# Why do they call it a "station wagon"?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-it-a-station-wagon/383157
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
**Created:** [December 7, 2006, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-it-a-station-wagon/383157 "2006-12-07T00:56:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2006, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-it-a-station-wagon/383157/1 "2006-12-07T00:56:01Z")
[Why do they call it a “station wagon”?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_266b.html)
Oh :eek:
So a station wagon was a middle class version of a Limo!!!:dubious:
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### Author:  [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2006, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-it-a-station-wagon/383157/2 "2006-12-07T01:59:53Z")
[QUOTE=ouryL]
[Why do they call it a “station wagon”?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_266b.html)
Oh :eek:
So a station wagon was a middle class version of a Limo!!!:dubious:
[/QUOTE]
No, a station wagon was what you sent from the manor to the station to pick up visitors and all that bulky luggage that your limo wasn’t really prepared for transporting.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2006, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-it-a-station-wagon/383157/3 "2006-12-07T02:32:05Z")
[Cool picture of a beach wagon](http://www.ohtm.org/25fordb.html).
Beach wagon was a synonym for station wagon, though as the caption there says it was mostly a New Englandish term. The mysteries written by Phoebe Atwood Taylor and set on Cape Cod in the 30s and 40s are full of references to beach wagons. A far cry from a limo, the wagon was a utilitarian vehicle meant for hauling stuff, whether luggage or implements of various kinds.
By the 1930s the vehicle had evolved into a [recognizable ancestor of today’s station wagons](http://www.usauto.pl/_starewww/galeria/1938%20Ford%20Station%20Wagon-fVr=mx=.jpg). Post war they were [lower and longer](http://www.plan59.com/images/JPGs/olds49wag02.jpg) and by the 50s they were [in a form that hasn’t changed much today](http://storm.tocmp.com/studebaker/1957/ssw/04.jpg).
[A station wagon history page](http://www.stationwagon.com/history.html).
> [@](#):
>
> OK, lets start with some definitions - what is a ‘station wagon’? Well, the very first station wagons were called ‘depot hacks’ - they worked primarily around train depots as hacks (taxicabs). The modified back ends that made them depot hacks were necessary to carry large amounts of luggage - everyone traveled by train then, remember, and you needed a car that could comfortably carry people and large amounts of luggage from the train station to home. They were also called ‘carryall’s’ and ‘suburbans’ (a name Plymouth used on their wagons until the late 1970’s). ‘Station wagon’ was just another derivative of ‘depot hack’; they were vehicles that were used as wagons (to carry passengers and cargo) from (railroad) stations.
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### Author:  [@Oswald\_Bastable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oswald_Bastable)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2006, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-it-a-station-wagon/383157/4 "2006-12-07T13:57:15Z")
Not wanting to hijack or anything, but coming from a culture in which ‘station wagon’ is a term heard all the time from imported media, but which doesn’t really mean anything over here, am I right in assuming that what Americans call a station wagon is a generic terms for what we in the UK would call an estate car?
[Link to picture of an estate car](http://www.whatcar.com/car-review-pictures.aspx?RT=285)
Thank you all.
OB
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### Author:  [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2006, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-it-a-station-wagon/383157/5 "2006-12-07T15:16:28Z")
Yes, we Murrikans would call that “estate car” a station wagon.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2006, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-it-a-station-wagon/383157/6 "2006-12-07T17:30:22Z")
[QUOTE=Oswald Bastable]
Not wanting to hijack or anything, but coming from a culture in which ‘station wagon’ is a term heard all the time from imported media, but which doesn’t really mean anything over here, am I right in assuming that what Americans call a station wagon is a generic terms for what we in the UK would call an estate car?
[/QUOTE]
Yes, and in fact the British mysteries of the 30s and 40s by Atwood Taylor’s contemporaries used that term frequently.
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2006, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-it-a-station-wagon/383157/7 "2006-12-07T23:13:28Z")
[QUOTE=Cervaise]
Yes, we Murrikans would call that “estate car” a station wagon.
[/QUOTE]
There’s also “estate wagon”, a term which is used on both sides of the pond. Though over here it’s intended\* to indicate an upscale station wagon and is rarely used outside of model names; for example, my first car was a Chevrolet Impala Estate Wagon.
\*I almost wrote “indented” here, which is certainly appropraite for that Impala I had. 🙂
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2006, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-it-a-station-wagon/383157/8 "2006-12-08T04:38:56Z")
In the US, the station wagon version of the Chevrolet Caprice was the last “full size” (huge) station wagon of the old style configuration, that is, a massive, rear-drive sedan with the cabin extended over where the trunk had been. Because of that, oddly, the Caprice wagon was the default car for parents of girls in the horsey set. I say “oddly” because the Chevy is the low end of General Motors’ lines, and the horsey set girls’ parents are rich.
Now that the Caprice wagon is gone, those folks are driving Cadillac Escalators or Lincoln Subjugators, if they’re buying US brands at all.
The station wagon is still around, but now it is disguised as an SUV. One of the ampersand car mags cleared that up, calling them SWOTTs (station wagons on tall tires.) The SWOTT rarely goes off road, but it looks like it might want to.
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### Author:  [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2006, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-it-a-station-wagon/383157/9 "2006-12-08T04:48:56Z")
[QUOTE=AskNott]
The station wagon is still around, but now it is disguised as an SUV.
[/QUOTE]
Functionally, that’s spot on. I was under the impression, though, that there were technical distinctions. These were reinforced by some article I saw a couple years ago about the “comeback” of the station wagon, which seems to have fizzled.
To be more specific: a station wagon, like a car, is designed essentially as a whole unit. An SUV, on the other hand, is basically a ladder frame with parts bolted to it. That’s why the car companies love them: they’re cheap and easy to build, yet somehow sell for _more_ than a unibody model.
Am I misremembering this distinction?
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### Author:  [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2006, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-it-a-station-wagon/383157/10 "2006-12-08T14:09:48Z")
The VW Passat has a station-wagon model. [http://www.vw.com/passatwagon/index.html](http://www.vw.com/passatwagon/index.html)
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### Author:  [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2006, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-it-a-station-wagon/383157/11 "2006-12-08T14:22:10Z")
[QUOTE=John W. Kennedy]
The VW Passat has a station-wagon model. [http://www.vw.com/passatwagon/index.html](http://www.vw.com/passatwagon/index.html)
[/QUOTE]
Volvo also sells true station wagons. [Volvo Cars: Look at the V50, V70 and XC70](http://www.volvocars.us/)
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### Author:  [@Rodd\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodd_Hill)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2006, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-it-a-station-wagon/383157/12 "2006-12-08T17:29:04Z")
What, no love for the [Shooting brake](http://www.astonmartins.com/db4_5_6_s/db5_radford.htm)?
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2006, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-it-a-station-wagon/383157/13 "2006-12-08T18:07:10Z")
[QUOTE=Rodd Hill]
What, no love for the [Shooting brake](http://www.astonmartins.com/db4_5_6_s/db5_radford.htm)?
[/QUOTE]
So _that’s_ the other term I was trying to think of but couldn’t quite get there.
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### Author:  [@Rocket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocket)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2006, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-it-a-station-wagon/383157/14 "2006-12-13T18:30:16Z")
Shooting break looks like a Subaru Outback or vice-versa.(before they got rid of the “scoop”)