Here are two wagons from the ’90s, uploaded by canadiancatgreen at the Cohort. Both belong to the best-selling models of the decade; the Camry and the Taurus. Only an Accord is missing to complete the trifecta of midsize-sales heavy weights.
However, the ’90s was an era of waning fortunes for station wagons. While the Camry sold by truckloads through the decade, 1996 was the last year its wagon version would be available in North America. A new Camry would arrive in ’97, sans wagon.
The ’97 Camry would enter the sales ring against the 3rd gen. Ford Taurus. The new for 1996 fish-face restyle was rather controversial in its day, and eventually placed it third of the pack even if selling in decent numbers. For 1999 that meant 368K total, against the Accord’s 404K and the Camry’s 445K.
The sales race between these nameplates was something of a ’90s thing, and seeing these two brings me serious flashbacks. Maybe I should look for some of my old CDs from that time; something with a ‘fish’ theme like Hootie and the Blowfish would be ideal.
Further reading:
Curbside Classic: 1992-96 Toyota Camry – The Greatest Camry Of Them All?
Curbside Analysis: 1996 Ford Taurus – Misguided Styling Creates The Biggest Fumble Of The Modern Era
Always liked the double wipers on the Toyota wagon. Not sure why. But I also liked the triple wipers on the MGB…
Yesterday I drove behind an extreme of 90s wagons–a Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon. It was even longer/lower/wider than I remembered. Even the downsized 90s versions of those big wagons had the squat stance of 60s and 70s predecessors and it sort of heaved up and down on bumps like an ocean liner. Such radically different vehicles than today.
I remember reading a period review of this generation of Camry wagon, where they listed the pros and cons. Among the cons were (and I quote) the “‘no, thanks’ styling” of the Camry wagon. Actually, “no, thanks” to the styling of either wagon. But to Rich’s point, what a flashback. Great and worthy finds as shared from canadiancatgreen.
+1 Unusual, half-baked designs. That could/should have been better executed.
I’d say the Taurus in general suffers from being overbaked if anything.
True. By half-baked, I was implying neither design was ready for public release. Neither design commercial enough, while not polarizing, to be assured styling success.
I agree on your “no thanks” to the styling of either wagon. The Camry’s oddly-shaped D-pillar and the excessive ovoid-ism of the Taurus are both turn-offs.
While missing from this compilation, the Accord wagon would be my choice any day.
Literally and to this day, on the rare occasion I see one of these Camry wagons, I say (usually to myself, but sometimes out loud), “No, thanks.” 🤣
From a stylistic perspective I preferred the previous-generation Taurus or the Accord.
But if anyone’s tempted:
https://www.autotrader.ca/a/toyota/camry/west%20vancouver/british%20columbia/19_12689619_/?showcpo=ShowCpo&ncse=no&ursrc=pl&urp=1&urm=1&pc=L7L%206B8&sprx=-1&modalXS=1
With these two, it is pretty easy to tell which one would be Hootie and which one would be the blowfish.
I had forgotten (if I ever knew) how tight the sales race was on these three wagons. I wonder how far adding the Mercury Sable twin would have moved the FoMoCo entrants up in the sales race.
Those numbers are for the full lines, not just the Wagons. I don’t think the wagon numbers exist separately but I’m pretty sure the Taurus was the best selling wagon.
Double checking on those numbers turned up this page which I found interesting. https://www.caranddriver.com/features/g24403577/best-selling-car-annually/ The thing I found most interesting is how the #1 selling vehicle so often sold right around 400k.
And yes I’m betting that at least in some years, where the bull wasn’t #1 the Taurus + Sable sold more than the Accord or Camry. Of course Ford wouldn’t dare try to use that in advertising since in many of the years where Ford proudly advertised “the best selling pickup umpteen years running” Chevy + GMC outsold Ford.
Plus by 99 Ford didn’t really have their heart in the Taurus. While the original Taurus was getting long in the tooth in 1995 it still earned the title of “best selling car” The problem however was that it dropped to the #3 best selling Ford, behind the Explorer. Come 1996 and the expensive and daring new Taurus is not the slam dunk they thought it was. So they fleet dumped, plussed them out to dealers for loaners and even churned them through as company cars to save face and retain the “best selling car” title. Alas the Explorer still outsold without really trying it. More importantly the Explorer had a much more profit in it, for Ford and the Dealer.
The Taurus never outsold the Explorer again and I doubt Ford cared very much that they didn’t have the best selling car they were more worried about having the best selling passenger vehicle. Even if it was the Explorer’s Apple to the Camry’s Orange.
