Family Transportation

Back in the days before giant SUVs roamed the land like so many four-wheel-drive dinosaurs in search of fossil fuel to gulp, there was another breed of gas-guzzling behemoth that was King of the Highway. No little DVD-playing LCD televisions to keep the kids from gouging each other's eyes out in the back seat, no GPS units to help you find your way to that house you're renting near Tahoe City, no backup sensors or rear-view video camera, no sliding doors. Yet you could fit approximately 30 cub scouts in them for a trip up 101 to Cal Skate. What is this great extinct beast that I write of? It is none other that the American family station wagon.

The station wagon itself is not exactly extinct. Admittedly, there's a Volkswagen Passat wagon parked in out in front of this very house wherein I type these words. Yeah, it's got four doors and liftgate in the back, and the seats will fold flat. But it doesn't have that classic station wagon spirit.