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By Garland Pollard
We know that CAFE fuel standards are the culprit in killing off bigger cars in the U.S., but its manufacturers who are responsible for killing off the word STATION WAGON in their marketing. And so, brands like Volvo and Volkswagen now own the upper middle class consumer.
We found a sort of antidote. Its the web forum called Station Wagon Forums. It’s all about station wagons, and if you like station wagons, as opposed to crappy things like CROSSOVER this or SPORT that, then do look up the site.
By the way, below is a list of the wonderful station wagons I had growing up. This is a totally self indulgent list but this is the only place I get to put it. If readers are daring we ask them to put their list of station wagons up against mine!
- Ford Country Squire, mid 1960s, I think realistically it was white with red interior but in my dreams it was wood grained
- Opel Kadett wagon, green, purchased at GM Buick dealer
- Plymouth Cricket wagon, 1971?, purchased at Wynne-Wright in Norfolk
- Plymouth Volare Wagon, 1976, purchased at Self Motors, Farnham, Virginia. It was serviced and recalled way too many times at Green Gifford, Norfolk, Virginia. It was white with red interior.
- Ford LTD Country Squire, 1971, yellow with wood grain, purchased used at Crowther Ford, Kilmarnock
- Chevrolet Chevelle Station Wagon, green, mid 1960s, a gift from Uncle Charlie, paint scheme ruined when I washed it with Comet.
1 response so far ↓
1 Jim Dillner // Jun 12, 2009 at 12:54 pm
My Dad had an Opel Kadett wagon just like the one in the photo. Had the 1.1 engine. I learned to drive stick on it. It was a fun car! I would drive friends to the lake in the car, and we had to drive over a mountain to get to the lake. The Opel had to be downshifted to first gear to get up the mountain. My friends got a great kick out of that. I later bought one like it, but couldn’t get it to run right, and ended up taking it back to the dealer. I wish we still had Dad’s Opel. It was a car that I will always remember.
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