Lawrence Ulrich, the self described “pro-wagon” auto critic for the NY Times, spends almost a third of his Audi Q5 review today analyzing the state of the American station wagon:
There’s no longer any debate or any doubt: Americans hate station wagons. Deep down, they still love and want their S.U.V.’s, even if most of these are now marketed as crossovers, a politically soothing yet increasingly pointless distinction.
Car companies foreign and domestic have learned that the best way to stumble in this market is to design and market a station wagon, no matter how practical, sporty or affordable. (Make an exception for Subaru and its wagon fanatics.) The best way to succeed is to offer a decadent, overweight would-be S.U.V. that looks bulky and capable but is mostly used for mall reconnaissance; even a weekend trip with two parents and two children can overwhelm the cargo-carrying ability of the typical downsized, do-little luxury crossover.
He pulls out the sales figures for European wagons to prove it:
Audi sold nearly 21,000 of its big Q7 crossover in 2007, compared with barely 2,800 of its sprightly A4 Avant wagon and just 758 of the larger A6 wagon.
…the BMW X3 crossover outsold the hotter-performing, higher-mileage 3 Series wagon by better than 10 to 1.
…Even Volvo’s wagon sales were halved when it introduced its XC90 crossover.
In stating that “The Dodge Magnum and Mazda 6 wagon are two recent examples of conventional wagons that critics loved and consumers rejected,” he highlights an American phenomenon I find difficult to understand.
If a family needs safe, practical transportation with plenty of cargo room, a wagon beats a CUV anytime. European drivers prefer the lower center of gravity, conventional car handling and ride comfort of wagons. Many auto critics, much of the staff at Jalopnik, and the few mechanics I’ve met agree. Wagons can be cool.
But not to the US public, who has been marketed monster trucks for the past couple of decades. Keith Bradsher, author of the SUV eviscerating book “High and Mighty
During the mid-1980s, the automakers began making lots of SUVs, beginning with the Jeep Cherokee. What they noticed was the booming popularity of Western attire popularized by Ronald Reagan; the rebirth of American patriotism in the mid- to late-1980s, which prompted people to choose vehicles that had a more military, more outdoor flavor.
The automakers actually sent engineers to watch movies like “Top Gun” and the “Rambo” series, and tried to adopt visual cues that suggested a much more masculine, macho image in the way they designed these vehicles, instead of the more feminine curves that had been traditional on cars. They began making vehicles with grills that were supposed to look to people, subconsciously, like the teeth of a jungle cat. They began making flared fenders that were supposed to look like the bulging muscles in a savage jaw. So these were details that were designed to cater to a more assertive, more aggressive American culture.
European looking, effete wagons just don’t hold a candle to the tough, macho SUV that US drivers prefer. It’s not a matter of drivability, safety or carrying capacity; it’s all about the projection of power and invincibility that those bulging fenders seem to give their owners.
