In retrospect, however short-lived it turned out to be, one can safely assume that the arrival of the 4-door hardtop station wagon was inevitable. Both the station wagon and the hardtop were hugely successful automotive phenomena that had appeared around the same time: The first all-steel wagons debuted in the late ’40s and the hardtop in 1949. Putting the two together was just a matter of time.
Still, while an idea might be nifty and trendy, the real needs of the market may turn out to be very different. While four-door hardtops would remain in the American marketplace, the hardtop station wagon had a very brief run: from 1957 to 1964, more or less. But, while they lasted, these vehicles combined the glamorous image of the pillarless four-door hardtop with the utility of the wagon. If that speaks to you, this recap should check all your boxes.
By the mid-’50s, the American station wagon market was a busy and varied one. In 1955 alone, automakers sold more than 750,000 wagons, ranging from basic sedan deliveries for commercial users to cheap two-door family wagons and fancy four-door 9-passenger wagons with simulated wood trim. As was the norm, there were various stages of trim. In some makes, wagons were part of the existing trim series, while other manufacturers had separate series for the wagons, with their own nameplates.
Station wagons were almost always more expensive than sedans, and hardtop wagons were even pricier. Since these models showed up in the second half of the 1950s, they offered lots of Jet Age motifs, two-tone and tri-tone color options, and of course chrome galore.
1956
The beginning of the hardtop wagon trend is somewhat elusive because there is still debate about whether the first example of the type, the 1956 Rambler Custom Hardtop Cross Country station wagon, was really built or not.
Up to this time, AMC and Nash had put great effort into positioning the Rambler as an “upscale” compact. The 1956 Rambler line was all-new, with a longer 108-inch wheelbase. There was a new 4-door hardtop sedan in the Custom trim series, a 4-door Country Club wagon, and allegedly a 4-door hardtop wagon.
AMC issued promotional materials for the 4-door hardtop Cross Country, but actual production wagons are elusive. Standard Catalog of American Cars and J. Kelly Flory’s American Cars, 1946–1959 both claim that there were 402 hardtop Cross Country wagons built in 1956, but has anyone ever seen one outside of AMC press kits?
The flashy fake wood trim in the promo images, which extended all the way round to the back of the tailgate, was available on the pillared station wagon too. It doesn’t appear to have been very common, but there are a few survivors, whereas the hardtop wagon is a unicorn.
1957
Back to easy-to-corroborate history: For 1957, GM introduced 4-door hardtop wagons to their upper-middle-class divisions. (Cadillac didn’t get one, but in those days, Cadillac was usually happy to leave utilitarian body styles to aftermarket coachbuilders.) Buick had offered 4-door station wagons for years, and they had been one of the first to offer a 4-door hardtop sedan in 1955, so a four-door pillarless wagon was a natural step.
There were actually three Buick wagon models in 1957. The entry-level Series 40 Special line offered a pillared Special Estate Wagon and a pillarless Special Riviera Estate Wagon, while the Century series offered a fancier, more powerful Century Caballero Estate Wagon, available only as a hardtop.
Both had Buick’s 364-cid “Nailhead” V8, with 250 hp in the Special and 300 hp in the Century. Nearly all had Variable-Pitch Dynaflow.
At the time, some people really didn’t like the 1957 Buick styling, although it had all of the expected cues, including the brand’s distinctive portholes (now stretched out like water droplets blown by the wind) and sweepspear, which acted as a divider for the various two-tone paint options. Open wheel arches added a note of speed and performance, which was especially appropriate for the Century, which offered the division’s most powerful engine in its smallest body shell.
In later interviews, GM stylist Chuck Jordan said that Detroit was influenced not only by styling trends abroad, but also by the hot and custom scene. I think you can see that influence in the 1957 Buick, especially with aftermarket wire wheels.
