What is a Station Wagon Car?
Station Wagon (also called an simply wagon in US or estate in UK), it's a practical combination of sedan and truck.
Thanks to its generous amount of space, it is ideally suited for both passenger and load transport and offers a lot of convenience in everyday life.
Station Wagon Car – Description
Characteristic of the station wagon are its generous loading area inside and the vertical tailgate, which offers additional storage space. Due to its spacious design and reinforced rear axles, which tolerate a high load weight, the station wagon is particularly useful as a family car, with which larger purchases can be brought home, luggage or bulky furniture can be transported and longer journeys can be made comfortably and with plenty of legroom.
Thanks to its low loading sill and the large trunk volume, the simply wagon is up to all kinds of transport tasks. In addition, thanks to its comparatively low air resistance, it offers comfortable driving on the road.
The station wagon differs from the classic sedan primarily because of its longer roof and additional D-pillars, which are necessary to support the larger roof area. Since the body is significantly larger and has, among other things, additional side windows and a more spacious tailgate, the purchase price of an estate car is usually higher than that of a sedan.
Station Wagon Car – History
When the estate car entered the automotive market at the beginning of the 20th century, the usually still three - door wagon initially served as a commercial vehicle for many craft and delivery companies due to its well thought-out space.
The station wagon was also frequently used as a hearse. Among the most famous representatives of that time is the Buick Series 50, launched in 1934, and also the Pontiac Special Series 25.
The Rapid Image Change of the Station Wagon Car
The image of the estate car quickly changed in Europe from a narrow, purely practical car to a popular, multifunctional vehicle for the upper middle class. Presumably, this rethinking is based not least on the increasingly high-quality, more comfortable design of the spacious car, which increasingly focuses on sportiness and lifestyle.
However, this change to the prestige vehicle did not happen in the USA, here the station wagon is still considered staid and offers little competition to the favored SUV.
On the European continent, however, sales of the simply wagon are steadily increasing and are therefore currently at the highest level in automotive history. Anyone who wants to buy a station wagon has a large selection: countless offers from virtually all car brands are available to purchase on today's car market.
However, since the name cannot be protected under trademark law, the simply wagon is operated under a different label by each provider. Volkswagen, for example, calls its station wagons Variant, Mercedes calls them a T-model and BMW carries them under the name Touring.
Advantages and Disadvantages
The thing that makes the combination car so practical when you need a lot of space is often its disadvantage: it takes up a lot of space. Parking is a rare commodity in modern cities. Here, a parking aid is a clever thing, especially since thanks to the particularly "sporty" appearance of the simply wagons, the rear window usually gets smaller and smaller.
However, if you compare the length of station wagons with that of sedans, you are surprised to find that the differences are often marginal, if at all. Volvo S60 and V60 (the simply wagon variant) are exactly the same length. In the Mercedes E-Class, the station wagon is only 2.6 centimeters longer, in the Opel Astra it is just 4 centimeters difference.
No matter which vehicle class, whether Renault Clio Grandtour in the small car segment or Skoda Superb Combi in the upper class, this vehicle variant is and remains the practical companion with which you can actually do nothing wrong. And that is probably the most striking argument for it.
Conclusion
Therefore, if you want to transport both goods or other heavy items, as well as people, buying a station wagon is a good idea.