The popularity of the station wagon - particularly full-size station wagons - in the United States was blunted by increased fuel prices caused by the 1973 oil crisis. The first Japanese station wagon was the 1969 Isuzu Bellel four-door wagon, based on a compact sedan chassis. The trend since the 1980s for smaller station wagon bodies has limited the seating to two rows, resulting in a total capacity of five people, or six people if a bench front seat is used. ", "E61 BMW M5 Touring: One of the best M cars of all time", "A Short History of Station Wagons in the USA", "The Last, Great, Gasp of the American Station Wagon", "Motoring Memories: The history of the station wagon", "Postwar Station Wagons: Mom's Car Makes a Comeback", "About Cars; Chewing Over the Art Of Automotive Design", "Europe's station wagons flourish - The Washington Times", "Comparison of passenger vehicle economy and greenhouse gas emission standards around the world", "BMW Might Kill 5 Series Wagon in Favor of GT Crossover", "Toyota's own hybrid models are eating away at Prius sales", "Volkswagen Is Ending Golf Sportwagen Alltrack Production", "2018 Volvo V90 Wagon Will Be Custom Order Only in America", "Against the Grain: 21 Woodies That Weren't Station Wagons", "DI-NOC Siding: Restoring a station wagon's wood grain is now quick and easy", "Jeep's Wagoneer Making Fake Wood Grain Fashionable Again? packard 1958 stationwagonfinder bidding However, Japanese manufacturers did not build station wagons in large volume until recently. One of the smallest station wagons ever produced was the Morris Mini Traveller / Austin Mini Countryman, introduced in 1960. Cantrell began supplying woodie bodies for Chrysler vehicles, which continued until 1931. The car could also 'kneel' to the ground for easy loading of heavy or large items. Pontiac's version of that car, which is best known as the Chevy Monza, was called the Sunbird. But American buyers, stung by cheaply made early Hyundais and Kias, were reluctant to embrace a new Korean marque. The first station wagon by the South Korean manufacturer was being released way back in 1995 as the Hyundai Avante Touring (Lantra Sportswagon), followed in early 1996 as the Kia Pride station wagon. The roofs of "woodie" wagons were usually made of stretched canvas that was treated with a waterproofing dressing. Unfortunately, with its anonymous front end, the Lancer Sportback looked more dorky than cool, and the fact that the sport-themed Ralliart model had the same 162-hp engine as the base model meant it had little appeal for enthusiasts. Chrysler hasn't sold a wagon under its own banner in the United States since then, though it did offer a 300 Touring wagon (basically, a Chrysler-ized Dodge Magnum) in Europe. [33] GM eliminated the pillarless wagon from its lineup in 1959, while AMC and Ford exited the field beginning with their 1960 and 1961 vehicles, leaving Chrysler and Dodge with the body style through the 1964 model year. [8][9] Folding rear seats (to create a larger space for cargo) are also common on both station wagons and hatchbacks.[2]. General Motors also used forward-facing seats for the third row in the 19711976 clam shell wagons. wagon station 1956 dodge sierra imcdb message monolith monsters The 95 stayed in showrooms for nearly a decade and a half until the new 99 came along in 1974, and surprisingly, Saab didn't offer the 99 or its replacement, the 900, as a station wagon. Volvo station wagons produced since the mid-1990s are the Volvo V40, Volvo V50, Volvo V60, Volvo V70, and Volvo V90, with the V40, V60, and V90 models currently in production. The wagon wasn't very popular; only 26,000 out of 282,000 Corvairs sold in '61 were Lakewoods, and in '62 fewer than 6,100 out of 307,000 Corvairs were wagons. Part and parcel of the Vega lineup was a handy little two-door wagon called the Kammback (though whether it was actually a kammback is open to debate), along with a two-seat panel-van version with blanked out rear windows. [56] General Motors also introduced the sportier Chevrolet Nomad and Pontiac Safari to their lineup in 1955. These wooden-bodied cars, produced until the 1960s, were amongst the most expensive vehicles at the time. station wagon wagons ford wood fairmont death paneled truckster happened squire 1980 happy farewell 1978 money mercedes today iii alex ford ltd 1970 squire wagon country modelhaus station built pro The 900 Series ended production in 1998 and its successor (the Volvo S80) did not include any wagon models. station wagons cars were after-market conversions, with the new bodywork using a wooden frame and either steel or wooden panels. There was no way it would sell in any great numbers against the plethora of SUVs on the market, but it was one of the last honest station wagons, and we loved it. The Marathon's classic 1950s styling lent itself perfectly to the wagon body style. Some were not updated for consecutive generations in a model's life in Japan. 