Curiously, Oldsmobile had offered station wagons through 1950, but dropped out of the market just as it was starting to heat up, only to return in 1957. Like Buick, Olds now offered three 4-door wagons: The base Golden Rocket 88 series offered pillared and pillarless Fiesta wagons, while the plusher Super 88 Fiesta was offered only in hardtop form. They shared their basic body shells with the Buick Special and Century Caballero wagons. All three Fiesta wagons used the 371-cid Olds V-8 in 277 hp four-barrel or 300 hp J-2 triple-carburetor tune.
Styling was the usual 1950s Olds motifs of jet-exhaust taillights and gaping jet intakes. Unlike Buick, Oldsmobile had a more conservative rear wheel treatment. Customizers and restorers often add rear skirts.
At the back, the Oldsmobile Fiesta used two-part clamshell tailgates, just like their Buick cousins:
Here’s a well-laden Fiesta wagon back in the day:
Although Ford was a leader in the wagon field in the ’50s and ’60s, Ford Motor Company limited 4-door hardtop station wagons to Mercury, which was trying to move further upmarket for 1957. There were 4-door hardtop wagons in all three wagon series, Commuter, Voyager, and Colony Park.
Priciest and niftiest of them all, in Dearborn fashion, was the Colony Park, which had a fake woodie treatment — “distinctly fashioned and casually elegant,” in the brochure’s words.
Mercury styling was all-new for 1957, and was particularly outré even for the era. All three wagons lines were available with 6- or 9-passenger seating. Unlike Ford, Mercury offered only V8 power, with a choice of 312-cid or 368-cid engines and up to 290 hp.
Mercury sneered at the clamshell tailgates of rival wagons, instead offering a retractable rear window (manual or power) and a “loading platform” tailgate that was level with the load floor.
Back at American Motors, the Rambler line offered three Cross Country wagons: a pillared model in Super trim and pillared and hardtop wagons in the Custom series. Custom models were still offered with woodgrain trim, but it was less zany than in 1956. AMC boasted that the hardtop Cross Country was unique in the low-price field.
While the pillared wagon could be had with a six or a V8, the hardtop Cross Country wagon was only available with the new 250-cid AMC V8. It was RARE: Standard Catalog of American Cars says 1957 hardtop wagon production totaled just 182. If you find a survivor, let us know. Who needs Maserati Ghibli exclusivity, when there’s Rambler exclusivity out there?
1958
OK, there’s no way to get around it: 1958 was GM styling VP Harley Earl at his most jukeboxy extremes. “He thought the more chrome it had, the more expensive it looked,” Chuck Jordan said later. “Some of us didn’t agree with that, but Harley Earl was a tough guy. … He was a real dictator.” Jordan said Earl told the designers to add more chrome, assuring them he would take out anything he didn’t want. “Problem was, he never did!”
In any case, the 1958 cars were a GM peak in glitz, and Buick was the most bejeweled of the bunch, something that’s apparent in this 1958 Century Caballero. The grille alone has enough chrome for three ordinary cars.
Other than the styling, the 1958 Buick station wagon lineup was basically the same as, with pillared and pillarless hardtop wagons in the Special line and the pillarless Caballero in the Century series. Sales were way down, though; it was a recession year, and buyers were not in the mood for this much glitz. Production of the Special Riviera Estate Wagon was only 3,420 cars, while the Century Caballero totaled 4,456. A few did make it out into the wild, though. Here’s a vintage photo of some travelers enjoying a Buick hardtop wagon back in the day:
Oldsmobile also kept the same lineup as in ’57, although the base Golden Rocket 88 was renamed Dynamic 88. Its styling was at least as extroverted as Buick’s, with almost as much chrome. There was also a new optional “New-Matic” air suspension, which was soon dropped due to poor reliability.
As a recent post by Aaron65 reminded us, Harley Earl wanted GM cars to be entertaining to look at all the way around, but Oldsmobile staffers said division general manager Jack Wolfram also loved brightwork and ornamentation. “In 1958, the year we had all those horizontal chrome bars on it, he thought it was great,” recalled engineer Dick Steele.
