I was over at the Chevy web site, building fantasy cars. (I love how you select the exterior color and the little picture changes!) (I am easily amused.)
In any case, I cannot find any model of the current Chevy lineup that includes a small station wagon. Have minivans taken over? Am I mistaken?
Yeah, not too many wagons these days and I think you’re right that they’ve been taken over by minivans and maybe also the huge SUVs like the Suburban. If you’re looking for a wagon and open to other brands I think VW still makes one, Volvo, some of the Subarus are kind of wagon-ish, maybe the Hyundai Elantra Touring. If you look on autotrader you can search on specific vehicle types, one of which is wagon. Likely similar searchs on Consumer Reports and Edmunds.
I think they call anything resembling the old station wagon a ‘five-door’ now.
Let me look at the Hyundai; I like the one I have here.
No, that is not what I am looking for. The VW and Volvo are both nice, but rather high-end. Odd, isn’t it? wagons used to be quite popular.
I think the last station wagon Chevy made was the Malibu Maxx (they were making them at least up to 2005, since that’s the year I have), and they generally avoided CALLING it a station wagon, IIRC.
Huh, I was just looking at the Edmund’s “wagon” page and there seems to be an acre of gray area between wagons and what I would consider a compact hatchback. For instance, the Elantra Touring isn’t listed, but models like the Kia Soul and Nissan Cube, are. I would look at both those options.
Wagons have gone through waves of being fashionable and not. Minivans, SUVs, crossovers and cube-like vehicles have been added to the marketplace; they serve much of the same purpose and so traditional wagons are less popular.
The traditional full-sized wagon is dead in the US, has been for some time. There are traditional shaped wagons by Subaru, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Audi, BMW, MB, and Cadillac.
Actually, the Ford Flex is the closest thing I can see. (That is the one with the corrugated sides, right?
To me it looks like a traditional SUV that’s been lowered, but Edmunds has it listed as a wagon and says it’s a crossover, which would indicate it’s on a car, not truck, frame. Growing up in the 80s and 90s I think of a station wagon as more of a low, stretched out, sedan front with a verticle tail. YMMV.
Subaru has the Outback and the WRX wagon. Honda has the Crosstour, which is technically not called a wagon, but it looks a lot like one. I’m not sure if Toyota is still making the Matrix. But yeah, a lot of makers are avoiding the word “wagon.”
Toyota still makes the Matrix, and I left out the Ford Focus wagon, and also the Kia clones of Hyundai vehicles. The Ford Flex is a crossover to my eyes, but if it meets your needs then that’s great.
The Toyota Venza is similar to the Honda Crosstour. Both look like tall station wagons, although I think they’re sold as “crossover SUVs.”
Not a Chevy, but in the same family, the Cadillac CTS is available as a wagon.
I thought Dodge Magnums were still being sold but it looks like production ended in 08’.
And it’s available with a 556 horsepower supercharged V8 and a manual transmission. Only $65k!
I guess this is drifting into IMHO territory. There are a few traditional station wagons available, as mentioned the Jetta and the Subaru Outback (the national car of Boulder, CO). Over time the station wagon seems to have morphed into crossovers, hatchbacks, and small SUVs. Just as (I feel like) the market segment occupied by mini-vans through parts of the 80s and 90s is now dominated by SUVs.
Acura TSX has a wagon variant, but that goes back to “high end.”
I currently drive a Mazda5. It’s taller than a wagon should be, but with the 3rd row folded down it has a proper wagon’s storage capacity, and is still a relatively small car.
Chevy is selling the Orlando in Canada. Not sure if that helps, and it’s not really a station wagon, but it’s the logical replacement for the HHR. It’s doubtful they’ll ever sell it in the US.
Indeed, minivans largely killed the traditional American station wagon, way back in the 1990s (and, then, SUVs and crossovers all but killed the traditional American minivan over the past decade).
As others have noted, a fair number of foreign badges offer wagons (or something close to it), but you can’t find the ol’ Family Truckster anymore.
That’s not a bad looking car, reminds me a bit of the current Subaru Outback but shortened a bit in height.