshield is pure DB5, and that idea of a full-strength sports car with a wagon's tail is the template the rest of this list follows.
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Reliant Scimitar
Reliant Scimitar GTE, 1968–1986
The car that turned the shooting brake from a coachbuilt luxury into something you could order from a dealer. Tom Karen of Ogle Design drew the GTE, which was conceived and ready for the 1968 Motor Show in under a year, with a fiberglass body on a steel box-section chassis and Ford's 3.0-liter Essex engine. Moving the spare wheel into the nose freed extra room in the back. Princess Anne was given one in November 1970 and went on to own several more, which did its image no harm. If you want the classic sporting wagon you can actually use and afford to run, this is the one to start with.
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Volvo P1800
Volvo P1800 ES, 1972–1973 model years
The one with the glass tailgate. Volvo turned its P1800 coupe into a two-door wagon with a frameless, all-glass rear hatch, drawn by in-house designer Jan Wilsgaard, and in Germany and Switzerland it earned the nickname Snow White's coffin. Only 8,077 were built across its two model years before production stopped on June 27, 1973, so it is scarcer than the coupe. With its four-cylinder detuned to 125 bhp it is a relaxed cruiser rather than a sports car. Buy it for that shape and the view through the back: the glass hatch went on to inspire later Volvo designers.
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Lotus Elite
Lotus Elite Type 75, 1974–1982
Not the 1950s Elite coupe but its very different successor: proof that a shooting brake can come from a company famous for featherweight two-seaters. Oliver Winterbottom designed the striking wedge, a four-seater with a glass rear hatch over the cargo area and the 1,973 cc Lotus 907 four-cylinder up front. Only 2,535 were made, and the Elite went on to become the basis for the Eclat. It suits a reader who wants a bold 1970s design with room for four people and their bags; like any Lotus of the period, it rewards a buyer with a good specialist nearby.
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Lancia Beta
Lancia Beta HPE, 1975–1984
The most realistic classic buy here for someone who will actually load the back. Lancia combined the Beta Coupe's front end and doors with the longer floorpan of the Beta sedan to make a three-door sporting wagon, and the initials stood first for High Performance Estate and later High Performance Executive. With 73,626 built, far more than most cars on this list, finding one is a matter of patience rather than luck. From 1979 it dropped the Beta name and was sold simply as the H.P.Executive, so expect to see both badges when you shop.
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Jensen GT
Jensen GT, 1975–1976
A short-lived British rival to the Scimitar. Jensen turned its Jensen-Healey roadster into a shooting brake with a fixed roof and a hatch, keeping the 1,973 cc Lotus 907 engine. Only 511 were built between September 1975 and May 1976, before Jensen Motors went into receivership. The back seat is very limited, so treat it as a two-seater with a generous luggage deck; that is still far more useful than the roadster it came from, and its rarity means it turns heads at a fraction of a coachbuilt car's price.
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Jaguar XJS
Lynx Eventer, 1982–2002
The Jaguar XJS as a shooting brake, rebuilt by the British coachbuilder Lynx Engineering with a long roof and a tailgate. Lynx offered the conversion for two decades, from a prototype shown to the press in August 1982 to the last car in 2002, yet only about 67 were made, and nearly all of them use the V12. It keeps the XJS's effortless long-distance cruising and adds room for luggage behind the seats. As a hand-built conversion of a thirsty V12, it suits a buyer who already knows and loves these Jaguars, and its rarity means you will be explaining what it is at every gas station.
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BMW Z3
BMW Z3 Coupé and M Coupé, 1998–2002
The small, sharp one, and a cult classic. BMW grafted a long hatchback roof onto its Z3 roadster, a project a group of its engineers developed in their own time, and critics promptly called it a clown shoe or a bread van. That odd profile is the reason to buy it: you get a two-seat sports car with a usable cargo area under the rear glass. The M Coupé is the one collectors chase, with BMW M's straight-six and production of around 6,291, though sources disagree on the exact figure. Every Z3 was built at BMW's plant in South Carolina.
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Ferrari FF
Ferrari FF, 2011–2016
The car that put the shooting brake back at the top of the market. Ferrari unveiled the FF at the 2011 Geneva show as a three-door, four-seat grand tourer whose name points to its four-wheel drive, with a 6.3-liter V12 making 650 hp. The cargo area holds 450 liters and grows to 800 with the rear seats folded, enough for four people's luggage on a long trip. That makes it the rare V12 Ferrari you could use in winter or take on a family vacation. 2,291 were built before the GTC4Lusso replaced it in 2016.
