I meant to get this post up this morning, but between putting down a coat of floor finish and having company over for lunch, it didn’t happen. So it’s a bit late, but I want to thank all the contributors that pitched in to make Wagon Week chock-full of wagon-tastic content, and all of your comments and added pictures .
So if you’re still game, tell us what you’d like to see in the driveway tomorrow morning.
It’s the kind of question that I could answer dozens of ways depending on the lunar cycle, weather and time of day, but I have always had a major soft spot for the 1955 Nomad, in all-white please. But then I’d sure like to have our Peugeot 404 wagon back too. And then there’s a fuselage Town and Country. And….ah…. Your turn.
1965 Sunbeam Rapier Convertible, in a strong 2-tone finish
As that’s not a wagon, how about a 1980 Mercedes 280TE instead?
Plenty wagons I’d like to have,63 Galaxie woody(I saw one from the USAF base and my parents told me we’d be in one on holiday.Not strictly true as we always rented a non woody).55 Mercury woody,55 Nomad or Safari,Falcon or Fairlane woody or the Mercury versions from 55- 70,Olds Vista cruiser or Buick Sport Wagon.Chrysler 300 wagon
Ford Mk2 Zephyr/Zodiac wagon,Mk1 Cortina woody(long time since I saw one despite going to shows a lot),Morris Minor Traveller and the Daddy of new wagons a Vauxhall VXR8 estate
Let’s keep it a bit earthly today.
A Peugeot 508 GT with a 180 hp 2.0 liter HDi (diesel) engine and a 6 speed automatic.
My wagon comes either from Germany or from France, for sure (since the Alfa Romeo 159 is no longer with us). I’m not interested in the rest, when it comes to today’s wagons.
I keep coming back to the 60 Town & Country.
Natürlich dieses brasilianische DKW “vemaguete” baujahr 1957.
Easy. A 1979 Chevrolet Monza Kammback, V-6, 5-speed, suspension handling option with the widest available factory tyres, upgraded interior, chrome roof rack. In dark blue.
Yes, an exact duplicate of the POS that weaned me off Chevrolets for the next twenty years. A constant litany of troubles, but when it ran, it hauled! And despite the problems, I came very closely to buying it back from the Dodge dealer I traded it in to, two years later. (That is not a misprint, he had the car on the lot for two years until he finally got rid of it.) When it ran, it was that good.
My handpicked answer to the final version Volvo P1800 and various low production English sports shooting breaks like the Reliant Scimitar. Only this time, I get the full instrumentation package that GM cancelled on me while it was in the build line.
Second choice: Corvair Lakewood. Because I love Corvairs.
Third choice: Any GM clamshell. So I can sell it to someone who does demolition derbies.
For a daily driver, Golf by default. Gas, manual, panoramic sunroof.
As a collector car a clamshell calls, or maybe a Morris Minor or Mini Traveller, or a Datsun 510 or a Ford woody…
What a great week! Thanks for running it. My greatest discovery is that Di Noc is still manufactured in many colors and patterns. No telling what we will see when someone creative gets their hands on a roll.
my old 1996 Ford Falcon EFII. 6 seater with column auto, “Olympic Classic” no less. It was 10 years old in this shot.
Looking good ! The houses included.
I spy a Holden One Tonner with a Statesman front.
spotters badge awarded!
Hi, hope you can help me with the details about your wagon. I have its sister. Auto 4.0 computer olympic special. what is a 6 seater like inside? is there a bench seat in front? and an auto? on column? sounds good. i am selling mine. did the gaskets on motor and coolant mixed with the oil and water. big job.love to see the photos inside. i am in qld outback. Dalby.4405.
I think station wagon design peaked with the ’55 Nomad. That’s my vote.
I really enjoyed wagon week learning a lot about this style of car and it’s variations around the world.
There are so many makes of station wagons I would want in my driveway. But in the end and partly because of the 85 grand Marquis I’ve been enjoying since last summer, I would want a Colony Park wagon. No particular year, from 79 on up. Like the 86 model whose image I’ve pasted inn from Google.
I think I’ll take a Euro Mazda6 wagon. Although, if we’re fantasizing, how about a Ford Flex that’s closer in size to an Escape? I wonder if someone out there has Photo-chopped such a beast.
