Who ever said a wagon can’t be tough? This would have to be one of my favourite Turbo X photos so far.

As you’ve seen here earlier in the week, a number of European journalists got to drive the Turbo X in Marseille recently.

EduSaab has sent me a summary of some of the Spanish journo’s thoughts. The websites concerned are km77 and Motorpasion:

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In both the reviews, say basically the same, but….

Km77.com says that in terms of performance, in its category (midsize with 280bhp petrol engine) there is no other car with that performance, 0-100 5.7s, but it is one of the most expensive. Here in Spain, it is 53162€ for the sedan version and that’s 6000€ more than the Aero XWD (280bhp) that will be launched with the TurboX, which was also tested at the same event.

He says that in terms of handling, the car is tuned to offer a compromise between sportiness and comfort. If you are looking for a fast car for everyday use but with quiet comfort its perfect, but if you are looking a more focused sport sedan for everyday use, then the 330i is a little bit better.

About the performance/handling/feeling:

He says the engine its incredibly good overall. You can go in high gear at 1500rpm withouth any vibration, its smooth and plenty of power/torque, also between 5000-7000rpm, the throttle response is quick, not as much as a good atmospheric engine like the bmw 3 liters, but much better than the majority of turbo engines(like the Mazda6 MPS as example).

He liked the exhaust sound, also the handling, in a 2nd gear bend, when you enter quite fast and the car begins to understeer a little bit you can push to the end the throttle and create a little oversteer and rear wheel spin and the car recovers the good way in the middle of the bend, all of that in absolute control and without ESP.

The only weakness: the gearbox. They say its a little bit sluggish, but works fine and there is no problem with it in terms of mis-engaging. Oh, and the steering is too assisted and soft and the steeringwheel radius is too big.

Then comes the second review from motorpasion. Its more passionate, it literally says that the car is “$#@!ing fun”. The journalist decided to push the car hard and do the test with an aggressive style and not precisely, you can see the pics of the tires as a result.

In the video, the first part is with ESP on and the km77.com journalist, the second part is with ESP off.

(and have a listen to that engine! - SW)