1979 ford wagon squire country ltd station actual reserve miles Many modern station wagons have an upward-swinging, full-width, full-height rear door supported on gas springs often where the rear window can swing up independently. The Chevrolet Vega Kammback, introduced in September 1970, was the first U.S.-made four-seat wagon[citation needed] and the first two-door wagon from GM in six years. Seating: Some station wagons have three rows of seats, whereas a hatchback will have two at most. [67] The Duett two-door wagon was conceived as a dual-function delivery van and people-carrier and is based on the chassis of the PV444 and PV544 sedans. However, after 2004 these compact station wagons also began to be phased out in the United States. The turn of the decade was not a great time for Acura: It was getting beat up over the horrendous bionic beaver-tooth grille on the 2009 TL and there was plenty of grumbling about the new TSX, which was bigger and heavier and didn't get the turbocharged engine everyone was hoping for. Since the 1930s, the term shooting-brake (originally a term for hunting vehicles) has been an alternative, if now rarely used, the term for station wagons in the UK. The station wagon variants of the smaller Mercedes-Benz C-Class line-up were dropped in 2007 and the BMW 5 Series Touring models were discontinued in 2010, due to slow sales in the United States with only 400 wagons sold in 2009. Other wagons produced in Australia include the smaller Toyota Camry and Mitsubishi Magna. Just as Ford developed the Mustang II from the Pinto, GM derived a bigger coupe from the Vega, though the company at least had the good sense not to call it Camaro II or Firebird II. Station wagons experienced the highest production levels in the United States from the 1950s through the 1970s as a result of the American Mid-20th century baby boom.

During the interim years when families transitioned to minivans and then to SUVs and crossovers, there were some rather oddball wagons produced. Incidentally, if you happened to need a lift to the airport in the 1960s or '70s, you may well have ridden in another type of Checker-built wagonthe eight-door, 12-seat, super-stretch Checker Aerobus. The Peugeot 404, introduced in 1960, offered a conventional large station wagon alternative to the innovative Citrons. The American Heritage Dictionary defines a station wagon as "an automobile with one or more rows of folding or removable seats behind the driver and no luggage compartment but an area behind the seats into which suitcases, Steamer Trunks parcels, etc., can be loaded through a tailgate. Manufacture of the wooden bodies was initially outsourced to custom coachbuilders,[27][28] because the production of the all-wood bodies was very time-consuming. colt wagon dodge station 1978 [38] In 2012, the Volvo V50 compact station wagon was withdrawn from the U.S. market due to poor sales. Like Ford and Toyota, Nissan built a wagon version of its subcompact car, but its designers took a slightly different (and, as it turns out, prophetic) approach: Rather than a boxy wagon, they made a car with a fast roofline that looked more like a long, four-door hatchback. The Vega (see above) was a corporate rather than a divisional creation (big mistake! Does this car look familiar? The third-gen car is our favorite because its back window featured not one but two wipers. With its short length, one could argue that the Rio Cinco was more of a hatchback, but when we look at the thing, well, we think wagon. [43], In 2016, Volvo reintroduced a large wagon to the US market with the Volvo V90, but only by special order. So when Ford launched its first home-grown front-drive subcompact in 1980, the Escort (along with its badge-engineered twin, the Mercury Lynx), it was available as a two-door, four-door and, of course, a wagoncomplete with optional stick-on wood grain, because America, dammit. Ford and Holden produced wagon models based on each generation of their large sedan platforms until 2010. It should, because it's basically an Astre Safari with a new name. When opened as a swinging door, this part of the bumper moved away, allowing the depression in the bumper to provide a "step" to ease entry; when the gate was opened by being lowered or raised to a closed position, the chrome section remained in place making the bumper "whole". That included the wagon, which probably would have sold well were it 1974 rather than 2004.