Since I didn’t grow up around these, I probably find them more fascinating than others do. The one trouble I have is that little of them seems to convey the idea of motion to my eyes, a concept that ultimately is very appealing to me when it comes to cars. The designer Alex Tremulis thought the chrome bars on the rear fender of the ’58 Oldsmobile looked like a musical staff and would draw little musical notes on photos of them.
Oldsmobile didn’t do as badly during the recession as Buick, but their hardtop wagons didn’t sell any better than Buick’s did: 3,323 88 Fiesta hardtops and 5,175 Super 88 Fiesta wagons for 1958.
Mercury got a mild facelift for 1958, which seemed relatively clean and tasteful compared to some other ’58 models. The 4-door hardtop wagons returned in all three wagon series.
There were now three V8 engine choices, in 312-, 383-, and 430-cid displacements. Sales were better than Oldsmobile or Buick, but still totaled fewer than 20,000 wagons.
There was a lot of news at American Motors that year, with Rambler expanding into three distinct model lines. The 4-door Hardtop Country Club wagon was now exclusive to the Ambassador, which had a stretched front end and a 117-inch wheelbase. Styling had also gone more mainstream, though I wouldn’t call it a knockout — Rambler is as Rambler does.
Although a good percentage of Rambler sales were wagons, the expensive Ambassador Custom Hardtop Country Club was still very rare: Only 294 units were built in 1954. Against all odds, a few of these wagons still exist.
1959
With slow sales, Buick and Oldsmobile let their hardtop station wagons expire after 1958, and GM left that segment in the rear-view mirror. This left Mercury and AMC the only makes still offering 4-door hardtop wagons.
The Mercury Commuter, Voyager, and Colony Park wagons returned with the minor styling updates most Dearborn products got for 1959. As before, the most upscale version was the Colony Park, with its faux-wood trim.
One confusing point about these ’59 Mercury wagons is that all were listed as 6-passenger models, but the third-row seat was still available as a $90.70 option for those who wanted 9-passenger capacity.
AMC also brought back the Ambassador Custom Hardtop Cross Country wagon, closing this survey where we started.
You may find the posh equine location in this brochure illustration a bit hard to swallow for a Rambler, but the hardtop Cross Country was truly exclusive: Only 578 were built for 1959. (And yes, the illustration does make the Ambassador’s dowdy proportions sleeker than they were in real life, but that was common brochure practice at the time.)
If you enjoy your wagons in 4-door hardtop form, don’t despair about the dwindling choices of in 1959 — some newcomers were just around the corner for 1960. But that’s a story for a future chapter in this saga.
In the meantime, I’ll ponder my pick from this lot. I’m inclined to the 1957 Century Estate Wagon and, of all things … the 1959 Colony Park. I’m generally not much of a Mercury man, but that wood appliqué, against Tuxedo Black and red interior, does catch my interest.
Related Reading
All Those Glamorous Four-Door Hardtops, Part 1: The 1950s (by Paul N)
All Those Glamorous Four-Door Hardtops, Part 2: 1960–1964 (by Paul N)
All Those Glamorous Four-Door Hardtops, Part 3: 1965-1969 – Now Available In Sizes S, M, L & XL (by Paul N)
All Those Glamorous Four-Door Hardtops, Appendix: How Common Were Four-Door Hardtops? (by Aaron Severson)
Pillarless Under the Rising Sun: Japan’s Four-Door Hardtops (at Ate Up With Motor)
A four door pillarless hardtop, either in station wagon or sedan form is nothing short of stunning and stand out for their unique design.
GM referred to its 4 door hardtops as “Sport Sedans”. Sadly collector car shows in 2025 regularly display endless numbers of the much more common place Sport Coupe (2 door hardtops) but its rare to see a Sport Sedan (4 door pillarless hardtop) on display.
Over the past 30 to 40 years many, perhaps most 4 door pillarless hardtops have been totally under appreciated and many have been sacrificed to restore yet another 2 door hardtop. As a direct result the rare cars now are the seldom seen four door pillarless hardtops.
