Dean’s Garage has reprinted a prescient article Harry Bradley (2022) wrote in 1974 about the future of the American station wagon. Bradley made a number of important points, such as the value of wagons once again sporting the taller, boxier greenhouses of the 1950s. He also included a sketch of a design that looks a whole lot like a modern minivan.
Also see ‘1956 Ford Country Sedan wagon: The once and future Explorer’
Bradley (2022) quite rightly criticized the trajectory of American wagon design, which in the 1970s emphasized stylishness at the expense of 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.
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 as vans. I would add that both vans and SUVs tended to be noisier, have a less comfortable ride and lacked other creature comforts of sedan-based wagons.
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.
Also see ‘Bigger didn’t prove to be better for General Motors in late-70s and 80s’
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 is that it would have led to badge engineering, which would undercut the viability of GM’s brands.
As a case in point, GM initially offered its “U-Body” minivans in Chevrolet, Pontiac and Oldsmobile guise (Wikipedia, 2022). 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? Minivans could been one of the models offered by a wagon brand.
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 also proposed the use of small, tandem rear wheels to keep the cargo floor low and flat.
Also see ‘Compact cars became the neglected stepchildren of U.S. automakers’
Of course, others 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 AMC 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 full wagon wasn’t once-again sold by a US 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 AMC was arguably the more plausible innovator. The automaker may have been too small to come out with front-wheel-drive technology in the 1970s, but it could have offered a line of unusually space-efficient, tall compact wagons instead of the ill-fated 1974 Matador coupe or 1976 Pacer. Over time variants could have been added, such as models offering four-wheel drive and a longer wheelbase with third-row seating. Of course, this would have anticipated the crossover-utility vehicle.
Alas, AMC — like the rest of the US automakers — was too fixated on swoopy styling, particularly in the form of coupes. It would take roughly another decade before Detroit began to start offering more practical packaging alternatives such as minivans and sport-utility vehicles.
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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; 2022. “General Motors U platform.” Page last modified Nov. 4.
ADVERTISING & BROCHURES
- oldcarbrochures.org: Chevrolet (1973); Chevrolet Lumina (1992); 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.
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