Phat Wagons
Hang on, Marcia Brady. This ain’t your daddy’s station wagon.
The oh-so-’70s vehicle of TV’s Brady family is poised to be hip again. Forget their brown, Ford Sable wagon, or the Griswold green wood-paneled “family truckster” in National Lampoon movies.
The new generation of station wagons with their sleek aerodynamic designs and sharp new colors are beyond groovy. They’re phat, as 20-somethings would put it.
With the sport utility vehicle so mainstream these days, the station wagon is becoming an increasingly popular vehicle of choice for 20- and 30-somethings, whether it’s to make an anti-SUV statement, be energy-conscious or simply look a little different.
At the recent Detroit Auto Show, auto makers ranging from Kia to Mercedes-Benz displayed 2002 wagons priced from about $10,000 to about $40,000. The success of Volkswagen’s 2000 Passat wagon--sales rose 20% in one year--has prompted the German company to introduce a Jetta wagon.
“We saw small increases over the years, but the wagon was a forgotten market for a while,” says VW spokesman Tony Fouladpour. “We sold some, but it wasn’t something people had an overriding desire for. It used to represent a choice out of necessity. That’s beginning to change with cars like the Audi A4 Avant.”
“It’s hip to have a cool wagon,” says David Adler. The 33-year-old vice president of a footwear company and his 33-year-old wife traded in their sports sedan for an Audi Allroad Quattro wagon last month. “It doesn’t look like your mom and dad’s wagon, where you sat in the back and got carsick. It’s not like having a big American wagon.”
David would get so motion sick on his family’s trips to the mountains that his parents kept an army helmet in the back just in case.
“When I got the car, the guys in my office were making fun of me,” he said, but when they saw it, “they loved it. It’s faster than some of their [sports] cars. It has practicality and better mileage than SUVs. One thing I especially like is that you don’t see them everywhere.” Guy interest in the car is another change from the “Brady Bunch” days. According to a 2000 J. D. Power and Associates study, 65% of wagons are owned by men, shattering the wagon stereotype as the stay-at-home-mom-mobile. But the study also showed the age range of wagon buyers still skews older--between 43 and 54.
Steve Mazor, principal Automotive Engineer for the Automobile Club of Southern California-- which has named a station wagon as its passenger vehicle that best satisfies its members’ desires for the past three years--said there are two groups looking at wagons today: “the younger looking for their first car where an econo-box [sedan] doesn’t suit their needs. Then there’re those who want an upscale sedan but want a sporty feel with room in it.”
Wagon design has come a long way, according to Bumsuk Lim, a transportation design instructor at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. “The ‘70s were square [in design], the late ‘80s and ‘90s were the organic stage of round-shaped cars like the Ford Taurus. Now the major trend is seen with the VW Beetle and the Audi TT: a simple geometric shape, with emphasis around wheel arches.”
The affordable wagon prices also lure younger drivers. Mazda’s Protege Sport Wagon, to be launched this spring, is aimed at the late-20s-to-early-30s age market. Ford has its eye on this same group with its Focus wagon.
In all, there are at least half a dozen new station wagons being introduced this year.
The Bradys would be thrilled.