Ten years into the experiment, it was clear engineering Saturn-specific cars was financially unsustainable, so rather than growing its own, Saturn turned to GM's European division for its new big car. In the early 1950s, tailgates with hand-cranked roll-down rear windows began to appear. Suzuki did well with its rugged 4x4s but it never could seem to come up with a car Americans liked, and the Esteem was another in a long list of failures. Likewise, after Daewoo beat a retreat from the U.S. market (see the Nubira above), Suzuki brought a Daewoo model back to the States as the Forenza. The Citron ID also had a two-part tailgate and hydropneumatic suspension, which allowed a self-leveling ride-height and automatic brake biasing regardless of the load carried. Geo was folded into Chevrolet in 1994 and for reasons that have never been adequately explained to us, the Storm didn't make the transition. When automobile production resumed after World War II, advances in production techniques made all-steel station wagon bodies more practical, eliminating the cost, noise, and maintenance associated with wood bodies. With Saturn's first SUV, the Vue, waiting for its at-bat, interest in the LW was minimal. Full-size General Motors 19711976 wagons the Chevrolet Kingswood, Townsman, Brookwood, Bel Air, Impala, and Caprice Estates; Pontiac Safari and Grand Safari; Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser, and the Buick Estate models featured a 'clam shell' design marketed as the Glide-away tailgate, also called a "disappearing" tailgate because when open, the tailgate was completely out of view. [citation needed] Since Ford owned its own hardwood forest and mills (at the Ford Iron Mountain Plant in what is today Kingsford, Michigan in Michigan's Upper Peninsula) it began supplying the wood components for the Model A station wagon. Alas, in the car world being cool doesn't necessarily make you popular, and when the third-generation Sentra made its debut for 1990, the station wagon was gone. Since the 1990s, full-size station wagons have been largely replaced by SUVs with three-row seating, such as the Chevrolet Suburban, Ford Expedition, Mercedes-Benz GL-Class, and Dodge Durango. For example, Plymouth continued production of wooden bodied station wagons until 1950. After struggling sales, the Chevrolet Caprice and the Buick Roadmaster, the last American full-size wagons, were discontinued in 1996. General Motors gets much well-deserved flack for cheap badge engineering in the 1970s and '80s, but such antics were old hat at Ford. The Squire was always the highest trim level of any Ford Wagon and included the signature woodgrain applique, and usually additional exterior chrome, better interior trim, special emblems, etc. The Renault Medallion launched in spring '87 as a 1988 model, just before Chrysler bought AMC. [63] German-designed station wagons are currently produced by Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Opel, and Volkswagen. The split-gate features an upward-swinging window combined with a downward swinging tailgate, both manually operated. Mercury offered a basic Bobcat Wagon as well as the wood-trimmed version you see here, called the Bobcat Villagera name that would reappear on the Nissan-designed Mercury minivan that shuttled some of you to and from school in the 1990s and early 2000s. 1979 ford squire country wagon ltd station [57] It was "recycling" with only a few modifications from the original version and targeted buyers looking for "no-frills" economy. ", "PM Owners Report: AMC Pacer Station Wagon No one feels wishy-washy about AMC's eye-catchingest wagon", "A Short History of the Citroen Traction Avant", "The World's Greatest Wagons: Peugeot 203, 403, 404, 504, 505 An Illustrated History", "Volvo Celebrates 60 Years of Station Wagon History", "Volvo Cars Gent 2019 production numbers", "Curbside Classic: 1970 Saab 95 Saab Shows Ford How To Make The Shortest Three-Row Wagon", "Saab 9-3 Sportwagon (2005 - 2011) review", "Kombibilen tappar i vrlden men str sig stark i Sverige", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Station_wagon&oldid=1094544798, Articles with dead external links from July 2021, Articles with unsourced statements from November 2018, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2020, Pages using multiple image with auto scaled images, All articles with vague or ambiguous time, Vague or ambiguous time from November 2018, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from November 2018, Articles with unsourced statements from March 2018, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, D-pillar: Station wagons are more likely to have a. Others, such as the Morris Travellers, the Austin Cambridge Countryman and the Standard Ten Companion were bespoke. Ford offered a Pinto wagon right up until the model was discontinued in 1980. The late 1950s through the mid-1960s was also the period of greatest variation in body styles, with models available without a B-pillar (called hardtop or pillarless models) or with a B-pillar, both in 2-door and 4-door variants. Checker stopped making Marathon wagons after 1974, but the sedan stayed in production until 1982. In the United States, Ford's full-size station wagons for 1966 introduced a system marketed as "Magic Doorgate" a conventional tailgate with retracting rear glass, where the tailgate could either fold down or pivot open on a side hinge with the rear window retracted in either case. This configuration was common in the 1920s through the 1940s, and remained common on many models into the 1960s.

