Wagon Car - Wagon Cars is an automobile with one or more rows of folding or removable seats and an area behind these seats into which suitcases, parcels, etc., can be loaded through a tailgate.
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Station wagon (Wagon Car) - A station wagon, also called an estate car and an estate, is an automotive body-style variant of a sedan/saloon with its roof extended rearward over a shared passenger/cargo volume with access at the back via a third or fifth door (the liftgate or tailgate), instead of a trunk lid. The body style transforms a standard three-box design into a two-box design — to include an A, B, and C-pillar, as well as a D-pillar. Station wagons can flexibly reconfigure their interior volume via fold-down rear seats to prioritize either passenger or cargo volume.
History of Wagon Cars - The first station wagons were a product of the age of train travel. They were originally called "depot hacks" because they worked around train depots as hacks (short for hackney carriage, an old name for taxis). They also came to be known as "carryalls" and "suburbans".
Before the 1930s, manufacturers assembled the framing of passenger compartments of passenger vehicles in hardwood. In automobiles, the framing was sheathed in steel and coated with colored lacquer for protection. Eventually, all-steel bodies were adopted because of their strength, cost, and durability.
Early station wagons evolved from trucks and were viewed as commercial vehicles (along with vans and pickup trucks), not consumer automobiles—with the framing of the early station wagons left unsheathed because of the commercial nature of the vehicles. Early station wagons were fixed roof vehicles, but lacked the glass that would normally enclose the passenger compartment, and had only bench seats. In lieu of glass, side curtains of canvas could be unrolled. More rigid curtains could be snapped in place to protect passengers from the elements outside.
In 1922 Essex introduced the first affordable enclosed automobile (sedan), which shifted the auto industry away from open vehicles to meet consumer demand for enclosed automobiles.
Woodie wagons required constant maintenance: bodies were finished in varnishes that required recoating; bolts and screws required periodic tightening as wood expanded and contracted through the seasons. In 1935, General Motors introduced a steel-bodied eight-seat Suburban wagon, based on the Chevrolet truck.
Woodies popularity was renewed, in the surfing culture, during the 1950s and 1960s.
Japanese manufacturers did not value station wagons highly until very recently. For many years, models sold as well-appointed station wagons in export markets were sold as utilitarian "van" models in the home market for many years. This explains why station wagons were not updated for consecutive generations in a model's life in Japan: for instance, while a sedan might have a model life of four years, the wagon was expected to serve eight — the 1979 Toyota Corolla (built until 1987) and the 1987 Mazda Capella (built until 1996) are examples. The Nissan Avenir is an example of a model that began its life as a utility vehicle and became a well-equipped passenger car in the 1990s. Toyota no longer offers a wagon version of the Camry, but still offers wagon versions of Corolla or Auris.
Types of Wagon Cars
Popular Japan Used Wagon Cars
