The Globe and Mail

Brownie points are always a good thing, especially after you've been married for a few years. So when my wife made it clear that she had always wanted to see Quebec City, our family road trip's final destination was settled.

With two young boys, including a restless and occasionally very vocal two-year-old, to take on our extended jaunt from Toronto, we planned stops beforehand in Mont Tremblant, Que., and afterwards in Ottawa, just to keep each driving stretch down to a sanity-preserving level.

With the itinerary mapped out, the next step was choosing the right vehicle for the trip. Knowing we were to spend large amounts of family time on the road, comfort, space and fuel economy became paramount. But we also wanted to choose a vehicle that our growing but often downtown family might actually purchase one day.

For us, this meant no huge SUV or minivan for this six-day, 2,000-kilometre marathon test drive. We flirted with the idea of a fuel-sipping Volkswagen Jetta diesel, or a cozy Audi A3 hatchback that had worked wonderfully for us on European roads the previous summer. We even looked at some Detroit iron, such as a Dodge Journey, which offers up perhaps the best space and features per dollar on the road, but fell behind in refinement.

We ended up in a BMW 328i xDrive Touring, a luxurious all-wheel-drive wagon that did all the practical stuff well, looked good, and seemed at home in the valet parking lots of the three Fairmont showpiece hotels in which we stayed.

Plus, my wife's turns behind the wheel of such a well-regarded sporting wagon would surely seduce her to the charms of driving fun, I figured. Then it showed up with a manual transmission. D'oh! Her stick-shift phobia meant no time in the driver's seat on this trip.

Yet auto enthusiasts will appreciate that BMW is one of the few auto makers to make six-speed manuals available in their family hauler wagons, a combination that has sadly become an endangered species in North America. Be forewarned, however, that a manual in a car like this may make it tougher to sell, and therefore hurt its resale value.

The 3-Series Touring is a nice size for anyone who works downtown, where parking space is at a premium, but who still needs to cart around children and lots of gear. It's no bigger than a 3-Series sedan, but the wagon's enlarged hindquarters offers three times the cargo space of a sedan's trunk with the rear seats folded, for a total of 1,385 litres.

Our week's worth of gear fit nicely under the cargo cover with all the seats up and, if you have a small stroller, its front wheels may even fit in the ski pass-through that runs between the rear outboard seats. But compared with other similarly priced wagons, it's pretty small inside, with a shorter wheelbase, lower roof and less cargo space than a much shorter Mercedes-Benz B-Class hatchback.

At this wagon's as-tested price of just over 50 large, you could get a fully loaded Passat wagon with all-wheel-drive that's a size up and that also offers a six with a manual. Or a similarly sized, but automatic-only (at least for now), Cadillac CTS Sport Wagon that also offers all-wheel-drive, flashier looks, as well as a potential return on all those tax dollars that went to GM.

Tremblant's mountains and forests welcomed us with hiking and biking trails, zip lines, golf courses and, of course, the patio and shop-filled pedestrian village. With helicopter rides, ATV outings, horseback riding, and a host of beach, tennis and water sports all available to be booked at the concierge's desk, it's amazing how many outdoorsy activities are in the area, even outside of ski season.

Our favourite was likely the alpine luge, which consisted of a three-wheel, two-person kart powered by gravity instead of an engine down a twisty mountainside course. Take a leisurely time of it - once for the amazing views of the Laurentian Valley, especially with the blazing fall colours, and another to appreciate just how quickly and quietly these gravity racers get up (actually, down) to speed, no two-stroke smoke or smell besides the mountain air.