(EXPANDED FROM 11/9/2022)
A few years ago Dean’s Garage reprinted a prescient essay Harry Bradley (2022) wrote way back in 1974 about the future of the American station wagon.
His article made a number of important points, such as the value of wagons once again sporting the taller, boxier greenhouses of the early 1950s. Bradley also included a sketch of a design that looks a whole lot like a modern minivan.
Bradley (2022) quite rightly criticized the trajectory of American wagon design, which in the 1960s and 1970s emphasized stylishness over practicality. He argued that “today’s wagons are nearly useless because today’s sedans are very low with severe tumblehome, extreme body pull under at the rocker panels, deep foot wells, pronounced wheel wells, and high driveshaft tunnels.” That was the case with both large and small American wagons.
Also see ‘1956 Ford Country Sedan wagon: The once and future Explorer’
The 1960 Ford was pointed to as the beginning of the end of the practical wagon. Indeed, Bradley (2022) said that Ford was “largely responsible” for wagons that emphasized “useless bulk, flamboyance, gimmicks and texture” (Bradley, 2022). While it’s true that Ford championed fake woodgrain trim, I would argue that General Motors tended to be the “style leader.”
For example, which of the following wagons looks more utilitarian to you — the 1971 Ford or Pontiac?
Wagon alternatives were too crude to be substitutes
Meanwhile, the only alternatives to sedan-based wagons were those built on truck underpinnings. Bradley (2022) focused on vans, which suffered from “difficult entry-exit configuration, commercial styling, and over-generous, ponderous mass.” However, he might have also included early sport-utility vehicles such as the Chevrolet Suburban, which had similar characteristics.
I would add that both postwar vans and SUVs were noisier, had a less comfortable ride and lacked other creature comforts of sedan-based wagons. They also tended to have poorer gas mileage due to their lack of attention to aerodynamics.
Did Bradley’s call for a GM wagon division make sense?
I read this article when it was first published in the October, 1974 edition of Car Design magazine. At the time I thought Bradley’s most questionable idea was that General Motors should create a new division that focused on designing wagons. That struck me as overkill given that GM already had five passenger-car divisions in the United States.
In retrospect, I think that Bradley (2022) was on to something — albeit with a twist. He suggested that this new division would design wagons for other GM brands “by applying specific trim, grill, tail lights, wheel covers and other detailing.” The problem with that approach was that it would have led to badge engineering, which would have undercut the viability of GM’s brands.
Also see ‘Bigger didn’t prove to be better for General Motors in late-70s and 80s’
As a case in point, GM initially offered its “U-body” minivans in Chevrolet, Pontiac and Oldsmobile guise (Wikipedia, 2022a). Wouldn’t it have been both less costly and more effective branding to have fielded just one line that was sold across multiple dealer networks?
The same might have often been said of other practical vehicle types, such as minivans and car-based SUVs. As the popularity of these vehicles grew, this new division could have eclipsed existing ones — and given GM the opportunity to more easily prune its passenger-car brands.
Divorcing wagons from sedans was prescient
A key part of Bradley’s design recommendations was that products from a wagon division would not share sheetmetal with other GM passenger cars. For example, a large wagon would have a smaller footprint than a typical 1970s full-sized wagon but would still be much roomier due to a taller, boxier shape with a short hood and front-wheel drive.
Interestingly, Bradley proposed the use of small, tandem rear wheels to keep the cargo floor low and flat. I would imagine that this approach would have been used by now if it didn’t have cost or technical limitations.
Also see ‘Compact cars became the neglected stepchildren of U.S. automakers’
Of course, other designers were also exploring new packaging concepts during that time period. For example, in the late-60s Ford designers began to develop a cross between a wagon and a van dubbed the Mini/max. Market research in the mid-70s showed that such a vehicle could sell more than 800,000 units in its first year. Even so, the proposal was ultimately shot down, partly because of the high cost of creating a front-wheel-drive platform (Halberstam, 1986).
At least in the 1970s, I don’t think that front-wheel drive was essential for a more practical wagon. Detroit had been moving in the right direction with its relatively tall and boxy compact wagons of the 1960s.
Unfortunately, Detroit abandoned compact wagons by the end of the decade, when American Motors killed the Rambler. In 1971 the automaker added back a sort-of wagon called the Hornet Sportabout, but its cargo capacity was limited by an unusually sloping D-pillar and the lack of a full liftgate. A real wagon wasn’t once-again sold by a U.S. automaker until 1976, when Chrysler came out with the Plymouth Volare and Dodge Aspen.
AMC was best suited to making a breakthrough
Bradley’s wagon ideas revolved around GM, but American Motors was arguably the more plausible innovator. The automaker may have been too small to come out with front-wheel drive in the 1970s, but it could have offered a line of unusually space-efficient, tall compact wagons. Over time variants could have been added, such as models offering four-wheel drive and a longer wheelbase with third-row seating. This would have anticipated the car-based SUV.