The second-gen Sentra wagon, shown here, followed the same theme and was even available with four-wheel drive, making it a competitor for Subaru (and, arguably, a harbinger of the Honda Accord Crosstour).

rambler pinto squire When the European-designed Focus took over for the Escort in 2000, it, too, was offered as a station wagon. A simplified, one-piece lift-gate on smaller wagons. The 'Familiale' version had a front bench seat, a forward-facing three-space bench seat in the middle, and a folding forward-facing three-seat bench in the rear, providing a versatile nine-seat car. [71], In 2017 station wagons accounted for 31% of all sold cars.[72]. plymouth wagon belvedere 1965 station ornocar ml Station wagons remained popular in Europe[35] and in locations where emissions and efficiency regulations did not distinguish between cars and light trucks.[36]. caprice wagon rod 1989 station classic chevy rat chevrolet van camper 4x4 k5 falcon motorhome g20 gm rv agon arkansas In a similar situation to the United States, the decline of traditional Break and Familiale models in France was in no small part due to the introduction of the minivan in the form of the Renault Espace in 1984. Chrysler created the Eagle brand for cars sold at Jeep dealerships, and the Medallion became an Eagle for '89. With other brands, the niche previously occupied by station wagons is now primarily filled with a similar style of Crossover SUV, which generally has a car underpinning and a wagon body. Cargo barriers may be used to prevent unsecured cargo from causing injuries in the event of sudden deceleration, collision, or a rollover.[14]. In the United States, early models with exposed wooden bodies became known as woodies.

[20][23] Then in 1983, the market for station wagons was further eroded by the Chrysler minivans, based on the K platform. Geo, for those who don't remember, was GM's captive-import brand sold through Chevrolet dealerships presumably to give the brand plausible deniability that Chevys were still American cars. [26][pageneeded] In lieu of glass, side curtains of canvas could be unrolled. Subsequent GM full-size wagons reverted to the door-gate style for its full-size wagons. The last two-door wagon available in America, the Geo Storm,[citation needed] was discontinued in 1993. We can chalk this fine felicity up to bad planning: Mazda didn't have an SUV of its own, relying instead on the Ford-sourced Tribute and the mini-minivan Mazda 5 as it rushed to complete its first crossovers, the CX-7 and CX-9. [20][30][31] In 1947, Crosley introduced a steel-bodied station wagon version of the Crosley CC Four. The full-size Country Squire model was produced in higher quantities than the other Ford models. Kudos to Mitsubishi: While the few manufacturers making station wagons were trying to make them slick and sexy, more like hatchbacks than proper wagons, Mitsubishi went Volvo 850-style with the Lancer Sportback, complete with a squared-off tailgate and taillights that stretched to the roof. By the early 1960s, this arrangement was common on both full-size and compact wagons. Later, station wagons were produced by vehicle manufacturers and included the 1937 Commer (based on the Hillman Minx Magnificent),[62] 1952 Morris Minor Traveller, 1952 Morris Oxford Traveller, 1954 Hillman Husky, 1954 Austin A30 Countryman and 1955 Ford Squire. wagon rambler rebel station amc 1967 makes jacksonville florida states united Ford began production of steel-bodied two-door station wagons in 1952 with the Ford Ranch Wagon. The first all-steel station wagon was the 1935 Chevrolet Suburban, which was built on the chassis of a panel truck. Station wagons with the design featured an optional third row of forward-facing seats accessed by the rear side doors and a folding second-row seat and could accommodate 4-by-8-foot (1.2m 2.4m) sheets of plywood or other panels with the rear seats folded. In 1969, Popular Mechanics said, "Station wagon-style follows that of the production sedan of which it is the counterpart. [52] Other early two-door station wagons were the 1951 Nash Rambler[53] and the 1954 Studebaker Conestoga. Dodge and Plymouth's infamous K-cars, the Aries and Reliant, were available in coupe, sedan, and wagon variants, so naturally the Chrysler division had to get one, too. 1976 torino wagon ford station cars classiccarshq v8 classic ads Where manually operated, the lower tailgate was counterbalanced by a torque rod similar to the torque rods used in holding a trunk lid open, requiring a 35 lb push to fully lower the gate. The 1994 Audi RS2, developed in conjunction with Porsche, is considered the world's first performance station wagon. The Ford Taurus wagon was discontinued in 2005 and the Ford Focus station wagon was discontinued in 2008. Time for a reminder! malibu 1980 wagon forums station mar classic [13] The power operation of both upper glass and lower tailgate became standard equipment in later model years.

