This is the freshest CC post ever, as I just encountered this scene a block from our house as I was heading home from my morning walk ten minutes ago. At a distance, I didn’t make the connection between the Roadmaster Estate Wagon and the two young guys setting up the ladder. But as I got closer, there was no pickup or van in sight, and I could see that the Roadmaster was full of tools and materials in the back.
Now that’s a refreshing change; the very last big American RWD wagon being used instead of a pickup or van by a contractor.
The owner told me proudly that it’s a 1996, meaning the very last year these were built, before GM decided that its Texas factory would be more profitable building SUVs.
Of course it’s powered by the 260 hp LT 350 V8.
Yes, he’s obviously into it. It’s not just an old beater.
The command center.
Back seat was down and the substantial cargo area is being fully utilized.
I’ve never been a fan of the “whale” sedans, but the wagons are another story. This is a very fitting blow-out of the big American RWD wagon. Big, wide, and handsome, in its own excessive way.
I particularly like the raised glass roof section, as a way to hearken back to the Buick and Olds Sportswagon/Vista Wagons of yore. And to make for a nice transition to the roof rack.
Time to let these guys get to work.
But let’s take it in one more time. The last big American wagon, still hard at work.
The interior and exterior length and width of the B-body wagons were very similar to the Suburbans that replaced them on the Arlington line, just lower.
Our ’65 Impala wagon could haul a lot of stuff, including trips to the lumber yard. But, not too suitable for dirty, dusty cargo. Dad replaced it with a ’69 A-108 Dodge Sportsman, which could haul sand/grave/cement for projects, as well as our dirt bikes.
I want to see the ladder on top of the roof rack.
In addition, the ladder in the photo is not a regular extension ladder but one of those heavy, folding jobs. Those things weigh a ton and I would wager with all the extra stuff in the cargo area, would easily approach (if not outright exceed) the maximum load capacity.
I wonder if it has heavier-duty rear springs fitted. In ’92 I drove a car parts delivery car, an ’82 Malibu wagon. It had super-duty springs and was once filled up with bricks and the rear barely went down.
When they were going to replace it I actually bought it from them because it was such a tough little tank. Slow, yes, but tanks don’t have to be that fast.
A little googling showed a tire placard for one with a rating of 1199lbs for passengers and cargo. So I doubt it is nearing capacity.
That looks like an aluminum “Little Giant” ladder but one of the longer ones. I have one that’s 5 feet all folded up and is easy to carry one handed (but needs two hands to load it), Costco sells them periodically. I don’t think that one which looks like it’s about 8 feet at the main hinge point would be terrible as far as weight goes.
The hardest part is when it’s all unfolded and you have to stand it up against something, it’s very easy for the top to start getting squirrely and come back over on you if you don’t lift it the right way to set it up.
Based on the boxes in back, the workers appear to be installing a solar panel array.
You could argue the wagon’s CO2 footprint opposes the green living philosophy, but the typical contractor full size pickup has an even larger footprint, so positive points to the driver.
You could argue that. I would argue that continuing to use a vehicle that already exists is greener than buying something new and sending an old one to landfill.
If you are factoring the foot print of building a new truck vs this then certainly this has a lower footprint. However if you are talking about direct impact due to fuel use a modern 1/2 ton with the economical power train option would give this run for its money.
That’s a beautiful colour and beautiful car inside and out. These all seemed to be white or gold with very occasionally this blue. It’s really a shame GM threw away the market; perhaps these weren’t enormous successes, although Chevrolet sold every Impala SS they could build, but SOMEBODY really wanted these cars and they sold without massive rebates. Compare that with the rest of GM’s ’96 sedan lineup and you have the A body and Corsica doddering into their final years, the W body, including the new 2nd generation Lumina, going pretty much directly to fleet sales, the Cavalier and Sunfire in the second year of their refresh but not up to Neon or even Escort standards; Saturn was selling well after the refresh and the C/H bodies which might have been about the only glimmers of hope in the GM lineup.
