Station wagon

A station wagon (US and Australian usage) or estate car (UK usage) is a normal sedan car with an extended rear cargo area. 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 (taxis). They also came to be known as 'carryalls' and 'suburbans'. The name 'station wagon' is a derivative of 'depot hack'; it was a wagon that carried people and luggage from the train station to various local destinations.

Most station wagons are modified sedan-type car bodies, having the passenger area extended to the rear window (over the normal trunk area of the vehicle). Station wagons could be described as: an automobile having four wheels, four doors and a rear door with a window. Some people call this configuration a five door car; however minivans and SUVs also have five doors, and hatchbacks have been advertised as having five doors as well. The difference is the mini vans and SUVs are classified as trucks. The station wagon is still a car, but with extra carrying capacity.

Many manufacturers of station wagons had their own systems of rear door openings:

• The Studebaker station wagon of the 1964 model year had a section of the roof open, as well as a rear tail gate which folded down. This allowed it to carry tall objects that wouldn't fit otherwise.
• Chevrolet station wagons of the early 1970s had a rear window that would slide upwards into the roof as the tailgate dropped down. This was referred to as a "clamshell" arrangement.
• In the 1980s, GM's and Ford's full-size wagon models had a window that moved up and down in the rear tailgate by an electric motor; it could be operated from the drivers seat, as well as by the key in the rear door. This rear door was made to open downwards like a regular tailgate (if the window was also down), or like a regular door, outward from the curb side (whether the window was up or down.)
• Most modern wagons use the hatchback style of rear door, where the entire door assembly swings up on hinges, and is supported by pneumatic jacks.

Station wagons enjoyed their greatest popularity and highest production levels during the 1950's and 1960's. Before that time, they were considered commercial vehicles. In the 1970's, the fuel crisis of 1973 and the instituting of strict emissions controls in the U.S. in 1972 caused the full size station wagon to lose much of it's appeal to U.S. consumers. The introduction of the minivan in 1983 was the final event which pushed station wagons out of mainstream consumption. After struggling sales, the last full-size wagons (Chevrolet Caprice & Buick Roadmaster) in U.S. production were discontinued in 1996. Since then, small wagons (such as Subaru's "Outback" line) have enjoyed an increase in popularity in the U.S., as safer, sportier and (in most cases) much less expensive alternatives to SUVs and minivans.

Station wagons are lower in profile than a minivan or SUV and thus have less air resistance when driving on the highway.

In the early days, many station wagons were aftermarket conversions and had their new bodywork built with a wooden frame, sometimes with wooden panels, sometimes steel. These vehicles are called woodies and these days are highly collectable. Vestiges of this style survived for a long while in the form of attached, non-structural [[wood grain|wood-grained] panels attached to the sides of some station wagons. Originally, these were real wood but more often they are artifical 'fake wood'.

Station wagons were the originators of fold down seats to accommodate passengers or cargo.