Pre-War American Station Wagons

1941 Chrysler Town & Country - - initially touted as a more flexible car 

Station Wagons are currently a declining market in the US, and have been so since at least the 1980s.

Their peak was in the 1950s and 1960s, and as late as 1976 they constituted 972,212 in yearly sales. Currently 1.1% of vehicle sales are wagons, of of that number some 80% of that total are Subarus -- sort of questionable as wagons anyway. In this post I will feature a number of the Pre-WWII models, really classified as trucks until the later 1930s. Of course, we can go back to folks placing wood bodies on Model Ts and find examples of station wagons.  But it seems that beginning in 1929 with the Ford Model A station wagons emerge gradually on the American scene.

In the next post I will delve into some of the possible reasons for the decline, including changing family structures, priorities, and consumer preferences.

In the end we want to reason out why wagons have been displaced by SUVs and Crossovers. In order to buy a wagon today, one must survey the European brands that persist in making them, despite the small numbers.

So here are photos of some pre-WWII models, featuring wood, a mainstay of automobile production until the 1930s when all-still bodies became the norm.

1929 Ford Model A Station Wagon

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THE 1931 DODGE SIX, SHOWN HERE AS THE 1931 DH SIX STATION WAGON, WAS THE COMPANY'S FIRST SIX-CYLINDER CAR

1938 Dodge  Westchester Suburban, first wagon classified as a car than as a truck