Home25 seriously quick family cars

25 seriously quick family cars

Need to move family or furniture in a hurry? Here are our favourite fast estate cars and SUVs, from a Ford Focus to a Lamborghini Urus.

February 20, 2026

The fastest family cars
© JLR
A family car definitely doesn’t have to be dull. On the contrary, some offer the speed of a supercar with the load capacity of a small van. They’re perfect for parents who enjoy driving and want a vehicle that ticks every box. Here, we’ve nominated many of our favourite estate cars and SUVs, with a focus on the new and nearly-new models. Strap in for a family-sized helping of performance and practicality.
Range Rover Sport SV
© JLR
How does an SUV with a 635hp twin-turbocharged V8 grab you? More impressive than the Range Rover Sport SV’s ability to hit 62mph in 3.8 seconds, though, is how it goes around corners. New ‘6D Dynamics’ air suspension uses hydraulically interlinked triple-valve dampers to counteract pitch, dive and body-roll. Factor in an active rear differential and enormous Brembo carbon-ceramic brakes, and the result is an SUV that feels surprisingly at home on a racetrack. Or indeed pottering to the shops.
Jaguar F-Pace SVR 575 Edition
© Jaguar
From the same JLR stable comes the recently discontinued Jaguar F-Pace SVR 575 Edition. Powered by a 575hp supercharged V8, it represents the end of an era before Jaguar’s new age of electrification – spearheaded by the controversial Type 00 concept. Few 2.1-tonne SUVs are this agile, or can sprint to 62mph in four seconds. If you can afford the fuel bills, this is a very exciting family car.
Mercedes-AMG E63 S Estate
© Mercedes-Benz
Nobody does hot estates like Mercedes-AMG. On sale until 2023, the Mercedes-AMG E 63 S was the fastest of a trio of hot E-Class models, thanks to a twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 petrol engine that mustered a mighty 612hp. Cars this big and cavernous shouldn’t be able to hit 62mph in 3.5 seconds. You might not enjoy the IKEA experience, but the journey home will be fun – even with the class-leading 1,820-litre boot (with the rear seats folded down) loaded with flat-pack furniture.
Audi RS6 Avant Performance
© Audi
With prices starting from £120,165, the Audi RS6 Avant Performance isn’t cheap, but thanks to a twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 engine producing up to 630hp, it’s the most powerful RS6 yet. It’ll hit 62mph in just 3.4 seconds, but the big news is the top speed: 174mph as standard, or a heady 200mph if you tick the right option box. It’s not as spacious as the E-Class Estate, so you’ll probably have to leave a bedside table behind, but the RS6 Avant feels like a supercar in all but body style.
BMW M5 Touring
© BMW
There’s a new, plug-in hybrid M5 Touring, of course, but our choice would be the E61 version. On sale from 2007 to 2010, it featured an F1-inspired 5.0-litre V10 engine producing 507hp – good for 0-62mph in 4.8 seconds. With the electronic limiter removed, the M5 Touring could hit a top speed just shy of 190mph. Divisive when new, we reckon the Chris Bangle-penned styling has aged beautifully.
Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo
© Porsche
The Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo is a thoroughly modern take on the ‘space and pace’ recipe. Even in standard guise, it will hit 62mph in 4.8 seconds with launch control, but the flagship (and strictly non-turbocharged) Turbo GT can complete the dash in a scarcely believable 2.2 seconds. Depending on the model, you can expect to see up to 421 miles of range, and while the 446-litre boot isn’t large by the standards of other cars on this list, there’s an additional 84 litres in the ‘frunk’.
Volvo V60 Polestar
© Volvo
There were actually two versions of the original (and best?) Volvo V60 Polestar. The first, and Volvo’s last six-cylinder car, was powered by a turbocharged 3.0-litre straight-six developing 350hp. The second was a less sonorous twin-turbocharged 2.0-litre four-pot producing 367hp, making it even faster than its predecessor. Few were sold in the UK, so finding a full-fat Polestar will be tricky, but they are out there, with prices starting from around £20,000. What’s Swedish for bargain?
Audi RS Q8
© Audi
Yes, we’d rather have a fast estate than a rapid SUV, but the market would suggest that we’re in the minority, so if the RS6 Avant doesn’t float your boat, maybe Audi can tempt you with the RS Q8. Thanks to a 680-litre boot, it certainly ticks the practical box, and there’s enough room for five adults, even with that sloping roofline. As for the performance, the 600hp RS Q8 will hit 62mph in 3.8 seconds, but the big story is the fact that it formerly held the lap record for an SUV around the Nürburgring.
