Life and Times of the Wagon

Episode: 0056

    They came to life out a need to move our families around, now they are losing ground to the CUV craze.  Wagons have played a major part in the automotive world for the greater part of the last century, but now they are dying off.  Can we save this once great segment or is it too late for these once great products.

     With the rise of the suburbs in the 1950's came a need for the perfect family hauler.  Sedans did not have all the room most boomer families required and the thought of using an all terrain vehicle was far from any suburban families mind.
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Blog: Rise and Fall of the Wagon

     This need helped shape the wagon marketplace and over a few decades of prosperity, it seemed like the good times would never end.  But when tastes changed and fuel mileage became more of an issue, the wagon started to look less attractive.  Big sedans of the 70's and 80's gave way to smaller more efficient minivans of the 90's and with it a shift in moving your family around.

​      Minivans seems to be here for good, until the CUV showed us that efficiency and off road capability could work together.  But by this time the large wagons of the past had given way to more city friendly mid-size wagons and with it the downfall of this segment.
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Rated: 2014 Mercedes-BEnz E-Class Estate

     Today the wagon market is slowly slipping away from us, with no hope for change.  AS CUV's give way to the ALV market, the wagon is slowly slipping away from us, molding itself into tall wagons and cross-trek models.

   All hope may not be gone as the market blends itself together, but the true wagons of the past may never return.  So, today we have to look back at this once great market and remember the great times we all had in them.

Everett J.
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