9-passenger wagons post 1980?

And yet, Chevy advertised them in the station wagon brochures...

From the 1973 Chevrolet station wagon brochure. Note the middle of the RH column.

I'm not making this stuff up. Jaunty, I think you just want to be disagreable on multiple forums (fora?) today.

 

Yeah, I'm sure that advertising stopped as soon as federal seatbelt laws kicked in. That's probably one of the last cars so advertised.

 

I think it's a stretch to call something built on a truck platform a station wagon.

If this, a Chevy Sportvan, is a station wagon, then the term has lost all meaning, and this website might as well close up shop. Advertisements stretch word meanings all the time.





Going back to the original point, someone needs to point out a car-based station wagon being advertised as holding more than 8 passengers. I see that Krash Kadillak has done that, but 1965 pre-dates the era of mandatory seat belts, and, as you point out, this was probably one of the last advertisements like this. I'd like to see the evidence that you asked for, and that is advertising for 9-passenger seating "through the '80s."

Today and every day!

 

Right, because a Suburban built on a ladder frame with C-channel sections, A-arm front suspension, and a solid rear axle with leaf springs is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from say, a 1973 Olds Custom Cruiser built on a ladder frame with A-arm front suspension and a solid rear axle with leaf springs...

So is an AMC Eagle AWD wagon from the late 1970s a station wagon or a truck? How about the original Jeep Cherokee (which happens to use exactly the same running gear as the Eagle)? What's the difference between a Subaru Outback and a Forrester? How about an Audi Allroad vs. an A4 Quattro wagon? Are unibody SUVs cars or trucks? How about a FWD Ford Escape?

Ironically, that Sportvan is actually a unibody and has more in common with a Grand Cherokee than a truck. Frankly, 99.9% of SUVs today are used as station wagons that get crappy gas mileage. The only time they go off-road is if the driver accidentally runs over the landscaping on the way out of the driveway.

 

Well let me ask you this, then. With the exception of leaf springs in the rear instead of coils, wasn't the CC based on the 98 platform? Does this mean that the Olds 98 is also a station wagon?

What is the non-wagon passenger car the Suburban is based on?

 

Where is the law that says that station wagons must be based on a non-wagon vehicle? They can't be their own platform? Are "crossovers" station wagons? (I would argue yes, by the way) What passenger car is the platform for the Subaru Crosstek based on?

By the way, the half-ton Suburbans with five lug wheels shared a lot of suspension and brake parts (as well as engine, trans, rear axle, etc) with the Caprice. The D88/Ninety Eight don't use the same frame as the Custom Cruiser, however they do share suspension, brakes, engines, transmissions, etc.

And back to my prior example, is this a station wagon?



It really has a lot in common with this:

 

I realize that there is no hard and fast definition of station wagon, but if you went out and polled the general public, at back in their heyday, a few common points would emerge, I would think.

1. Boxy body style with conventionally-opening side doors (no sliding doors or gull-wings or whatever).

2. Rear access is through fold-down or open-sideways rear tailgate (or into the floor for clamshell wagons). No open and lift upwards, as that method of opening appeared on SUVs and then minivans.

3. Ground clearance like a sedan, not elevated like an SUV or pickup truck.

4. A comparable sedan on which the wagon is based.


I also think that, with the proliferation in the last two decades of SUVs, crossovers, "CUVs", and the like, the distinction has blurred.


But go back to 1975 and ask the man on the street to point out the next station wagon that drove by, and he would pretty much get it right. He would not point at a Chevy Blazer, Chevy Suburban, full-size van, Ford Bronco, or anything like that.

It's like what Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously said about pornography. "I can't define it, but I know it when I see it."

The same is true for station wagons. I may not be able to specifically define the term, but I know one when I see it.

 

Whoever said there was a law about any of this? I'm talking about convention.

Yes.

That is not a station wagon. It is an SUV. Just ask the owner of one. He'd laugh you out of the room if you told him his Jeep was a station wagon.

Yes, that Jeep may share much with that wagon, but so what? There's a lot of things about me that I share with my dog in terms of internal workings, but that doesn't make me a dog or him a human.

 

So then THIS isn't a station wagon...

So apparently my 62 isn't a wagon either...

So THIS isn't a wagon...

And apparently then, neither is this...

Well, I'm so glad you're looking out for the less enlightened among us.

 

OK, so I correct myself on the rear-gate opening style. All of those photos you show are wagons, in my book. They may not follow the guidelines I listed in every way, especially for the more recent vehicles, but things change, and close enough.

 

It's a tough job, but someone has to do it.

 

Yep..The same is true for station wagons. I may not be able to specifically define the term, but I know one when I see it.

 

Here, we'll take a Rorschach-style test and see what we come up with.


Station Wagon:




Station wagon:




Station wagon:




Not a station wagon:





See the differences? They're sure obvious to me!

 

So you've just invalidated all four of your criteria.

Just sayin'

 

I don't think so. They may not meet every one of the four items I posted, but they meet enough of them.