Vauxhall Insignia VXR SuperSport
© Vauxhall
A Vauxhall Insignia? Yes, really, because in VXR guise, this repmobile was rather rapid. The Sports Tourer (Vauxhall’s fancy name for an estate) was the first Vauxhall wagon to feature adaptive all-wheel drive and an electronic limited-slip differential, but you’ll generate more nods of appreciation at a car meet by telling people that it was Vauxhall’s fastest ever estate car. Thanks to a 170mph top speed, the SuperSport was like a Lotus Carlton for the new millennium. Well, sort of.
Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio
© Alfa Romeo
When we spent a week with the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio in 2020, we called it ‘the closest thing to a Ferrari SUV’. A couple of years later, Ferrari unveiled the Purosangue, but for many people, the Stelvio remains the best opportunity to enjoy a cut-down Ferrari engine: in this case a 520hp 2.9-litre V6. In summary, we said we’d ‘fallen for this flawed Italian firecracker’ and loved its ‘bombastic charm’.
Lamborghini Urus Performante
© Lamborghini
Nothing highlights the popularity of SUVs quite like the fact that the Urus is Lamborghini’s best-selling vehicle of all time. It might be far removed from the Lambo you had on your bedroom wall, but there’s a huge market for SUVs, even those with a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 engine producing 666hp. That was enough for it to set a record at the Pikes Peak hillclimb, with a time of 10min 32.064sec.
Lamborghini Urus SE
© Lamborghini
Nothing highlights the popularity of SUVs quite like the Urus being Lamborghini’s best-selling vehicle of all time. It might be far removed from the Countach or Diablo you had on your bedroom wall, but there’s a huge market for SUVs, even those with a hybridised twin-turbo V8 producing 800hp. The Urus SE’s 37 miles of electric range and official CO2 emissions of 51g/km mean it’s surprisingly sensible… for a Lamborghini, at least.
Chrysler 300C Touring SRT-8
© Chrysler
This one might be a bit old-school for the editor – avoid anything too retro, he said – but the Chrysler 300C SRT-8 is hard to ignore. It’s a bold, brash and all-American take on the ‘space and pace’ recipe, with power sourced from a 6.1-litre V8 Hemi producing 425hp. Its 630-litre boot will swallow a big shop at Walmart, while the 20-inch rims and large chrome grille will ensure you stand out on the school run.
Jaguar XFR-S Sportbrake
© Jaguar
At the time of writing, there were only six examples of the Jaguar XFR-S for sale on Auto Trader, and only one of them was a Sportbrake. At £25,000 for a 2014 car, we’d be tempted, especially when you consider that it would have cost upwards of £82,500 when new. That’s a 550hp 5.0-litre supercharged V8 estate with a top speed of 186mph for the price of a basic Vauxhall Corsa.
Bentley Bentayga Speed
© Bentley
Until Bentley does the right thing and builds a Flying Spur shooting brake, you’ll have to get your family car fix from a Bentayga. Unfortunately, production of Bentley’s legendary 6.0-litre W12 engine ended in April 2024, but that doesn’t mean you can’t buy a used one. Indeed, there are lots available, with prices starting from around £60,000. Sure, some aren’t what you’d call tastefully modified, but you’re buying into a little slice of history.
Ford Focus ST
© Ford
The Ford Focus ST isn’t the quickest estate car on our list, but with a new price tag around £40,000, it is one of the cheapest. Power is sourced from a 2.3-litre EcoBoost petrol engine producing 280hp, with a choice of either a six-speed manual gearbox or a seven-speed automatic. It’ll hit 62mph in 5.8 seconds, but will achieve around 35mpg… if you can resist driving it like a fast Ford needs to be driven.
Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo
© Porsche
There’s no doubt that sales of the Porsche Panamera have been impacted by the all-electric Taycan. Its arrival probably played a part in Porsche’s decision to axe the more spacious Sport Turismo version, which always felt like the Lynx Eventer of the range (ask your parents). It’s not significantly more practical than the standard car, but you get an extra 20 litres of luggage space, a larger boot opening and a ‘4+1’ seating layout. In Turbo S E-Hybrid guise, it’s both fast and economical.
Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk
© Jeep
The Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk is a bit of an anomaly. No, not because it’s powered by the same 710hp 6.2-litre V8 engine you’ll find in the Dodge Challenger Hellcat, although that is a factor, but because it hasn’t actually depreciated. Around six years on from its launch in the UK, used prices of the £90,000 Trackhawk start from around… £90,000. That should help to offset the pain of the 20mpg fuel economy.
