(first posted 2/8/2018) R&T takes a look at alternatives to the typical large American station wagon. Sadly, there’s no FWD wagon to add a bit of counterpoint to the five RWD ones and the rear-engine VW 412.
Not surprisingly, the Peugeot and Volvo came in for lots of praise, despite their lack of performance. But there’s more to a big wagon than acceleration, and if one has ever experienced the utter serenity of a Peugeot wagon over rough terrain or urban potholes, the term “performance” takes on a new meaning.
It would have been interesting to add the Volare/Aspen wagon the following year as the US manufacturers began to rediscover this market that they had nearly all abandoned. If they could find one that would run, that is.
Even better: A 78 Ford Fairmont wagon with the 2.3 liter 4-cylinder and a 4-speed. They were built–I’ve seen one! (But interestingly, couldn’t get power steering on a 4-cyl wagon…)
I wonder how it would stack up against the Volvo and Peugeot.
I think, if ordered ‘correctly’ (with the uplevel buckets and door trim, I believe it was the “Interior Accent Group”) and the “Exterior Accent Group”, and the ‘handling suspension’, the Fairmont would have been a credible competitor.
And that’s before considering purchase price.
In 1978, the base 4-door was $3663. The base wagon was probably $2-300 more. Add $200 for the Accent groups, $40 for suspension upgrade, $30 for larger tires size (185/75-14, woo-hoo), $65 for power brakes, $70 for AM radio, $100 for rear defogger.
Also couldn’t have AC or Automatic on 2.3 wagons either.
Special order parts and it still wouldnt touch the Peugeot for ride comfort or handling, it might get near the inferior Volvo but that all.
Honda made a CVCC station wagon back in 1975, I wonder why that wasn’t included. They handle pretty well and the motor is fun to rev.
My dad replaced his Country Squire with one (manual trans), which exemplifies how profoundly the Oil Crises affected many otherwise patriotic, “Remember the War” car buyers. At the same time, he also bought a Civic hatchback for my mother.
Even if we could’ve known their vulnerability to rust, it wouldn’t have mattered here in SoCal anyway.
Civc wagon…too small.
Yup, these are “compact” wagons, a class up from the “small” ones mentioned as having been tested in October ’73 – too early for the Civic wagon.
Besides, this test was reprinted from a regular 1974 issue of the magazine, probably earlier in the model year given the missing Dasher and presence of the outgoing VW 412.
Honda is tiny its a size or two too small
Hornet wagon with a 360, that’s funny 🙂
I wonder what the percentage of Hornets sold with 360 was, probably single digits…
A lot of 304 V8s, I’m sure.
My scoutmaster had a white one, with a red/blue side stripe–I thought it looked really neat!
I never knew the 360 was available in a Hornet outside of the SC/360. Most of these things are the I-6, and even 304’s are rare. I can imagine this thing was a total thrill ride or better yet the basis of a few sleepers.
They should have tested a Hornet with a 258 six as that’s what most of these were ordered with. AMC was a case study for what was wrong with American auto brands at the time; with the 360 V8 the car weighed nearly 3600 lbs and was grossly overweight. Also, it came with 4-wheel drum brakes as standard, with optional discs (what???). The interior was very poorly designed with a crappy dash layout and even crappier seats.
Even though the same body shell was used, it was almost night and day between Hornet and the later Concord.
If I wasn’t hung up on domestic brands I would probably have gone for the Toyota in 1975.
My mom bought a brand new ’74 Sportabout and a lot of people seemed to like it.
I was in elementary school at the time, so I don’t remember too much about it except that it was green and had the 304 V-8. I think it cost around $3400. No A/C, but it had an AM radio, auto, PS, PB, bench vinyl seat. At least it had the full wheel covers and not the dog dishes.
I think that the Sportabout would have been my choice. But being the contrarian, I also would have liked the 412. I think I would have chosen the 258 six and TorqueFlite combo, probably the most reliable drive train one could get from AMC at the time. As long as I didn’t have to haul around a whole passel of children, the Sportabout would quite sufficient.
The 412 appeals because of the absolute cargo space the car has. It may not be the biggest behind the front seats, but the frunk would be highly useful on the occasions you need a lot of space. Too bad the boxer was over taxed in this configuration, but there was only so much it was ever going to able to do.
I’m not sure when a wagon was available from Audi with it’s Fox, it was 75 or 76, and it must have been even later before the Dasher wagon hit showrooms?
Hard to believe that super conservative Toyota once fielded a wagon, and one that competed against Volvo!!!
Hard to believe that even with it’s huge V8, the Hornet was so cheap. I bought a 76 Ford Pinto hatchback, with automatic transmission and it cost at least $1,500 MORE than that Hornet.
Toyota has had lots of wagons in the US, several generations of Corona, Corolla, Camry, and Cressida…Later Cressidas were, I’d say, more luxurious than a Volvo, and certainly more powerful.
With a perspective of 40+ years, the Volvo seems to the long term winner.
Most africans have a slightly different opinion I guess.
