|
Superwagons!
Courtesy of:
Hawaii Motorbeat Monthly
By
Paul Maddox
I've always liked station wagons, especially the
hard-to-find 2-door versions. Something about all that space in back
to haul junk and the clean lines of just two doors always seemed
cool.
Back in the 70's I thought it would be
way neat to build a wagon version of a '65 Mustang. Wandering
through Google I see that I wasn't the only one with that great
idea. The concept of big horsepower, great handling and sleeper of a
body style is still a total hoot.
 |
|
The
Nissan Murano. Waaaaay to sexy for the loyal SUV fanatics... |
Real station wagons kinda faded away
in the 80's as SUVs came about and everyone wanted to look like an
off-roader. High, wide and tuff looking was the buzz.
I gotta admit, we went the SUV route,
too. My wife drives a '03 Explorer Sport daily between Kona and
Waimea on the beautiful, but narrow and curvy, Mamalahoa Highway(!).
But, at least it's a cool lookin' 2-door; and the little V-6 with
overdrive still gets over 25 mpg. It does, however, still handle
like the truck it is.
But now the auto makers are backing
down the big ol' SUVs and producing a really spiffy variation ~ the
crossover vehicle, supposedly a cross between the high ride and
security of a Sport Utility Vehicle and the sure-footedness and
style of a sport sedan.
|
2008 Dodge
Magnum SRT8
 |
Hmmmm, big cargo area, great handling
and power, long, lower silhouette... smells like a station wagon to
me. The industry likes 'crossover', but I think of this new breed as
Superwagons. Even if they all have four freekin' doors.
An early leader in the movement was
the Nissan Murano. Waaaaay to sexy for the loyal SUV fanatics and
blatantly a 'street fighter' vs backwoodsman. Darn practical idea
since maybe one in a thousand SUVs will actually touch dirt.
Dodge really kicked in the Superwagon
door with the bad and beautiful Magnum wagon. It looked customized
right from the factory. A chopped-top beast that packed Hemi power.
Now we're talkin'! Even with 4-doors.
And now, our new era of conservation
and less pretension has brought us 'Magnum Lite'... the new Toyota Venza. The Venza jumps right into the performance wagon market that
the Mazda CX-7 and CX-9 pioneered.
The zoom-zoom Mazda's are the darlings
of the motor press - who get to wring out just about everything on
wheels. So they know.
Today everyone is in the game... the
Ford Edge, Honda CR-V and many more are all in competition to build
the best Superwagon on the block. That means they'll just get even
better handling, braking, mileage, appointments and safety features.
The evolution will be fun to watch.
Now, if someone would just build a
2-door for us empty-nest hot rod baby boomers.... PM
More at:
www.hawaiimotorbeat.com
|
