"The sales rise may in part be simply a question of definition."
Replace "may in part be" with "is" and you have it exactly. A rose by any other name ...
"zero guilt"
That's the appeal of those things in a nutshell -- the Massachusetts liberals who wouldn't be caught dead in the most fuel-efficient SUV-styled vehicles all happily bop around in Subarus with "How many Iraqis per gallon?" bumper stickers. I'm always tempted to ask them what they think their Foresters burn, self-satisfaction?
"a Mazda 6 wagon (now discontinued, unfortunately"
That sucks, too bad the market is rejecting station wagons. The Focus wagon is no more as well.
Smaller vehicles lugging around heavy 4wd transmissions that they have no use for, how innovative.
I can see where Mazda went wrong. They should have thrown 1000 pounds of sandbags in the trunk, raised the suspension and put a cowcatcher on the front. Then they'd be moving units.
Dara: To quote another blogger: "Heh. Indeed."
Posted at 2007-11-01 10:40:13 [PermaLink]The Focus and Mazda 6 aren't station wagons. They're small cars with little added utility or capacity over their sedan brethren. This [External Link]is a station wagon. They were rendered obsolete by U.S. Federal CAFE standards. The minivan was a car officially classified as a truck and served as an end-run around CAFE. The large SUV is essentially a more masculine version of the minivan. And, Dara's prejudice against them aside, AWD is a useful feature. That's why all Subarus sold in the U.S. are AWD.
Posted at 2007-11-01 14:13:25 [PermaLink]Bruce - you're being picky in your definition of a station wagon. I think it comes from your affiliation for fake wood as found on the Roadmonster.
Cheers.
The Roadmaster came out of the period when car manufacturers felt a need to stick vinyl on the outside of their cars. Station wagons got it on the sides in the form of fake wood paneling. Sedans and coupes got it on the roof -- whether or not they were convertible. [External Link]
And then there were the vinyl seats that were always such a treat when getting in the car after a day at the pool or beach...
![[External Link]](http://www.stationwagon.com/gallery/pictures/1996_Buick_Roadmaster_2.jpg){kind=link}