Are you talking about the Peugeot? Maybe, but not as easy to maintain here in the USA.
R&T’s comments about the Mazda still ring true about Mazdas today (except for the lousy gas mileage). Just replace “RX-4” with “CX-5.”
Equipped with the 360, and the best brakes/suspension on the menu the Hornet would be my pick by a longshot. It has its shortcomings and even gives up some practicality to some of the more staid wagons in this field, but its still a very useful car. I can just imagine how it felt driving all the other cars, then getting seat time in a compact wagon with enough motor for a fullsize land barge! When something looks great, lends itself to being versatile AND has great performance out of the box with plenty more waiting to be hot-rodded into it, that’s a slam dunk in my book. Paint it a period correct orange or metallic pea green, slap on some Cragars and shorty glasspacks, then give it a good going thru to wake up that 360 and this would be be a killer little car. Ive seen a few of these resto-modded into hotrods so I’m not the only one who sees massive potential here.
Check out that final drive ratio on the AMC! No wonder it was the acceleration champ. And at the same time it makes the Mazda’s specs look all the more brilliant. That much of a power difference only cost about 3 seconds to 60? Hard to believe, honestly.
My daily driver the last few years has been a 1985 Peugeot 505 diesel wagon. The materials and build quality are very good, and compare well with the w123 Mercedes I have owned. Mechanical parts are generally not that difficult to source, but may be rather expensive. Interior and exterior trim pieces are generally not available other than used. That said I like it more than the 40 or so vintage vehicles I have owned. It does nothing outstandingly well, but the whole package is excellent. Mine had approx. 350k miles (based on the records I have the odometer was MIA for about 5 years) and still feels tight. If you happen to find good one, get it, it will be cheap and you will enjoy it.
Great read- thanks for posting this. It’s interesting reading these comparison tests, using a time lens that goes backwards 40 years. From where I sit, the Volvo was the obvious choice… if you could handle that price tag. Five grand bought a lot of car in 1974. One wagon not mentioned was a Plymouth Satellite Regent. The 318 could handle this car adequately, it handled and drove much better than it’s exterior size would lead you to believe, and had very comfy seats. A friends mom had one, and I was impressed with what a nice package it was, even though I’d never be interested in buying a wood-grained wagon. I’m very sure $4K would have bought a nicely equipped one.
AMC’s Sportabout was one of the few winners they fielded in that time frame. That car found quite a following for people that wanted a reasonably sized wagon, but needed more room, power, and doors than the Pinto offered.
Then there was the Mazda, with it’s notoriously short-lived motor, and the Passat, that did quite a bit of damage to VW’s reputation for reliability. I’ll admit to a bias against the Peugeot, simply because I’ve never personally known anyone that owned one that didn’t roll their eyes and shake their heads when asked about the experience.
Once again, thanks for the trip down memory lane.
The Mopar B’s, GM A’s and Ford Torino belonged to the next size class up, particularly after 1971/3 when the Big 3’s “midsize” offerings fully abandoned their “same size as a ’55 big car” roots to become almost as big as their full-size contemporaries.
It’s a shame Chrysler didn’t repatriate the Aussie VE-VG Valiant wagon body dies when the run down there was over in 1971 and get back into the compact wagon game four years sooner. Dropping the Valiant/Dart wagons in favor of a special strippo Belvedere made a lot of business sense in 1966 but left them with a hole in the lineup after 1970.
My pick is the RX4 wagon (in top spec JDM trim with 5 speed etc) partly because our market down under never received it, and because I have have a bit of a soft spot as my brother’s first car was a 929 wagon.
That fantastic RX4 dashboard and a well tuned 13b would draw me in every time. I also liked the styling as it had a very sloping rear tailgate which wasn’t typical of most wagons.
Even with the piston engine with few emission controls it was a willing performer and handled decently. The build quality, fit and finish and reliability were also exemplary. It clearly looked more impressive that the locally assembled Corona RT11X series at the time.
The RX4 sedan and hardtops did quite good business back in the day here, so surely they could have offered the wagon.
We never got the Mk2 Corona wagon but judging from that report we didn’t miss much. We did get the Crown wagon and I’m sure that would have been a better car in wagon format anyway.
I also like the 504 as it has many good qualities (the report is incorrect as the wagons never had rear disc brakes) but it really needed more power as it was a solid and heavy vehicle.
The Corona Mark II wasn’t the second-generation model – it was a different, larger car that slotted between the Corona and the Crown but was tied in to the successful smaller model. It was replaced by the Cressida.
Yes that is correct, but the Cressida was always known as the Corona Mk2 (and later just Mk2) in the domestic market anyway.
Market differences are obvious again Mazda RX4s were rare down here they were piston engined with a rotary option available on some models wagons were on offer though not on the MK2 Corona which like the Mazda missed out on the pollution controls and actually went pretty well, Peugeots were expensive as were Volvos but both are quite durable and long lived, Ive never seen a AMC Sportabout so that may not have immigrated and VWs were rare, there are very few of any of these left alive here now and any survivors are prized.