Alas, during the 1970s American Motors was too fixated on producing stylish coupes in the form of the Javelin, Matador coupe and Pacer. It wasn’t until 1984 when the automaker would come out with a new-generation Cherokee and Wagoneer that maintained their boxy practicality and off-road capabilities despite being downsized and given more car-like creature comforts. These SUVs proved to be enormously successful.
Meanwhile, the Chrysler Corporation became the first American automaker to come out with a FWD minivan in 1984 — which also proved to be hugely popular.
The basic pattern was that the public embraced more versatile vehicle packaging whenever it was offered by automakers. By 1999 sales of sport-utility vehicles and trucks outsold passenger cars for the first time (Wikipedia, 2024b).
Harry Bradley was right that 1970s U.S. car design had shifted too far away from practical considerations. He was also right that the automakers who took the lead in pioneering new approaches to vehicle packaging would be the big winners.
NOTES:
This essay was first posted on Nov. 9, 2022 and expanded on Sept. 10, 2024.
Share your reactions to this post with a comment below or a note to the editor.
RE:SOURCES
- Automobile Catalog; 2022. “Search automobile-catalog.” Accessed Nov. 9.
- Bradley, Harry; 2022. “The American Station Wagon.” Dean’s Garage. Posted Nov. 4.
- Halberstam, David; 1986. The Reckoning. William Morrow & Co., New York, NY.
- Wikipedia; 2022a. “General Motors U platform.” Page last modified Nov. 4.
- ——; 2024b. “SUV.” Page last modified Aug. 26.
ADVERTISING & BROCHURES
- oldcaradvertising.com: Jeep Wagoneer (1984)
- oldcarbrochures.org: Chevrolet (1953, 1973); Chevrolet Lumina (1992); Dodge Caravan (1984); Ford (1971); Oldsmobile Silhouette (1993); Plymouth Volare (1976); Pontiac Grand Safari (1971, 1973); Pontiac Tempest (1963); Pontiac Trans Sport (1993)
I see you have a copy of David Halberstam’s book on “The Reckoning”. Most people today don’t know that David and his brother Michael were avid car enthusiasts, and Michael owned a 1950 Studebaker that I restored for him. I had the pleasure of knowing the Halberstam family. I had just finished work on the Studebaker when I heard the news of his murder, and I drove it to their home at the request of his wife Elliot. On arrival I placed a black wreath around the bullet-nose of the car. Sadly, David was also killed in a car accident in southern California around 5 years ago.
David is one of my all-time-favorite writers. A dogged researcher and masterful storyteller. I have read that he was also quite disciplined, which may help explain his productivity as an independent writer.
Other than an old, flat-floor body on a 1953 Land Cruiser frame, the 1963-1964 Studebaker wagons offered great deal of wagon flexibity. Further, A.M.C.’s wagons were relatively space-efficient, especially after the 1963 Classic / Ambassador redo which continued into the late 1970s. I lived next door to a family of five whose father always bought a new, fully-tricked-out Rambler Ambassador V-8 wagon every year from 1957 onward. As a sales representative for the Indiana Zenith wholesaler / distributor, he needed the roominess and the economy. The Rambler compared favorably with my father’s 1960 Chevrolet Nomad with a 283-V8 and the later 1967 Bel-Air with a 327-V8, both nine-passenger models. Because of the D-pillar of the 1967, the 1960 had more useable space. Another neighbor bought the first-year Olds Vista-Cruiser, but it was not quite as roomy as either the Ramblers or full-size Chevy wagons. Interestingly, one of my newspaper route customers owned a 1964 Kaiser-Jeep V-8 Wagoneer. It had the most useable volume, although it sat a bit higher with the Jeep four-wheel-drive, but compared to todays average truck-based S.U.V.s, the Jeep was easy to enter and depart.
Great to read something new and interesting about the history of American station wagons.
To think then Chrysler continued to offer a A-body wagon in Australia and South Africa like this VE Valiant wagon.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/50415738@N04/6108810545
I was in Girl Scouts starting in the early 1970s. I remember carpooling to events, being in the backs of vehicles such as Jeep Wagoneers and International Harvester Travelalls… like we would sit in the cargo area in the back, no seats, no seat belts.
Chrysler after 1955 had two wheelbases for station wagons through 1961 for full-size cars: Plymouth and Dodge were on 122-inch wheelbase. In 1957 through 1959 De Soto Firesweeps were on the 122-inch wheelbase, while the Fireflite and all Chryslers were on the 126-inch wheelbase. In 1960 and 1961, all De Sotos were on the shorter wagon wheelbase. All Chrysler wagons between 1963-1964 were on the 122-inch wheelbase. The full-size wagons shrank a wheelbase inch between 1965 and 1968, then grew an inch in 1969 through 1973. Then the final cycle of full-size MoPar wagons settled on a 124-inch wheelbase for 1974 through 1978. Except for the intermediates, Chrysler could have tried to standardize their wagons, but the dealers probably would have protested loudly. Ford had it easier with just Ford and Mercury. G.M. could not do a single station wagon division because of its dealers, either, although the Sport Wagon and Vista Cruiser were on a 120-inch wheelbase but with individual sheet metal brand styling cues.