These drive much better than the “similar” Panthers. The interiors are better than the Panthers although they have lots of cheap monochrome plastic and seem worse than the box predecessors. GM could have sharpened the styling and pushed forth something like a 300 equivalent but didn’t. More’s the pity.
I hope that this car, which is in lovely shape, doesn’t suffer too much from being used as a contractor vehicle. The best contractor vehicles in my opinion are used GM/Chrysler minivans because they depreciate like rocks, are generally well taken care of by people who are good about maintaining their cars, and have lots and lots of room and accessibility with all the sliding doors and hatch and removable seats.
The evidence is that there was little specific market for traditional big BOF cars. With 100 percent of the market, Ford picked up about 10K Grand Marquis sales; Crown Vic and Town Car were flat despite being the only traditional BOF cars for police, taxi, and livery. Panther sales stayed flat, then resumed a long term slide.
The other GM shoppers shrugged and bought something else from GM.
Panthers didn’t offer a wagon by this time. And unlike Ford, GM did offer large FWD unibody sedans like the Park Avenue and Sedan deVille, so I’m not surprised Ford didn’t pick up many sales when the B bodies were discontinued.
Wow, It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a wagon used for construction work. Used to be common in the ’60’s and ’70’s.
It was one way to avoid paying nearly double the license plate fees for a truck.
In Ohio, trucks had either commercial ($100 and up, depending on the weight) or farm ($25) plates. Not too many people bought a truck for personal use back then!
By the late ’70’s the state recognized things had changed and a non-commercial plate was offered for about $10 more than a passenger car plate.
California still charges a substantial commercial weight fee on pickups and cargo vans. No personal use exemption. $154/yr (of the $288 total) on mine with an unladen weight of just over 5000lb. At least I can park in yellow loading zones.
I’m remembering that back many years ago, the local pipe organ builder/technician used a ’64 Ford Country Sedan as his work vehicle, right up till he sold the business (late ’70s, maybe?). There was a lot he could haul in that thing, including windchests and probably a good many pipes. (He still would have needed something bigger to haul consoles and full-length 16-foot pipes.)
I owned one, and enjoyed it thoroughly. The only reason I got rid of it was the rust; it just ate out the floorboard. There was a leak from the roof rack that worked its way down, and after two winters sitting outside it was done. The Roady was twenty plus years at that point, and with my first born now in my life we needed something more solid. I always loved impressing/scaring riders with the spectacular thrust of the LT1, and although my wife didn’t like it at first she loved the comfort and cruising. The car had quite the visual presence also. The car is long gone, but I kept a few things. The LT1 and trans sit nicely in my Monte Carlo and the Impala SS rims are going to keep spinning on my Astro.
LT1 in a Monte Carlo sounds like a very lovely pairing. Everyone’s doing the LS thing these days but I’d imagine and LT1 would be a much more straightforward swap and it somehow feels more “correct” to me.
Funny, I felt the same way with it feeling more “correct” also. I also like to reuse what I have in the garage, and it would have been a shame to send that motor to the wreckers.
Definitely appeals, though I’m not sure there’s any objective reason why it should.
This is a perfectly practical choice if you just need room for a few long items like ladders and pipes. There’s quite a bit of length with the 2nd and 3rd row seats folded down, more than in most pickups, and the ride is probably more comfortable than in a truck or van. Now, can anyone tell me just what those contractors are doing?
The one box is for solar power equipment.
The tall windows on some 70-80’s cars look weird to me only in retrospect, but these cars’ proportions were strange at the time (though the wagon hides it better).
I don’t remember any US wagon with leather seats, assuming that’s what those are.
The Roady had optional leather. Cloth standard.
Some of the roofers and chimney guys have started using a ladder that magically folds into a suitcase-size package. No need for a truck or a wagon; it would fit in the Takeoka Abbey!
