Text by Patrick Bell.
Today we have a fine gallery of station wagons to add to our series. There is a good variety of these hard working machines that once ruled the roads and driveways, so sit back and relax on this May Day and have a look.
In our first image we have two members of the Winnie the Pooh fan club who took a few minutes from their busy itinerary to pose for a picture next to a ’72 Ford LTD Country Squire. Ford advertised themselves as the “Wagonmaster” from the late sixties through the mid-eighties, and from a sales perspective, for the most part it was true. The only one in the background I can ID is the one on the left, a white over blue ’68 Chevrolet Impala Custom Coupe.
There were a lot of competing patterns and colors in this image, with the house vertical paneling with bright blue trim and shingles, the black car with horizontal paneling, and the lady’s black dress with horizontal rectangles. Ford was “America’s Wagon Specialist” during this era and this ’60 Country Squire with a Connecticut license plate wears it well.
This all GM shot really shows the difference between the ’60 models and the restyled and simplified ’61 models, especially in the greenhouse area. The ’60 Pontiac Bonneville Custom Safari on the left was the last year of the short lived flamboyant era that had already been toned down and de-trimmed below the belt. It shows the remaining dogleg style ‘A’ pillar, and the rear portion of the roof looks like it was grafted on the standard six window sedan. On the other hand, the ’61 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 Fiesta on the right has eliminated the dogleg ‘A’ pillar, cleaned up and squared off the rest of the roof and greenhouse, almost to a fault. Ah, the shifting sands of automobile styling.
The snow was slowly melting in this image somewhere along the short lived Erie Lackawanna Railroad line. A ’60 Ford Falcon Deluxe was parked in the driveway ready for its next trip. It has a New York license plate used from ’66-’72, so this wagon had a few years under its belt. It looks pretty good for its age, at least from the top.
A freshly washed ’61 Chevrolet Brookwood waiting for the photographer to get done so they can head down the road. There was an aftermarket mirror mounted on the fender, evidently where the owner wanted it. I think Chevrolet pulled off the ’61 restyle best of all the GM brethren. A ’60-’63 Chevrolet or GMC C series truck with an utility bed is in the background, and a big kid’s tricycle is on this side of it.
And here is Pontiac’s version with this loaded down ’61 Catalina Safari at a roadside pull off. Behind it was a ’61 Chevrolet Biscayne 4 door sedan.
Now we are at a campsite with a ’62 Rambler Classic Custom Cross Country from Ontario. For this year only you could not buy a Classic with a V8. If you wanted V8 power in a Rambler you had to step up to an Ambassador. Those boys in the background look like they might have been up to something.
Here is another offering from “America’s Wagon Specialist”, a ’62 Ford Country Squire from Massachusetts. It also had a fresh wash on a late spring or early summer day.
Compact wagons always seemed sensible to me, but they often did not sell very well. This ’65 Plymouth Valiant 100 with the slant six motor and a fancy roof top carrier was the least expensive wagon Chrysler Corporation offered. But the Valiant wagons production amounted to a little over 10% of the Valiants, while the larger Belvedere and Fury wagons combined portion was 13.9%. Since any fuel crisis was still nearly a decade away, evidently people figured if they needed a wagon they might as well go big. A pre ’62 Volkswagen Type 1 right rear corner is on the left edge.
This ’64 Dodge 440 with non original wheel covers could have been a nine passenger model as it looks like a long haired person sitting in the third row facing the rear. It looks in good condition considering it was in the seven year old range per the photo date. It was an overcast day at this beach.
Ford sold over 195,000 full size wagons in 1966 like this Country Squire with one of the big block engines. That represented nearly 18.9% of full size sales. In the background right, looks like a Mercedes-Benz W111 Fintail.
A pair of buddies who weren’t afraid to get their knees dirty were posing by a ’66 Oldsmobile Vista-Cruiser from Illinois. The Vista-Cruiser was introduced in 1964 with a five inch longer wheelbase than the F-85 wagon plus the “Vista-Roof” raised rear roof section with skylights. From ’65-’70 it served as Oldsmobile’s largest wagon.
The ’68 Chevrolet Bel Air shown here was a relatively basic wagon, which is something you don’t see much anymore. It used to be a fully optioned vehicle was the exception. Now that is the only way you can buy many of them. And when there is a choice, the no option vehicles are the exception. The featured car was from Ingham County, Michigan, and the only option I see is the rear window air deflector.
