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I know they prefer SUVs due to ride height and what not, but why are wagons considered ugly? Wagons offer the utility of an SUV, and trades off ride height for mpg.
There are an above average number of Dodge Magnums in my city, including the one my neighbors have, and I consider that the best looking car Dodge has besides the Challenger.
For the same reason anything else gets to be considered "ugly" - massive propaganda campaigns launched by deep-pocketed companies change people's perception of beauty so that they get to feeling like they need to upgrade their old [whatever] and get a new one... and each person they convince to ditch the wagon and buy a big SUV means many thousands of dollars of profit for their company!
Wagons never became ugly. Car companies became greedy. And now the SUV is becoming passe' in favor of the "crossover".... give it another decade or so and it'll be the station wagon coming back into vogue, when enough people have given them up so that they'll all have to buy a new one. It always happens. Remember the 1970's with tiny cars like Japanese imports, the VW bug, etc? (I don't. I was born in the 80's.) Now we're back to small cars being cool again with the Smart Fortwo, Chevy Spark, Fiat 500, etc.
I love wagons. IMO, nothing touches a SAAB 9-3 Sportcombi Aero- tuned of course. I still love driving mine. Went to look at some new wagons- BMW, Acura, Audi- just didn't like them enough to justify new car payments.
Americans do consider them ugly for the most part but most Americans have no interest in cars whatsoever as long as they drive so of course SUVs will be more popular. I for one love station wagons. They will make a comeback because now these "hipsters" will get older but there mindset probably won't change. Hipsters love station wagons. The Dodge Magnum specifically was actually a decent seller but it was the least selling of the LX bunch and when they wanted to cut plant production in order to compensate for their financial woes. It got the axe. They may bring it back but as the 300 Touring as what the Magnum was in the rest of the world.
Europeans LOVE station wagons. At least they got that right.
I'm surprised that nobody on this thread has mentioned the major reason for the scarcity of station wagons in the USA market.
Faulty regulatory policy, starting in the 1970s, coming to a head in the mid-1980s, and uncorrected to this day.
Remember (if you're an American) that many people were concerned with the pollution, safety and fuel-efficiency of cars - even back then. Safety fiascoes such as the Corvair and the Pinto led to safety regulations. Smog and daily reports of the pollution index led to emissions regulations. The oil shock of the mid-1970s and conflict in the Middle East (then the major source of oil) led to fuel-efficiency (CAFE and Gas Guzzler Tax) standards for automobiles.
Emissions standards (in the early years) resulted in lots of new parts on every new car and slow acceleration, even with big engines.
Safety standards led to mandatory seat belts, annoying "fasten belts" alarms and ugly foam rubber dashboards.
Fuel efficiency regulations meant even less acceleration, lightweight bodies that tended to slip or sway, and vehicles that were boxy with room in the inside though small on the outside (e.g., the Plymouth Reliant K).
All of these, of course, increased the price of new cars.
For several years, US automakers (and foreign brands importing to the US) got with the program and made the new cars that were said to be "designed in Washington". Pundits said the '80s would be "the decade of slow cars and fast women".
A few people got the power and weight they wanted by buying pickups, vans, or SUVs, which then usually meant a Blazer, a Suburban, or a Wagoneer. Some were just ticked off at the concept of regulation and wanted to flaunt it on principle (I friend of mine had a brother who bought a Blazer, circa 1979, explicitly because it did not have a catalytic converter).
Pickups, vans, and 4X4s (the term "SUV" had not been coined yet) were exempt (then) from most of those regulations in the USA because they were TRUCKS. The exemptions were there because a Kenworth semi-tractor obviously could not be made to get 25mpg (9.4L/100km), but smaller "trucks" were exempt as well.
Then, Chrysler found a loophole in all those car regulations big enough to drive two trucks through. Namely the Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager, often said to be the first minivans. People tended to assume that they were more fuel efficient than the station wagons merely because they were new. Truth was, even the 4-cylinder models were significantly less fuel efficient than mid-size wagons. As trucks, they did not have to meet those "magic" numbers of 16 city/26 highway to avoid the gas guzzler tax. The safety and emissions rules were also lax. They could sell the minivan for little more than the station wagon, but made a fortune leaving all of that emission, efficiency and safety gear out.
Now, there was still a market for cars, but the mandates got tougher year-by-year. Here is how the USA station wagon gets killed: To meet the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) quotas for cars, they dropped the larger sedans and station wagons from their lineups so that only compact and mid-size coupes and hatchbacks would effect the average fuel economy of cars, while families with more than two kids or with any kids taller than 4'6" (137cm) would have to buy "trucks", which did not effect the CAFE quota.
How we got from minivans to even less efficient SUVs has more to do with USA culture than regulation. In the '90s, the baby-boomer generation was reaching middle age. It was very important to have an outward appearance of being "active", and thus healthy, as one got older. Thus many aging Americans went to "outfitter" clothing stores, buying olive-drab coats with double sets of zippers, and driving SUVs, with their high ground clearance and big bumpers. The combination of the two would let a 55-year-old couple give off the image that were going on safari, hang gliding or mountaineering every weekend, even though they would only be going to the antique store and Olive Garden before watching TV all night.
The station wagon had another issue, which in this century has rubbed off on the minivan. It implied the driver was married. The coupe or SUV is no issue if one is picking someone up at the bar and taking them to a by-the-hour motel room, but a station wagon or minivan would be a dealbreaker in that situation.
I loved my first car - a 1988 Ford Escort wagon, which proved very useful, nimble, and not expensive to drive. As said before, the recent Dodge Magnum was a good seller. It was actually somewhat of an embarrassment to Chrysler in that it was popular with urban gangs, and was thus the object of more than a few violent robberies (as is its sedan cousin, the Charger, to this day).
Last edited by 313 TUxedo; 03-18-2014 at 10:39 PM..
Reason: fix typos and break up "run-on" sentences
I like the Magnum and the Forester. Actually, I'd drive a fully restores station wagon with wood on the side. A Vista Cruiser or a Country Squire. My kids wouldn't be seen in it though.
People don't consider station wagons ugly. The Ford Taurus is very popular. Toyota used to have a Camry wagon that was pretty cool-looking. Those are popular where I live; people buy them used wherever they can find them.
But Americans for some reason have bought into the idea that they need a car on a truck chassis, even though the vast majority of people don't go off-road with them. Americans' tastes and preferences seem to be easily manipulated by advertising.
one of my first cars was a station wagon, a '77 pinto wagon,,,,
oh, the memories....
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