Volkswagen Arteon R Shooting Brake
© VW
The ‘nothing retro’ instruction means there’s no room for the wagon versions of the Passat W8 and R36, but the Arteon R Shooting Brake is a suitable alternative. It uses the same 321hp 2.0-litre petrol engine you’ll find in the Golf R and Tiguan R, which is enough to propel this elegant estate car to 62mph in 4.9 seconds and on to a top speed limited to 155mph. Thanks to a 590-litre boot, it’s actually more practical than the BMW 3 Series Touring, Audi A4 Avant or Mercedes-Benz C-Class Estate. May we also suggest that it looks more appealing?
Aston Martin DBX
© Aston Martin
In ‘standard’ guise, the 550hp Aston Martin DBX will hit 62mph in 4.5 seconds and max out at 181mph. Choose the DBX707 version and power is boosted to 707hp, the 0-62mph time drops to 3.3 seconds and top speed increases to 193mph. In both cases, the DBX is one of the most convincing super-SUVs, with entertaining handling, impeccable refinement and incredible performance.
Aston Martin DBX S
© Aston Martin
The Aston Martin DBX is one of the most convincing super-SUVs, with entertaining handling, impeccable refinement and incredible performance. Pictured here, the new flagship DBX S delivers 727hp, with carbon fibre options that can shave almost 50kg from its kerb weight. Obviously, that’s less beneficial when your vehicle weighs 2.2 tonnes to start with, but nobody said a super-SUV had to make sense.
Skoda Superb 280
© Skoda
Earlier versions of the Skoda Superb were available with a 3.6-litre V6 engine, but our preference would be a third-generation car with a 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine producing 280hp. It’s a proper sleeper, with nothing to suggest that it can hit 62mph in around six seconds. Thanks to a Haldex all-wheel-drive system, this performance is available in all weathers as well.
Alpina B5 GT
© Alpina
Meet the last ever Alpina 5 Series. It’s a run-out special, with production limited to 250 cars, so its status as a future classic is all but assured. That said, all Alpina cars based on the 5 Series dating back to 1981 have been brilliant. Thanks to a 625hp twin-turbocharged 4.4-litre V8 engine, the B5 GT is the most powerful Alpina to date. It’s enough for a top speed of 204mph in the Touring estate version (the saloon will hit 205mph).
Range Rover Sport SVR
© JLR
If a new Range Rover Sport SV is beyond your budget, how about the last-gen SVR? We drove one in 2015 and said: ‘There’s no sensible argument for buying an SVR. It has far more grunt than you’ll ever need and consumes fuel at a rate that would alarm even OPEC. But we suspect cars like this won’t exist for much longer. Give it 10 years and they will probably be legislated out of existence, so maybe you should buy this charming British brute while you still can.’ Seems our prediction was a little pessimistic…
BMW X5 M
© BMW
The existence of the BMW X5 M also shows our 10-year forecast was wide of the mark, as it’s one of many high-performance SUVs still on the market. In Competition guise, the X5 M is powered by a 625hp twin-turbocharged V8 engine, which is enough for a 0-62mph time of 3.9 seconds. At £134,480, it doesn’t come cheap, so you could consider the M60i version – a snip at £128,845.
Tesla Model X
© Tesla
With a huge boot, a large ‘frunk’ and a choice of five, six or seven seats, the used-only Tesla Model X is one of the most practical electric cars you can buy. In three-motor Plaid guise, it produces a ludicrous 1,020hp, which is enough for an official 0-62mph time of 2.5 seconds. Alternatives to the Model X would be the Model Y and, if you’re prepared to move to America, the Tesla Cybertruck.27
Ford Mustang Mach-E GT
© Ford
In flagship GT guise, the Ford Mustang Mach-E offers an official 304 miles of range and a 0-62mph time of 3.8 seconds. The less powerful Premium model completes the same sprint in 5.1 seconds, but delivers an extra 37 miles of range. It’s a big car, which means there is space for five adults, a 402-litre boot (up to the parcel shelf) and an 81-litre ‘frunk’ under the bonnet.
Genesis GV60 Sport Plus
© Genesis
We end with a wildcard. The GV60 isn’t the biggest Genesis you can buy (far from it), but in all-wheel-drive Sport Plus guise, it’ll hit 62mph in 4.0 seconds and a top speed of 146mph. To achieve this, you must activate Boost mode, which unleashes the full force of a pair of electric motors. We’ll have to gloss over the fact that the boot offers just 432 litres of space, because we’re still revelling in that sheer speed.