Long live those now rare 4 door hardtops built from the mid 1950s through to the late 1970s.
I’m a 2 dr guy. Even station wagons. But these 4 dr hardtop wagon are cool and some even beautiful.
This really helps me put these in perspective, including that GM offered them in only one single design cycle – the 57-58 B body.
But I remain a little confused – was the 57-60 Mercury one design cycle or two? I lean towards the latter. The 59-60 was every bit as heavily restyled as Buick and Olds were for 58, but got new greenhouse designs too.
My pick is that clean 58 Mercury. A flat-folding tailgate should be a requirement for entry into this segment.
I bought a ’58 Colony Park while living in Tulsa. Only drove it through the summer of 1978. Back then it was a typical cheap wheels car that no one much wanted. Can’t remember what I paid for it, but given my finances at the time, it wouldn’t have been much.
One thing I liked about the Mercury was that it was the 2nd car I owned with factory AC and it worked. That was a nice feature during eastern Oklahoma’s humid summers. The effectiveness was a bit compromised because the rear window was broken, but it kept the front seat nice and cool. I did eventually replace the rear window though. The car always sat outside. When the carpet in the back got wet, it had an awful smell.
This generation of Mercury had highly differentiated styling from the Ford. Yet the perspective looking out over the hood somehow managed to remind me of a Ford. Same with the powertrain. The 383 engine was unique to Mercury and not shared with any Ford. Yet the sound and feel struck me as being very Ford-like. No one would mistake the shift feel of the pushbutton transmission for a TorqueFlite either. The whole driving experience was very different from any GM, Chrysler or AMC. Not bad, just different.
I got rid of the car on a trip back to Wisconsin over Thanksgiving week. The body shop manager at the Ford garage where I had worked as an apprentice mechanic was amazed at the rust free body. Rust had removed them from Wisconsin roads years ago. He made me what I thought was a ridiculous generous offer. Rode the hound back to Tulsa with anfatter wallet then I had starting out on my Thanksgiving break. Never realized how rare this car probably was.
This was a fun read and quite comprehensive. I’ve always liked these hardtop wagons.
I will add that the body for both the Olds and Buick were built not by GM’s Fisher but rather by Ionia Body Company in Ionia, Michigan. Wagons were their specialty.
Rich seems to have a point about the ’56 Rambler. John Conde and Pat Foster, both AMC insiders, treat it as a real production model. But the online pics of actual cars for sale or in collections are all the pillared version.
I did a quick picture search. The only photos I could find were the one shown, a kitchy decoration seemingly made from another ad, and a single factory photo that could have been airbrushed. PS- Why no photo of Mercury’s two door Comm8uter hardtop?
Joe Ligo might be another one to reach out to. In 5 years of research on all things AMC for his documentary, he has to have encountered something, whether an actual car or contemporary photos or documents of a customer-delivered one, or alternately of a production delay until ’57.
What I’m certain didn’t happen was an air suspension or Liquimatic-style recall, which would’ve broken the company.
My fave: that last 59 black Merc woody. Absolutely gorgeous!
I agree, this combination and the updated styling are eye-catching. And I just noticed the parallel windshield wipers. I think that was still a bit unusual on a full size American vehicle in 1959?
Yes, Mercury went with parallel wipers for the 1959-60 models, but reverted back to the opposing type for 1961. I recall a TV commercial back then showing a woman in the center front seat getting an unobstructed view in the rain with the parallel wipers in action.
Ford had an off-on relationship with parallel wipers. Trucks had parallel wipers from ’53 to ’55 then reverted to clap-hands.
Seems strange. Parallel clearly works better except on the old split windshields.
Clap hands wipers made a brief comeback, my bros two C4 Citroens had them, I hadnt noticed them until it rained one day they work just fine,
Ive owned a lot of station wagons never seen a hardtop it wasnt a bodystyle sent here, that 58 Olds in blue would do.
