It's no secret that Americans have a love affair with sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks. According to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, SUVs and pickups together made up nearly 75% of all new vehicles sold in the United States during the year 2022. However, across the pond, our motoring counterparts in Europe still favor the good ol' fashioned station wagon — or "estate" if you want to sound sophisticated — to fulfill their cargo hauling needs. In fact during that same year, 64% of all station wagons manufactured worldwide were sold in Europe.
That's not to say that the U.S. doesn't get some cool wagons imported to our shores, like the Audi RS 6 Avant or its new competitor, BMW's M5 Touring. However, for a brief period between 2010 and 2014, Cadillac brought us a homegrown contender that could go head-to-head with the very best of the European wagons: the CTS-V Sport Wagon. A supercharged 6.2-liter all-aluminum LS V8 resided under the sledgehammer Cadillac's hood, capable of 564 horsepower and 551 lb-ft of torque. What's even more bonkers is that the standard gearbox was a six-speed manual (a six-speed slushbox was optional), channeled through rear-wheel drive only.
Back in the day, Car and Driver piloted a three-pedal version of the nearly 4,400-pound behemoth to a 0-to-60-mph time of 4.1 seconds on its way to a 12.3-second quarter-mile. Nowadays, if you want one of these ultimate all-American sleepers for your own, the price of entry remains stubbornly sticky, and with good reason.
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The exact number of CTS-V Sport Wagons produced during its four year run is slippery to pin down, but suffice to say that it's less than 2,000 — minus at least one that was stolen and chopped for parts. Some sources list a very specific number of 1,767 "Vagons" made, with 514 of those having a manual transmission. So to answer the title question about the CTS-V Sport Wagon retaining its lofty value, it's simply a rare vehicle and priced accordingly.
A quick peek at the pricing source, Classic.com, shows an average sold price of $44,880 for automatic transmission-equipped CTS-V Sport Wagons over the past 12 months. To put a finer point on pricing, a "highly original" 2012 example with just 12k miles sold for $57,500 in July 2024. At the other end of the spectrum, a slightly more enjoyed copy with 70k miles hammered out at $31,750 on Bring a Trailer in June 2024.
The much rarer six-speed manual Vagon commands a premium over its automatic brethren, with an average price of $66,051 for completed sales over the past 12 months. While $66k might be the recent average, a couple of particularly low-mileage specimens pierced the $80k barrier last summer. While spending that much on a 10 year old vehicle that's still in a purgatory between contemporary and classic might seem a little nuts, it's a unique piece of Americana while being half the price of current performance wagons and nearly as capable.
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