I’d love a V8 VE-II or VF Calais V. The V6 would also do the trick.
Or a Saab 9-5 Aero, or a 9-3X TTiD. Or a Skôda Superb or some of the Subaru Liberty (Legacy for you) with a turbo pancake 4. Or an Insignia or an current Astra
Somebody must really hate me. Instead of finding a Colony Park or Town and Country, there was a hideous puke green Family Truckster there !
The one I already own: my nearly worn out Toyota Matrix. Some would call it a hatchback. I would disagree with them. My Ford Focus is a hatchback, even though it’s about the same size and form factor. I’m finding it hard to articulate why I consider the Matrix to be a wagon and the Focus to be a hatch. I think the key difference is the Matrix’s flat load floor, even when you fold down the rear seats.
I love wagons. I’d drive nothing but if I could.
Here’s a Toyota example where the difference is very obvious.
Toyota Auris 5-door hatchback:
Toyota Auris 5-door wagon:
From a daily driver perspective I would have to take the Toyota Venza.
Ive actually caught the itch for a Magnum. Clean low mileage specimens arent getting easier to find, and i can afford to but one outright AND keep the RumbleBee. Make mine any 2wd Hemi in blue, red, or black with sunroof but no roof rack or touchscreen. Ill take care of installing some deep dish coke bottle mags and a Cherry Bomb exhaust.
I would love to have a 1954 Nash Rambler Cross Country Wagon in white please with the woody trim. Also would like a 56 Ford Ranch Wagon like the one I learned to drive in. But for practicality, give me the 1973 Matador Wagon I used to have. I will pass on the 2007 Volvo V-70 I got rid of last August because of its weird electrical glitches and poor gas mileage. It was a comfortable driver and practical hauler though.
There’s the ghost of a woody in my driveway right now.
In 1969 I bought a 1952 Chevrolet 4-door station wagon from a garage owner for his $100 mechanic’s lien on a replaced rod. It had a beautiful wood paneled interior, a 216 straight-six, and standard 3-speed column shift. The photo is of a similar one parked in an interesting neighborhood, a still from the 1956 movie, The Killing.
The single central tail light was on a hinged stalk that kept the lens vertical if the car needed to be driven with the tailgate down. The bottom piano hinge of the tailgate was nearly rusted through but the light worked so I didn’t worry about it. After breaking the crankshaft, replacing the motor with a 235 from a field of Chevrolet parts cars, and then breaking a half shaft, I sold it to a junk yard for 5 or 10 bucks. We used a rope and while I steered, my friend towed me there with his Chevy sedan. My rear wheel fell out just as we went through the gate and we had to bumper-jack the car up and stuff the wheel back in. It had a great radio. In fact, the radio was on the last night I drove it. Just as a newscaster said, “Branch bank in the Bronx bombed,” the engine revved and that was the end.
The street number of my girlfriend was carved into a window post.
Obviously, Paul, you saved the best for last; Chevy Nomad. I’ll take any year, but 1957, of course, would be my favorite.
If I won the lottery and could really go all-out . . . it would be fun to mod a ’69-73 T&C with a doghouse and frame off of an Imperial LeBaron of the same years. I always liked the look of these cars with the hidden headlights and huge loop bumpers. It would take some extensive work with the 4″ extended front end, but man would it be sleek!
Should that not pan out, I wouldn’t mind a Cadillac DeVille conversion like the one pictured below, except in Apollo Yellow or Persian Lime . . .might as well be in tacky 1970’s colors with really thick wall to wall shag inside 😀
Volvo 240 series wagon with a 5 speed and 4 cylinder, normally aspirated. Not fast but rugged.
It would have to be an Opel Rekord C Caravan, 2 door version in dark green. My brother had one and he handed me the keys to go on on an “urgency” trip to Paris, France.
Here is one in white, as shown in the Pedia of Wiki:
Excellent choice !
The little red car across the street is a first gen (introduced in 1996) Ford Ka. My mother had one, all black. Old-school 1.3 liter engine (dating back to the fifties), handling like a go-kart !
Well I’m too late for the magic. But if I could get a late pass and summon one for tonight…hmm. I’ll limit myself to a few choices. Classic era? ’61 New Yorker Town & Country hardtop. “Recent Classic” era? Volvo 850R Wagon. Modern/new? Audi RS6 Avant.
