Attempting to explain to someone why you find something interesting, appealing, attractive - is very difficult to do. For instance, my poor wife has given up attempting to understand what her husband finds appealing about Scarlett Johansson not to mention station wagons. After all, I abhor sedans, most sport utility vehicles and most things that are purely if not largely practical in nature. I find them boring, staid, predictable. However, put a wagon canopy out back of a four sedan and you have something that is the second coming of Ms. Johansson.
My love of wagons has a wider lane than my love of two door automobiles, I might add, for only someone with said wide lane could appreciate the hideous, homely and ungainly nuances of these 1991-1996 GM B bodied Chevrolet Caprice wagons. The Buicks were much better looking because of a far prettier front end. A pillar back it was the same car. There was also a horrible Oldsmobile version although there was no sedan version. Odd. Anyway, there isn't a graceful line on these brutally big monstrosities but their girth is part of what makes them so fantastic. As is the case with many things in life, everything that makes it so wrong makes it so right. You either get this or you don't. Much like Scarlett Johansson the greatness is in the sum of its parts.
A face only a mother could love? I've never been impressed with GM's 1991 vintage "B's" and that was aside from the fact that they did not come out with a coupe version of them. Again, though, things like this ugly snout suddenly become mildly interesting because it's festooned to a wagon. Got to be honest, though, even I have a hard time with that putt. The years have not warmed me up much to the front end of the "Shamu" Caprices.
A face only a mother or fan could love? My wife thinks that Scarlett Johansson homely; her nose and forehead too large, her jaw too small. Yet somehow, it all comes together magnificently to say nothing of her prodigious acting chops. While not all of her performances have been Oscar worthy, fans argue that that probably has as much to do with those individual roles as opposed to her actual performance. We're reaching but that's our story and we're sticking to it.
Back to the car. Is there any vehicle better for a large family than a multi purpose, truly car based wagon like this? It stows, it goes - thanks to the available, healthy LT1, 35o V-8 - and is easy to handle. To a point. However, wagons, much like mini vans and somehow not SUV's, always had an image problem. The image that they were family vehicles and for whatever reason, that was ultimately, and apparently was a bad thing.
Back when I was a wee little nipper, these things were everywhere. So, what happened to the Great All-American Station Wagon? Simple market shift. The explosion of sport utility vehicles that while being "family vehicles" never lost their "cool" and multi purpose vehicles like mini vans in the 1980's and '90's crushed them. And more than just metaphorically.
In the end, what anyone sees in anything is subjective and the best we can do is respect what that others claim they see or appreciate. Like Scarlett Johansson.
And station wagons.
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