Hi Bryce, Did NZ get any rotary wagons of any description? You guys seemed to get more, a despite being a smaller market than Oz.
Ive see a couple but whether they are originals or repowers I dont know NZ always had a wider range of makes and models than Australia which was a bit of a shock when I moved to OZ, I think we only got rotary coupes and sedans new but cant be sure.
Ahhhhh, to be able to go back in time and option out a Hornet Sportabout and Mazda RX 4 station wagon to my specifications…..
In the case of the RX4 wagon, this one definitely hits the spot. ?
http://markhockingspecialvehicles.com.au/genuine-rx4-luce-gr-ii-rotary-manual-wagon-special-build-completely-original-1-off-collectors-item/
Aw Antisuv… that is drop-dead desirable. Only bummer is that it is in such good condition I’d be reluctant to actually drive it. I wonder if it was a dealer-principal’s or Mazda oz exec’s family transport.
I bought a white new 1978 RX4 wagon from a Buick/Mazda in November of 1978. I had a 1974 rotary Mazda pickup at the time with 1 child and our 2nd due in December 78. We had initially gone to a Dodge dealer & looked a new Aspen wagon (also white). The Aspen had a slant 6 & manual transmission. The dodge dealer low balled our truck but made the mistake of telling us he’d checked with the Mazda dealer down the road to get an idea of the value of our truck. We declined the deal and went down the road to see what the Mazda dealer had. The RX4 wagon was on the showroom floor & the dealer was anxious to make a deal for it. It was fully loaded except it had a 5 speed manual. The car was a rocket ship! We loved it and only sold it when the wife wanted a Mitsubishi “Mighty Max” pick up 7 years later. By this time I had got a new 1982 Mustang GL with a 2.3 four banger & “5 speed”.
Good story. Being a 1978 model it would have had the “Mercedes” front grille. Not a fan of the facelift models (my brother’s 929 wagon was a 1976 model with the newer front end too), but then again any RX4 wagon is better than none.
If you found it to be a rocket ship, your impressions of our RX4 would have been interesting as our model had 20hp odd more as we had less pollution controls. But ee didnt even get any rotary 5 speeds until the RX5.
I remember a few rocketship rotary sedans fast but with dubious roadholding most got crashed or the engines blew.
A pale metallic green AMC wagon with black and white houndstooth seats would speak to me…better yet, a Gucci edition.
White Volvo with brown interior and those big fog lights would be cool too.
Pug or VW in any color would be nice additions to my driveway.
The two that don’t appeal to me are the Mazda and Toyota. Asian cars from that era just don’t do it for me. Maybe it’s because I think of them as rustbuckets, not sure.
I had a MK2 Corona sdedan, I sold it in 03 in original condition aside from the exhaust and zero rust, it was mint other than the fading paint, today it would be a patinaed survivor car, 03 in Tasmania it was just an old car, a work colleague bought mine, I warned him about the kick down at speed but he found it anyway a full stomp of the gas at the open road sign leaving town it would hook 1st and wheelspin if wet and it did..
None of these brands had a strong dealer network in Southeastern Ontario at the time. Like many places. The Peugeot and Mazda, almost exotic to some buyers. As many buyers were still domestic devotees. Helps explain why the Aspen/Volare were the top selling wagon in the US in 1976. An untapped compact wagon market, that Chrysler filled.
Hadn’t the Volvo 240 replaced the 140 by 1975?
Correct, just as the Dasher had already superseded the VW 412 wagon for 1975. But I think this test actually occurred in 1974 but was published in a 1975 new car guide. The 1975 Volvo 240 series retained the pushrod B20 engine from the 140’s here in the US (maybe all North America?) before being replaced by the OHC engine in ‘76.
Agreed; these are 1974 MY cars. I will change the title.
R&T actually preferred an American car over five imports? How many readers cancelled their subscription?
Sure it really was 1975 ? They present the Volvo 145 – but the 245 had been already lauched in August 1974. As far as I know, it was available in the States from day one as a MY ’75 vehicle.
These were 1974 MY cars; this was reprinted in their 1975 buyers guide. I’ll change the title.
I’m surprised how poorly the Volvo performed. On paper it should have been a rival for the Mazda RX4, but I guess Mazda’s horses were considerably larger.
I owned a RX3 wagon and it did only one thing well – leave rubber. Handled poorly
very tippy – no torque, must be driven hard. No Traction – very poor on gas – cheap interior – hot motor in cheap wagon.
We had a 145 wagon. It never struck us as dog-slow. I thought it was a 1974 too, and a California car at that. Interesting! Thanks for this!
Reading that test one can see Japanese cars making strong inroads for the American families. Much better than their European competitors.
But I would probably choose the AMC.
What were Peugeot sales at this point? I feel like its amazing how long some these European brands hung on with low sales. The VW entrant here also looks ancient even for 50 years ago but was on its way out. Surprised no Datsun entry.
Definitely like the AMC’s looks I am a fan of this and the Eagle featured a few days ago.