What ever happened to station wagons?

[Phineas Lamour]

I will be having a third child soon and need a larger vehicle. I remember growing up with station wagons. Now the only things with 3 rows of seats are minivans or even worse crossovers or giant SUVs. I just want a rear facing seat and a luggage rack.

 

[Rathdown]

Unless you are willing to put up with a used American station wagon (Buick Roadmasters are my personal favorite) you are probably out of luck finding a new station wagon with a rear-facing third seat.

 

[1961MJS]

Hi

The basic soccer mom vans are great. You can keep all of your stuff in the back. The mini-van's are up higher than a station wagon, so you can see in traffic better, they're lighter and get decent gas mileage. I don't know of any with the old rear-facing seat though. The last rear facing seat in a station wagon I was in, was a pre-1974 Chevy / GM of some sort. It was an Icky yellow color if I remember right.

Later

 

[Yeps]

They got upgraded.

 

[Yeps]

Hi

The basic soccer mom vans are great. You can keep all of your stuff in the back. The mini-van's are up higher than a station wagon, so you can see in traffic better, they're lighter and get decent gas mileage.

Minivans are lousy for anyone significantly over six feet (as are SUVs). Also, is being higher off the road a good thing? I always found driving a low car to be most comfortable. I can feel where I am much better. The only reason minivans get better gas mileage is because they are new. Old cars tended to be heavy guzzlers.

 

[Mr. Hallack]

I doubt anyone builds anything with rear facing seats due to "safety concerns" As far as I'm concerned, if your going to become a roadkill pancake, it probably doesn't matter which way your facing!!

 

[splintercellsz]

I love the older styles of the wagons.

 

[1961MJS]

Minivans are lousy for anyone significantly over six feet (as are SUVs). Also, is being higher off the road a good thing? I always found driving a low car to be most comfortable. I can feel where I am much better. The only reason minivans get better gas mileage is because they are new. Old cars tended to be heavy guzzlers.

Hi

The over six foot thing is almost certainly dependent on which mini-van you get into. I'm 6'2" and my old Gran Caravan was fine. Being up high is better for finding your way around new places. Being low is far better for high speed turns, not a soccer mom activity. I would think a Porsche driver would be, shall we say "challenged" to drive a mini-van around town for the first hour or so.

Later

 

[Tomasso]

What ever happened to station wagons?

This is pretty much what happened....



http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/15/autos/death_station_wagon.fortune/index.htm

 

[Tomasso]

I doubt anyone builds anything with rear facing seats due to "safety concerns"

There's this......http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.hightechdad.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/DSC01677.jpg%3F9d7bd4&imgrefurl=http://www.hightechdad.com/2011/06/27/my-kids-i-have-fun-with-the-cool-features-of-the-lincoln-mkt/&usg=__Tr-w_ZYhlxLXLiYlJUqvZqMyyRY=&h=681&w=1024&sz=181&hl=en&start=26&zoom=1&tbnid=22CXGUi52QbcxM:&tbnh=100&tbnw=150&ei=YaI_UN8vibDwBIC0gZgH&prev=/search%3Fq%3Ddiscovery%2B3rd%2Brow%2Bseats%26start%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1

 

[1961MJS]

I doubt anyone builds anything with rear facing seats due to "safety concerns" As far as I'm concerned, if your going to become a roadkill pancake, it probably doesn't matter which way your facing!!

Hi

I'm shocked, shocked I say to see that Mr. Lyles found that sucker. Facing rearward as tail gunner was pretty fun as a kid.

Later

 

[kiwilrdg]

I have heard that facing rearward is safer because you are pressed into the seat on deceleration rather than thrown out of the vehicle.

Perhaps it is more a case of parents thinking the kids are safer if they are visible to the front seat occupants.

 

[rocketeer]

I've always wondered. Why Station Wagon?
In England they are called Estate cars. This evolved from a vehicle used on a country estate by the gentry and well off, the only people who could really afford cars pre-WWII. And there was the 'Shooting Brake'. This came from a horse drawn carriage designed for the Lord of the manor to carry his game shooting shotguns and rifles etc. How they applied this(shooting Brake)to a 1960s Aston Martin though is anyones guess.

 

[kiwilrdg]

I've always wondered. Why Station Wagon?

I have heard it was because they were used for taxi and delivery work from the train stations.

 

[dhermann1]

An interesting difference between a British shooting brake and an American station wagon was where the wood paneling started. On a shooting brake the wood started behind the driver's seat, in other words with the back door. On a station wagon the front door was also paneled. The idea of the shooting brake was that you had a cage back there for the dogs. (And I guess the guns.) And of course the ONLY marque for a shooting brake was Rolls Royce.

 

[skyvue]

The mini-van's are up higher than a station wagon, so you can see in traffic better

Unless, of course, the majority of other drivers are also driving minivans and other "high" vehicles.

Also, minivans block the view for folks in more traditionally sized cars. I don't drive often, but when I do, I hate the damn things. And they're not terribly stable on the road, either -- more prone to flip over.

Sorry, I'll go for safety and stability over an elevated view every time -- especially when my elevated view is blocking the view of those stuck behind me in traffic.

 

[Quigley Brown]

I thought station wagon meant farm car.

 

[sheeplady]

My husband drove a VW TDI SportWagon (the "sporty" term for what is essentially a station wagon/ hatchback) for several years. He was t-boned in an accident (the other driver was doing 55+ MPH with no braking) and his car rolled. He walked away with bruises.

We are in the process of buying another one. We just wish it had a third row of seats to make it real station-wagon-y.

 

[ButteMT61]

We traversed the USA in my Dad's Ford while he was in grad school and a post-doc. No idea how many miles on it, but the last trip home from Montana to Pennsylvania, it literally caught on fire and burned to the ground as he pulled into our driveway. It was white with a red interior, and it was a blast! My brother and I saw our first drive-in movie in it - "2001: A Space Odyssey ". I'm pretty sure that even though we had our PJ's on, cotton candy and popcorn, it wasn't enough to keep us awake for the whole flick. But I remember that and the car. Good times...similar to this one.
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[Tomasso]

Classic!!!!