A loaded down ’71 Dodge Polara Custom from California launching a boat. This one makes me think of a fire chief’s car. These Mopar fuselage wagons were, if nothing else, big. As a Mopar fan, I have always liked them, and despite the faltering quality control I feel like they were pretty stout cars.
Another one from the “Wagonmaster”, a new ’73 Pinto Squire. The Pinto wagon was introduced mid way through the ’72 model year with the Squire as an option package. From ’73-’77 the wagon was the most popular Pinto. The subcompact wagon evolved into the compact utility vehicle we have today, where it remains a very popular body style. Sharing the platform was a Ranchero GT, and behind it a Gran Torino, both of them new ’73 models.
Perhaps a car show here, as I see a piece of paper in the windshield and three other wagons. This one is a ’72 Chrysler Town & Country, the luxury wagon from the Mopar crew. It is wearing a Maryland license plate used from ’71-’75, and has a decal (parking?) on the bumper.
The Town & Country name has a long history beginning in 1941 when wagons were still made of wood. It was a steady model in the Chrysler line through ’88, and then in ’90 it became the luxury minivan through 2016 when it was replaced by the Pacifica. To the left is a ’67 or ’68 Dodge Monaco 3-seat, in the background a blue ’75 Pontiac Catalina Safari, and a tan ’65 Chevrolet Bel Air.
For our final image we are on Pacific Avenue in Tacoma, Washington, per a search. The featured wagon is a money maker, a ’72 Chevrolet Brookwood. This was the least expensive full size wagon for the year, was based on the Biscayne, and one of seven models offered. It was the least popular as well, with its production comprising of less than 5% of the full size wagons.
Thanks for joining us and have a great day!
Love that 1964 Dodge 440. A classic car dealer local here, specializing in American cars, had one in their inventory back around 25 years ago. A fresh USA import (came with a bunch of other, more popular cars (Mustangs etc)).
It was not in a super condition (a bit of rust here and there, benches needed recovering) but it was very attractive for me in metallic light blue with its 383 V8. Rare to find such a car here (Netherlands), I have never seen another since or before. Alas he asked too much for the car. When I got back three months later it was gone, sold to another dealer in Germany.
Here’s our ’63 Country Sedan, pulling our boat to Squam Lake NH in 1965 with our family of 6, one of 4 wagons Dad bought: ’57, ’59, ’63, and ’68… 2 Squires, 2 Country Sedans. This car became my first car while a sophomore in college and came in very handy!
Here she is again in front of the famous Wye Oak on the Eastern Shore, about a year later.
The first picture reminds me of an octopus changing its skin pattern to match its surroundings. Now a car using AI and LCD body panels could do the same. (I assume the military has already done this.)
Terrific selection and text.
My favorite is the Town and Country wagon. Nearly visually indistinguishable from the one my family had, although (said despite my general appreciation of green cars) this is one which would be better if it was rendered in the more typical Mopar tan or bronze-ish colors.
That parking permit on the front bumper is likely a permit for a federal-government parking lot. Those are the typical size, shape, placement for military base parking permits of the day, and as those of us who grew up in the DC area know, were also used at places like NIH, the Pentagon, etc.
The lede picture of the 2 kids and the Ford is great. I’m sure that mom and dad were eager to get an early start on their travel day (out of the motel) and letting the kids dress in their Pooh-wear just made that job easier. The early 1970s were peak Winnie the Pooh years (my 3 year younger sister was the perfect age to be caught up in that) with Disney releasing Pooh shorts every few years from 1966 to 1974 (it would take about 3 years to make an animated film in those days). Sears had an entire Pooh department which kept kids and families well-supplied with all manner of red and yellow things. All of this led up to the release of the feature length Pooh film in 1977. So, there were about 10 years where finding kids wearing Pooh clothes was very very commonplace.
Winnie the Pooh and station wagons…that pretty much sums up the childhood of quite a few American kids born in the mid-to-late 1960s.
OMG! I love those fake wood Country Squires. Took many long road trips with my sisters up and down the East Coast back in the 60’s and 70’s.
I took driver’s ed with dealer courtesy cars that were loaded Country Squires with A/C which we didn’t have in mom and dad’s hooptie mobile wagon
I have a soft spot for the 66 Country Squire. As a kid I thought that horse head emblem on the front fender was the coolest part of the car.
I also love the rear of the 1960 Squire, with that single-year tailgate treatment.
On the 71 Polara, all I can think about is the day-long waxing ordeal necessary to keep a decent shine on that bright red paint.