That type of ladder is also popular with Home Inspectors around here, a couple of them that I recommend to clients use them.
I will never forget a trip 25 odd years ago with my parents to Glacier National Park, and we were following one of these on Going to the Sun road. Mom was disgusted Dad and I commented it to be a nice vehicle to travel in. “Way too big and ugly”, Mom says to that effect. We were in their Econoline E-250 conversion van. Her Father’s last Buick was a ‘72 Clamshell Estate wagon. She never much liked her Father. Alright then, Mom…
Four wagons were ingrained in my childhood. My parents had a white Country Sedan. After some sleeping driver severely dented that car, we got a new Country Squire in 1985. My uncle was also an important character in the 18 years I grew up in. He took my brother, my cousins, and I to New Mexico. We were put in a sweltering mid 70s Buick Estate Wagon. The car got gas mileage in single digits. The vinyl seats were painfully hot. And oil was leaking every 5 minutes. Back in town, he then bought a 1983 Custom Cruiser to replace a Ford Club Wagon that he drove and yelled from a megaphone. The Custom Cruiser doubled as an ambulance. There were also Pontiac Safari ambulances in my area.
I have a contractor friend who used a Ford Taurus X as his work vehicle for 5 years. He’s now replaced it with an F-150, but it seemed to do the job just fine.
I wanted to buy a Roadmaster wagon to use as our family vehicle, but of course my wife flatly refused.
Great article! What a breath of fresh air to see this car still being driven/ used period.I loved how they kept the fender skirt look for the rear quarter panels on the wagon models.The last American V-8 wagon of General Motors, but you have to give some credit to Doge for the Magnum wagon.That would have been a huge seller today with the resurgence of the popularity of wagons.Imagine if the Dodge Magnum was modernized even just a bit,I’ll bet any amount it would be a huge seller.These 1996 Buick Roadmaster wagons were as close to “Old School “ classic cars/wagons as you could get.Great article and photo catch! Robert Levins.
Most of the world got that as a Chrysler 300 wagon; I wonder if it wouldn’t have done better as a 300 in N. America too.
The wagons came with 4-note horns. Pretty cool.
I think I may have a similar type of horn on my ’91 Park Avenue. It’s a very classy and full toned/authoritative “HONK” that I’ve never experienced in any other (newer or import) car that I’ve owned. My 21 month old loves it.
Funny story since you mentioned the Arlington B-body->SUV connection. Last summer I had replaced the water pump on my new-to-me 290k mile ’06 Suburban, and decided to drive it down to my friend’s father’s retirement party (35+ years as a union tool and die guy). Anyways there was a Roadmaster in front of me, with an Impala SS treatment (wheels, lowered, Impala front clip). The guy gave the LT1 the beans and I tried to keep up with my 5.3L LS ‘burb just to see what it had in her. The guy left me for dead.
Apparently I forgot to put a hose clamp back on a secondary coolant line that went to the throttle body after the water pump job… as a few miles down the highway the truck started to overheat and went into limp mode. I gingerly limped her to a buddy’s house a few miles away to diagnose it, immediately found my culprit, spewing coolant all over. Amazingly, I had been driving with this hose not clamped for several weeks, including driving my son home from my in laws over an hour’s interstate drive away. The high RPMs and increased coolant pressure on that highway pull against the Roadmaster did it in, and thankfully not just accelerating onto the on ramp with my son in the truck.
Many years ago, as I was contemplating building a house, it was recommended to buy a station wagon rather than a pickup. Wagons were selling for much less than a pickup and could haul almost as much. Then again, that was close to 40 years ago. Full size wagons were plentiful and pickups were mostly still work vehicles and not cowboy Cadillacs.
I grew up in Wisconsin in the 1960s and early 70s. Old station wagons were commonly used as hunting and fishing vehicles. You would see them parked outside in middle class neighborhoods. I imagine they didn’t smell so good and were banished from the garage.