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Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class (C218)
Mercedes-Benz CLS Shooting Brake (X218), 2012–2018
The car that brought the shooting brake name to a five-door luxury wagon. Mercedes took its swoopy CLS four-door coupe and stretched the roof back over a 590-liter cargo area, which grows to 1,550 liters with the rear bench folded, so it genuinely works as a load carrier. The famous option was a cherry wood cargo floor costing about £4,000 in the UK: it looks wonderful, but it needs careful handling to avoid scratches, and reviewers found the standard carpet more practical. If you want the shape with real wagon space and a used-car price, this is the strongest all-rounder here.
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Ferrari GTC4Lusso
Ferrari GTC4Lusso, 2016–2020
The FF's successor kept the long tail and sharpened everything else. Unveiled at the 2016 Geneva show, it raised the V12 to 690 PS and added four-wheel steering. Later that year the GTC4Lusso T arrived with a smaller V8 and rear-wheel drive only, keeping the four-wheel steering; it is the version to consider if you want the shape without the V12's appetite. Ferrari confirmed the end of production on August 31, 2020, and its four-seat role then passed to the Purosangue, a taller four-door car, so today this long-tailed shape is a used buy.
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Kia Ceed
Kia ProCeed, 2018–2024
The affordable way into the shape. Kia sold the ProCeed as a sporty five-door shooting brake version of its Ceed hatchback, based on a concept shown at the Frankfurt show the year before. It rides lower than the practical Ceed Sportswagon yet still offers 594 liters of cargo space, about 200 liters more than the regular Ceed. The ProCeed GT used a 1.6-liter turbocharged engine with 204 hp. Kia built it in Slovakia for Europe and never offered it in the US, and production has since ended, so it is a used buy now, but no other car here gives you the look for so little money.
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Aston Martin Vanquish (2012)
Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato Shooting Brake, 2018
The modern heir to the DB5 Shooting Brake. Zagato styled a short family of Vanquish variants, and the shooting brake was limited to 99 cars, powered by Aston's naturally aspirated 5.9-liter V12 with 584 horsepower. It is a hand-finished collector's car rather than a practical one, and the prices show it: an example offered at auction in 2024 carried an estimate of $450,000 to $550,000. Admire it as the most glamorous recent example of the type, and leave the hauling to something on this list you would not mind scratching.
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Volkswagen Arteon
Volkswagen Arteon Shooting Brake, 2020–2024
A sleek, sensible five-door that Volkswagen sold under the shooting brake name. The cargo area measures 590 liters with the rear seats up and 1,632 liters with them folded. On paper that is not much more than the regular Arteon offers, but the cargo area's shape is far more useful for bulky things, which is the real reason to choose it. Production at VW's Osnabrück factory had already stopped by January 2025, earlier than the company once planned, so this is now a used buy and one of the more practical ways to own the look.
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Genesis G70
Genesis G70 Shooting Brake, 2021
The outsider's pick. Genesis built this as its first Europe-exclusive model, a sporty five-door aimed squarely at the German premium wagons, with 465 liters of cargo space that grows to 1,535 with the 40:20:40 rear seats folded. Its ride and comfort can stand alongside the established rivals, though reviewers found the handling and gearbox less polished and the gasoline engine weedy beside the diesel. Genesis never offered it in the US, and in early 2025 it ended UK sales of its gasoline and diesel models apart from remaining stock, so it is a rare used find, and a distinctive one for anyone tired of seeing the same three badges.
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Mercedes-Benz CLA
Mercedes-Benz CLA Shooting Brake, electric model, 2026
The shooting brake you can order new right now. The latest CLA Shooting Brake reached European buyers in 2026 as an electric car first, with a rated range of around 470 miles for the CLA 250+, and Mercedes has since detailed mild-hybrid versions too. Space is the honest catch: the 455-liter trunk trails rivals such as the Audi A6 Avant e-tron, though the electric versions add 101 liters of storage under the hood. UK prices start at £47,750. Earlier CLA Shooting Brakes were never sold in the US, and Mercedes has announced no North American launch for this one, so for now it is a European car.
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