Yes, that tailgate on the ’60 Ford was very slick, but I assume it was changed for 1961 because buyers didn’t like the functionality of it? That style with the upper and lower halves had once been near universal but quickly became obsolete in the late ’50s.
GM essentially emulated that same smooth and raked look with the ’71 clamshell wagons and the ’73 Colonnade wagons, but in both cases functionality also took a bit of a back seat for the aesthetics.
The ’60 Pontiac looks more like a hearse than a wagon. The ’59-60 GM body looked great as a sedan, especially the ones with the cantilever roof, but the wagons seemed to be afterthoughts. Nothing at all like the Nomad/Safari wagons of ’55-57.
Couldn’t help but notice the full wheelcovers on the blue `64 Dodge 440 wagon are from a `57 Chrysler Windsor or Saratoga.
Am I the only one that cannot stand fake wood? No, it has not grown on me as a nostalgia thing.
When I worked in a hardware store as my first job, we still had Station Wagon Varnish in the paint department. A small number of “woodies” still survived with the surf scene around here.
Our family had two station wagons in the ’60’s, ’63 Rambler Classic 660 Cross Country and a ’65 Chevy Impala wagon. After that it was a ’69 Dodge Sportsman. We were early adopters in moving from station wagons to vans.
We never had wagons, Dad was a Chrysler sedan man. Here’s a 60 Windsor sedan like ours…
The campground Rambler picture is interesting for its license plate too. The 1964 Ontario plate is a “Dual Purpose” plate – indicated by the X prefix. These were issued to station wagons and similar vehicles that could be used for personal or business use (Delaware is another jurisdiction that did this, with its Pleasure Commercial, or P/C plate).
It’s unclear to me whether all wagons in Ontario got X plates, or whether the owner had to specify it. I also don’t know if there was any tax implication to this. Regardless, the Dual Purpose plate was discontinued in 1973. Neat to see one on a car here.
Love my ‘63 Colony Park 9 Passenger with a Factory 4-speed!!
The station wagon that loomed large in my childhood was a 65 Buick Sportwagon, fully equipped with AC, power windows and seats, and the 3rd row seat! We made a few cross country trips in the Sportwagon, and it was faithful and strong transpotation. Here’s a pic as we stopped at a motel somewhere in Arizona or New Mexico.
I had a public school teacher, with a 1977 Dodge Monaco Crestwood wagon, identical in every way to this one. And I used to wonder, how is that considered a ‘mid-sized’ wagon.?
Still have my ’77 Pontiac Astre FORMULA Safari Station Wagon… don’t know what’s holding the gas tank up in there, noticed yesterday both straps are rusted through and hanging down… maybe it’s empty and the filler hose is holding it… gotta put something under it until I get time to give it attention…
To Aaron Severson, if you see this.
In response to your comparison of the styling of the Colonnade Malibu wagon and Pinto wagon, looking similar.
I would suggest the cargo area styling aft of the rear wheels, on the Pacer wagon and Malibu wagon, appear very similar. Just increase the vertical scale of the Malibu wagon’s rear. And bump up the height of the Chevrolet’s greenhouse glass area. A very similar smooth ’70’s-styling duet. lol
Dick Teague’s estate, may owe General Motors some royalties. lol
Meanwhile, I’m going to put some Hudson Brothers in the tape deck of the Pacer.
It does look somewhat Pacer-like from the rear as well, which doesn’t help its case aesthetically!
I’m a little surprised there are no imports. By the mid 70s I would regularly see Volvo 145 and 245 wagons and a smattering of Japanese ones in among the intermediate and full size wagons.
That Ford Falcon looks COLD 🥶 The grille makes it look like Teeth chattering!
I have to differ with the writer’s opinion that the ’61 Chevrolet pulled of the best of the GM restyling that year. The best by far was the 61 wide track, split grill Pontiac. Pontiacs were the styling leader of GM and the industry beginning in 1959 and lasting through most of the 60s.
Saw a click-bait, claiming that, when John Lennon & Yoko lived in NYC in the 1970’s, their daily driver (probably actually driven by staff) was a ’72 Chrysler T & C, like the one pictured here.
I preferred his psychdelic-painted ’60’s Rolls 😎
My dad had a 68 impala chevy station wagon in 68.with a 396 motor.we drove the wheels off it..in 69 my mom bought a 68 Olds Vista crusier wagon that he kept till 1974….both were great gm cars..rj