It’s striking how common the 86-95 Taurus wagons were and how relatively scarce the 1996 + ones were. I’m sure the Explorer siphoned off those sales but that ovoid styling job no doubt accelerated it at Ford. I don’t know how they did it, as the sedans drooping tail was one of its ugliest features the Wagon inherently eschewed, but it still managed to look dumpy in its own way from behind.
These Camry’s were interesting because not only was there this wagon, but also a 2 door coupe. The wagon died after this generation but the Camry coupe essentially lived on as the Solara model. That really goes to show how dominating the Minivan and SUV had become in that that the equally death spiraling 90s coupe market still had promise to the companies than the once mighty sedan station wagon.
The styling certainly didn’t help but by 1995 the Explorer outsold the Taurus, so I think it is safe to say the Explorer stole many of the potential Taurus Wagon buyers.
Elsewhere, the Camry wagon lived another gen after this, till 2001. It’s not a bad-looking thing at all.
Plenty of old Camrys roaming the roads here but no Taurus now another extinct badge from Ford.
Camrys are the cockroach of cars. The best of them may out-survive us. This generation of Taurus wasn’t bad either with the Duratec engine. My buddy got almost 300K out of his ’97 sedan with no trouble and replaced it with a Kia Optima. The Sable was a lot better-looking especially in wagon form.
I in fact didn’t mind the styling of Tauruses (Tauri?) during the time of the oval. I was more hinky about the “Ford” part than I was the styling.
But as I said the last time a variant on this photo (at the salvage yard, with the Camry) was posted not long ago – https://www.curbsideclassic.com/uncategorized/cohort-picks-of-the-day-1985-pontiac-grand-prix-2-different-shades/ – I think that the Camry wins hands down as far as being a desirable car here in 2023. The styling wasn’t exactly inspirational, but I’m willing to bet that the car itself is still serving, while most of the Tauri wagons have long since been turned into refrigerators.
I found that the Taurus/Sable wagons were a nice riding wagon. Easy to work on the engine, brakes, front and rear suspension. Interior fabric was pretty bulletproof. Vulcan engine, while not as powerful as the Duratec, could have a long life with decent mpg. Granted the design took some getting used to after the previous generation.
I want to buy a 92-96 camry wagon. Cash in hand 8124161985
Isn’t the green Taurus wagon a ’96 or ’97? Beginning 1998, these got the grille opening restyled to something more conventional (larger, with a chrome trim piece within)….
Why would someone buy a wagon in 1996 when all the latest action was in the SUV market? Yes, those wagons were nice, but when it comes to why you buy a wagon, you want an SUV, not a Camry, Taurus, Sable or Accord wagon?
Ford wasn’t alone in trying to read the auto market. Their minivan failed. It seemed to have really bothered Ford that Chrysler dominated the minivan market. Yet, after the Windstar and the Freestar, it was certified that Ford failed that market. This was happening all the while Ford was getting manna from heaven in the form of the Ranger-based Explorer. Ford really wasn’t all that confident in the Explorer, as thought they saw it as their “minivan”. It took years before Ford really settled on the Explorer as their future family hauler.
Ford just wasn’t comfortable putting more bank into it what some saw as just a fluke that would eventually end. So, we see attempts to build Explorer replacements within Ford itself. There was the Edge, there was the Freestyle, the Freestar, and there was the Taurus wagon too. All going for the same market? You add in the Explorer and you have Ford covering the same market five different ways. Finally a decade later – Ford has the Explorer, and sinking money into it like they always should have.
The old wagon market died and it seemed that few makers were believing it had died. Chrysler puts out a vehicle like the Pacifica, which is neither fish nor fowl. Ford had its derivatives, and GM was stuck with their billion dollar dustbuster vans, and using it in a myriad of ways to pay that billion off. GM redesigned their minivans as “SUV-like” styling, as well as the Pontiac Aztek and the Buick Rendezvous. Their Chevy Blazers were eating away the family market intended for those minivans, and within a few years, even Buick had its own version of the Blazer, called the Ranier.
So, if the future could have been seen – none of these wagons would have been created. They were just obsolete in the vehicle buying marketplace. Families went to minivans and SUVs – it is just that auto manufacturers refused to accept the death of the mid-sized family wagon.
Where I live there are more 2nd and 3rd gen Camry wagons on the road than Ranger-based Explorers. Taurus wagons? Not a common or even uncommon sight.
I thought the Camry was the squarest – and silliest – ending to a round sort-of design that had ever been made, and thought it even more silly that the driver had to peer rearwards past not just those pointlessly-swoopy d-posts, but also a small forest of wipers. What an absurd design, thought I.
But the passing of years has softened me, and possibly my brain, because I now quite like these. Now, I’d catergorize them as Neatly Odd.
God knows it’s preferable to the Untreated Haemorrhoids theme of that hideous Taurus.