I can't imagine people who grew up with minivans having the same affection for those boxes as people of my generation have for station wagons.
To be honest, it is a love that's hard to understand. While I look at most sedans as being nothing more than appliances, when the roof of a sedan is extended out past the C pillar making said appliance even more practical, I am its fool. However, I have little interest in SUV's, full size, mid size, cross over or whatever. I can't even figure myself out sometimes.
The allure of these things is cosmic if not magical. Speaking of magic, let's start with the magic tailgate; quite possibly the best part of these absolutely huge vehicles; the Kingswood having soul mates across the hall at Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Buick, by the way. Cadillac did too, technically, but it was a commercial chassis "wagon" and it was sold exclusively to the service industry.
Hinged on the left to open outwards from the right, the magic tailgate's glass also moved north into the roof while the tail gate itself could slide south into a slot in front of the rear bumper. And with power assist to boot. All at the twist of a key right above the right rear tail light. Right turn on the key opened just the window, a left turn engaged an electric motor that literally pulled the window up. Another motor moved the tailgate down. Beautiful. Ford pioneered the magic tailgate but as was with so many of Ford's innovations, GM perfected it; Ford tailgates never stowed below deck. Best for extra utility, there was nothing quite like a Kingswood driven with the tailgate down below and all the windows open at freeway speed. Great way to clean the car out too.
What seemed to be the coolest place to be in these cars quickly grew old on long road trips but what kid didn't love to be back here while Mom and Dad took a short traipse into town? Our parents all but in the next county or state when you were back here. No DVD system for these kids; all entertainment done on your own. The two seats back pushed seating capacity on these cars to an amazing 8 passengers. Problem was the seat had next to no lateral or back support and rode just in front of the rear axle. Bumpy, to the say the least. Fasten your seat belt, grasshoppers. If you didn't, let's just hope dad had the magic up completely.
Hard to say where the business ended and the pleasure begins on these cars but in front of the B pillar, this car was all standard issue, 1971 vintage full size Chevrolet. All that was good with it, bad and indifferent.
Today, the only "wagons" on the market are made by high end manufacturers like Mercedes, BMW and Audi. Cadillac had been building a CTS wagon but they have yet to announce that they are offering a wagon version of their latest CTS. What happened to station wagons? Two gas crunches in the 1970's certainly didn't do any favors for sales of these 5000 pound, V-8 gas guzzlers but it was the mini van in the '80's and the SUV's in the '90's (that market still going strong today) that ultimately did in these dinosaurs. And that's too bad.
My folks had a cottonwood green Kingswood wagon that I loved. I cried like a baby when they traded it in. I still miss it today.
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