The Ford and Mercury full-size wagons built after 1964 were available with four rows of seats, with the rear two rows in the cargo area and facing each other. Volvo continued production of station wagons through the Volvo 145 (introduced in 1967), then the Volvo 200 Series (introduced in 1974), and the Volvo 700 Series (introduced in 1985). Chevrolet fielded a Vega wagon from the get go, but Ford waited a year before launching the wagon version of the Pinto. Other woodie-style wagon models produced in significant numbers include the 1984-1993 Jeep Grand Wagoneer,[49][50] 1957-1991 Mercury Colony Park, 1968-1988 Chrysler Town & Country, 1970-1990 Buick Estate, 1971-1992 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser and 1969-1972 Chevrolet Kingswood Estate. Station wagons remain popular in Japan, although they are in slow decline as the SUVs and minivans have taken over a large portion of this market. In France, almost all station wagon models are called a "Break", although the spelling is different from the English shooting brake.

ford wagon 1953 station classic sedan country cars By the late 1950s, the wooden trim was replaced by "simulated wood" in the form of stick-on vinyl coverings.[45][46]. The first-generation Lexus IS was Toyota's take on the BMW 3 Series, right down to the straight-six engine. Later in the decade, electric power was applied to the tailgate windowit could be operated from the driver's seat, as well as by the keyhole in the rear door. In its early years, Saab was best known for the funky-looking 93 and 96 coupes, but it also made a nifty little wagon called the Saab 95 (not to be confused with the 9-5). Like the Vega, the Pinto wagon had only two doors, and of course there was a version slathered in fake "woody" trim. They incorporated better seating and trim than standard editions with options such as heaters. Saturn was one of GM's great failed experiments, a company-within-a-company that turned out to be an unproductive money pit. But then the TSX Sport Wagon came out and most of that was forgiven. squire woodie The first station wagon produced by a French manufacturer was the Citron Traction Avant Familiale model introduced in 1935. Unfortunately, the cars were plagued by rapidly-rusting bodies and engines that overheated and warped. Honda (Acura's parent) didn't make many wagons for the U.S. market, but those it did make were excellent, and the TSX was no exception, being, as it was, a rebadged and upgraded European-market Honda Accord Tourer. The Forenza was a handy little car, affordable and inoffensive to drive, but with the compact SUV ascendant, it didn't stand a chance. [74] Production of wagons in Australia ceased in 2017 when the Holden Commodore (VF) ended production. Ford and Vauxhall produced factory-built station wagon variants of all three of their respective core models (small-, mid- and large-size cars) by the 1970s. In 1983, station wagons represented 15% of the passenger car market,[73] reflecting a trend throughout Europe of increasing popularity through the 1980s, with the vehicles becoming less cargo-oriented. The Cadillac CTS gave rise to a station wagon counterpart, the 2010 CTS Sportwagon, which defied the trend by offering almost as many trim levels as its sedan counterpart. General Motors adopted the rear-facing third row for most models during 1959-1971 and 19771996. [21] They also came to be known as "carryalls" and "suburbans". Worthy of note is the fast roofline, which ate up some cargo space but gave the car a slicker, sexier look aimed to change the minds of those who still viewed wagons as un-hip mommy-mobiles.

[citation needed] In 1990, the 700 Series was replaced by the Volvo 900 Series, which was sold alongside the smaller Volvo 850 wagon that was introduced one year later. American Motors offered a two-door wagon version of the AMC Pacer from 1977 to 1980.[60][61]. Because they sold slowly, many gearheads don't even realize these cars were available as wagons. corvair 1961 wagon station chevrolet cars 2040 Station wagons can flexibly reconfigure their interior volume via fold-down rear seats to prioritize either passenger or cargo volume. Prior to 1956, the third-row seats were forward-facing. [58] American Motors' strategy of reintroducing an old design made for two distinct model runs, one of few examples where such a strategy has been successful for an automobile manufacturer.[59].