Any one of the above will do!
The Diesel Ford Focus station wagon with a manual transmission and engine stop-start feature that I rented from Sixt at the Frankfurt Airport last September :-).
Appropriate plate for a kid-hauler 🙂
I’ve been waiting to see the cockroach of the wagons; no pictures however,
so I’ll show you mine, here it is used to haule a whole Ikea kitchen.
And driving my wife who chose the color (of the kitchen, not the car).
We’ve been using this car for over 10 years, itself beeing 30 years old.
Did about 120k miles in those years and still having fun with it.
You guessed it I suppose: a 300 turbodiesel.
Really, I’d like just about any full-size Ford wagon, late 50s until ’72 or so. Country Squire, probably Wimbledon White, black, or red.
Then again, I’ve got a special fondness for the low-spec models. Ford’s 1960 cars weren’t the longest ever, but likely the widest, and this one’s a two door with only the single bench seat:
Whoops–brochure says this “Courier” is even lower-spec than I thought. Standard equipment is just the driver’s half-bench, with armrest and visor on the left side only. Still, payload capacity is a half-ton—lots of potential there.
I love the 1960 shape. It’s a bit of an orphan, but the best looking until from 56 to 65 . The Quicksilver that inspired it is even better looking.
Made my choice below already but if I could have an extra a 60 would be nice…
Well, considering I bought it over six months ago and promptly delivered it to my mechanic, I’d really like to see my Ford Sierra wagon magically (re)appear in my driveway tonight… Although, after 6 months worth of work, the new sills are fabricated and installed, the floor and chassis patched, the engine’s fitted with all new seals etc and my mechanic is putting it all back together this week, so the end is in sight…!
Scott, I remembered your CC column about this (19 December 2014), and just went back and re-read it. Bravo to you for giving the car a whole new life; I hope you’ll give us an update sometime soon.
Disappointed in wagon week, not really. Not a single mention. Unless I missed something.
A week is only 7 days, can’t hit everything… and there was a ’60s Nissan wagon featured.
I’m sure at least 50% of us would want a 510 wagon, I know I do. I really love its predecessor, too:
Ah yes, the real answer to which ’72 wagon I’d buy.
I’m so ready to have my ’64 Falcon Squire back….
– If it were a modern car in Austria, an Alfa Romeo 159 AWD with the 5 cyl. diesel, chipped to about 250 hp.
– If the US, fully optioned Ford Flex.
– Austria, classic vehicle: 1960 2-door Studebaker Lark, rodded with modern Euro turbodiesel of more than 300 hp and the suspension tied down etc.
– US, classic vehicle: 1952 Desoto keeping the 1st gen Hemi but with a 6 sp g/box, sorted suspension/steering/brakes etc.
Both of the above two keepong their period looks, so no silly 20″ “mags” and so on…
I have owned three Subaru wagons (we’ll get to those soon, actually) and I think I’d LOVE to have a first generation Subaru Outback in white with the gray trim along the bottom, but not with the 2.2L. No. Instead, let’s have something a bit more… exciting in it, something turbocharged, like the 276 horsepower EJ22G engine from the awesome 22B. Either that or a third generation Legacy 2.5GT wagon, white with a tacky carbon fiber hood and dark gray or black rims because I have very questionable taste. Either way, those cars should also let me shift gears myself.
It’s common for auto manufacturers and journalists to say “Americans don’t buy wagons”. I think that is short sighted and wrong.
Look at the success of the Subaru Outback and Impreza 5 door, the Kia Soul (which is a short miniature wagon) the Jetta/Golf Sportwagen and others. Those alone probably represent 500,000 cars sold per year, just in the US. Look at the dramatic increase in interest and prices of old collectable wagons. Who wouldn’t like to own an Olds Cutlass Vista Cruiser or a nice Ford LTD wagon? They drive well, are extremely practical and are really cool.
I don’t like SUV’s and CUV’s. They are too tall and ride like buckboards, and handle poorly in bad weather. I’ve driven nothing but wagons since about 1990 (currently have a 2014 Outback – best car ever) and would not consider anything but a wagon.
If I could have any station wagon?
I would take a Checker Marathon with a Continental Engine…which means it would have to be a ’61 or ’62 model year.
Plain white, lots of chrome, no roof rack