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| Is this just a station wagon? |
Cars such as the pickup truck and sedan are always top
sellers and always fill a need for practicality and style so they have not
changed much over the years. People have always wanted the things that a pickup
truck offers, and the sedan we are all used to is likely to never change. Think
of any sports car that is on the market, that is one platform with universal
appeal that nobody dare tamper with. The best example of style evolution in the
automotive world is the station wagon.
Many would say that with the exception of a few European
models, the station wagon disappeared long ago when GM quit building the three
seat behemoths that used to sell in abundance back in the 80’s. Nearly every
manufacturer sold a wagon version of every sedan that was in their lineup. The
station wagon met the needs of those that needed a bit of extra capacity for
hauling more people and more of their stuff. In Europe they are still very fond
of the station wagon, or the “estate” as it is called in the U.K. To the Europeans
the wagon represents the only way to maximize overall utility without reducing
fuel economy.
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| 1984 Dodge Caravan. |
In the mid eighties the Chrysler Corporation invented the
minivan and the style evolution really began. The Dodge Caravan and the
Plymouth Voyager became so ubiquitous amongst the child rearing, baby boomers
that any family that was any family had one. Ford quickly followed with the
Aerostar and Chevrolet came out with the Astro. The Japanese and Europeans also
followed suit.
The station wagon became a second class citizen as these new
minivans began to proliferate. The minivan became trendy and with good reason: they
had a new style that was much more appealing than the full-size vans and they
held more people and things than the average minivan. Some of the early minivan
offerings were truck based so they could haul heavier loads than a station
wagon and could even be used for towing. The minivan was all the rage by 1990.
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| The Chevy Astro was the first attempt at a minivan from Chevrolet. It was a true minivan because it was very truck-like. |
As the years rolled on and everyone with any kids had a
minivan of some sort, the trendiness began to wear off as people started
looking for the next great styling statement. At this point the sport utility
vehicle was becoming much more driver friendly than it had typically been, and
all of the auto manufacturers began to offer models with four doors and extra
seating.
The Ford Explorer hit the market and started selling like
mad. The public figured that if it was tough enough to be used to chase
dinosaurs in Jurassic Park then they needed one for themselves. Considering
that the SUV was rugged looking, great in the snow, and offered towing
capacities that the minivans couldn’t, people began to take notice and the SUV
craze became intense by the late 90’s. This meant that the minivan was the new
nerd mobile just as the station wagon had become years earlier.
The problem was, and still is, that to most people the SUV
just isn’t very nice to drive on a daily basis. Truck frames, heavy-duty drivetrains,
and four-wheel-drive systems just don’t lend themselves to comfortable driving
and crisp handling. Auto manufacturers, ever adapting form and function to the
changing demands of the auto buying public, figured out a way to make the SUV
handle more like a minivan, but without giving it the dowdy looks of the
minivan. They came up with what we call the cross-over utility vehicle or the
CUV.
The cross over is a major compromise, and as such it loses
the qualities of the minivan and the qualities of the SUV. Since it is not good
for off-road use and not very good for towing, SUV purists have no use for them.
The CUV cannot haul as many people or their stuff as comfortably as the minivan
so for the purely practical family, the CUV is useless. In spite of these
shortcomings the CUV is a big seller and appeals to a very wide range of
people. Most people don’t have any interest in off-road adventures and most
people are not as practical as someone who insists on a minivan.
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| The Ford Flex is just a station wagon and if anyone says different then they probably own one. |
Today the next step in this automotive evolution is upon us
and after close examination it is obvious that we have gone full circle.
Because CUVs still are not that car like in their comfort and handling, they
have changed yet again. Some of them are now lower to the ground than they have
ever been, and they are being sold more and more without the option of
all-wheel-drive. They still have a high amount of interior space and they still
have things like three rows of seating. Some good examples of this next stage
of style evolution are vehicles like the Toyota Venza, Ford Flex, or the BMW
X3.
Quite often these vehicles are still referred to as CUVs but
let’s face it, they’re station wagons. They are based on sedans, they lack off
road capability, they have a rear hatch over the cargo area instead of a trunk,
and they are not particularly good for towing.
If you tell someone who owns one of these new generation
CUVs that it is a station wagon, they will quickly correct you and tell you
that the vehicle they have is much nicer or sportier than a station wagon. The
answer to this is, of course they are. We haven’t seen any “station wagons” in
20 years. If you were to take a Chevrolet Caprice wagon from the early nineties
and give it a more evolved style with modern features, you would have the CUVs
of today.
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| Honda Accord Cross-Tour. Not an SUV, not a cross-over, not a minivan. It's a station wagon. |
