12/31/2023 0 Comments Station wagon 1980![]() ![]() While modern SUVs and crossovers are owned by people from all social classes and driven everywhere, their earlier counterparts were priced higher and made-to-order, meant to be driven around the estate grounds after an afternoon of hunting, perhaps. Consider them to be the first SUVs or crossovers, if you will well, sort of. ![]() ![]() Often referred to as “depot hacks,” these models were rugged and simple in design, able to travel rough roads that regular cars couldn’t. To fulfill the need, wagon builders-small manufacturers who typically built these hybrid vehicles (yes, these were hybrids before hybrids became cool) per order-began to advertise them in popular magazines targeted for upper-class citizens like Country Life. By 1929 they were less of a toy for the rich and more of a necessity for everyone. In the 1920s, motorcars were becoming more widespread in America. Station wagon in Washington, D.C., 1915 ( Library of Congress) The body was built out of wood with bench seats and room for storage. These primitive wagons had a windshield and roof to help keep the rain off, but they rarely had side windows-occasionally they had curtains. These early wagons were often built on top of a truck or large car chassis. The original station wagons were products of the railroad age, a commercial-only product used as hackneys to taxi passengers around busy train terminals or to and from hotels. But what we’ve come to identify with the station wagon has not always been the case.Īccording to Byron Olsen’s book, Station Wagons, the ultimate vacation vehicle is a uniquely American automotive design development with an origin almost as old as the automotive industry itself. Station wagons in America bring to mind the gas-guzzling behemoth glorified in movies like National Lampoon’s Vacation the unsexy byproduct of American families’ summer road trips nightmares to teenagers and the rite-of-passage to middle-aged parenthood. And when it finally petered out, the station wagon left an indelible imprint on the future of automotive design. For more than 40 years, we trusted it to get us where we needed to go, to haul what needed to be hauled. SUVS and even crossovers might not enjoy the popularity they do today.Īt one point in America’s automotive history, the station wagon defined the typical modern, middle-class family. Now that I have a family of my own, I kind of miss it. It had more than 200,000 miles on it by the time we were done with it and it was traded in for a Daewoo. The Caprice Classic held on until I moved out. I waited impatiently for it to die so we could buy a smaller, slightly cooler car. I remember gathering as a family, all six of our heads peering at the dashboard as we watched the car surpass 100,000 miles on the odometer, celebrating in its resilience but not me. My friends made fun of the heavy, black smoke it emitted every time someone started the engine. It fit nine passengers comfortably and over the course of its 17-year lifetime, it made no less than 12 road trips from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Florida carrying our entire family’s luggage on its roof. Growing up, my family owned a burgundy 1984 Chevrolet Caprice Classic station wagon, complete with faux-wood paneling and a rooftop luggage rack. ![]()
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