I don’t know about others but when reading this I got about half way down and then the whole article compressed itself to a 1 inch column on the left. Has been going on for the last week. Not all articles but maybe half. One needs to refresh and immediately stop the refresh to keep it from happening again even if all the pictures can’t load. Weird…
+1. Using Safari on a Mac.
Me too. Been happening since the “redo” of the site the other week. I just reload page, and it fixes itself…. again.
Really beautiful cars. All of them. I’m certain that when I was younger, I’d never have given them the attention they deserve. Today, I look at them and am awed by the amount of care and artistry that went into their designs. Great post. And for the record, the Firefly in the lede composite pic for me. The skirts set both of them a half-step higher than the rest.
Agree, (mostly). Beautiful cars, with the exception of the “Rambler/AMC” stuff, they just look all kinds of wrong to my eye, too many whacky lines going all which ways. Probably mainly the roof. On its own.. it’s “ok”, I would still own/drive one as it is a classic/old car which is fascinating in its own right. But next to these other beauties, yikes. Opening the article, you see a NICE wagon.. then a 2nd beauty, then another, then a few pics in and BAM! (Perhaps it should have started with the Rambler as the first pic?)
YMMV
Sad then Chrysler was late to the hardtop wagon party although they toyed with that idea to introduce them earlier from what a picture of a proposed clay model showing a DeSoto hardtop wagon along with others pictures. http://www.forwardlook.net/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=67528&mid=558656
The ’57 Buick red and white wagon was a real eye catcher. Excellent article!
Great article, Rich.
I, too, was/am fascinated by these. So much so that I had a chance to buy one, so I did. I was 16, and my dreams were much larger than my mechanical abilities. It was a ’59 Colony Park, fully loaded with the 430 V8, full power, air conditioning, in white with a blue interior. From what I recall the body was in decent shape, but mechanically it was smooth worn out. I was going to ‘fix it up’. I think I paid $25 for it, and I drove it once, to get it home. After that it would not run, and I wasn’t smart enough to figure out why. The only place I had for it was in the street in front of my parents house. You can imagine the rest of the story. With some help I hauled it off to a junk yard. My first ownership experience with a worn out luxury type automobile.
It did not cure me, as I still am fascinated by them. It did wise me up to some degree.
learned to drive in 59 colony park, black woody beauty. 59 and 60 were 126 in wheelbase, longer than the 57 and 58 models on the country squire chasis. 3rd seat faced forward and the pus button shift went back to the colum.
Speaking of Chrysler, here is an ad for the 1956 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer four-door hardtop showing up for Christmas in 1955. In order to illustrate that it is a four-door hardtop, we note that the family arrived in the snow with the windows rolled down! It also features a tritone color combination. Now, if we could only see if it has a Highway Hi-Fi…
I remember all through the 1960’s old 1950’s up market GM wagons were everywhere as dirt cheap used cars .
That first Mercury looks porky in spite of the hard top .
-Nate
I HAD A 1978 TWO TONE SILVER AND SMOKE GREY CHEVY CLASSIC MALIBU STATION WAGON WITH A CARMINE INTERIOR. I BOUGHT IT NEW AND I’VE HAD AN AFFINITY WITH STATION WAGONS EVER SINCE. IT IS A SIN THAT THEY ARE NOT BUILT ANYMORE. VANS AND SUVs JUST DON’T HOLD A CANDLE TO A STATION WAGON. THANK YOU FOR THE KOOL RIDE DOWN MEMORY LAN̈E… 😎✌️
From what I have read, Mercury was the only marque to offer a TWO-door hardtop wagon ever. That was about 1957-1958 if I am correct. Proof /disproof would be welcome.
Be still my heart. That 1957 Mercury Colony Park literally checks every box on my “Ultimate All Time Favorite Dream Car” checklist. It’s the Coral paint that sets this one apart. The color is just so exuberant and joyful, yet elegant and sophisticated. It is vibrant yet mellow, saucy yet sombre. Above all it is incredibly distinctive. In the case of the Colony Park, the rich woodgrain keeps the color at the margins of the bodyside, reducing the vibrancy from “a bit much” to “just right.”