I've heard claims fuel standards killed the station wagon

pstokely

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Sun Jul-27-03 05:03 AM
Original message

I've heard claims fuel standards killed the station wagon

they haven't killed the SUV

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billyskank

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Sun Jul-27-03 05:21 AM
Response to Original message

1. I thought SUVs were exempt from fuel efficiency standards.

Aren't they classed as light trucks, rather than cars?

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ProdigalJunkMail

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Sun Jul-27-03 05:26 AM
Response to Original message

2. styling (or lack thereof) killed MOST of the station wagons

there are still a few out there. Volvo and Subaru still have station wagons. And lets not forget that the rise of minivan and SUV popularity probably put a dent in their production as well.

TheProdigal

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punpirate

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Sun Jul-27-03 05:29 AM
Response to Original message

3. They were unprofitable compared to other models....

From the time that Dodge introduced the minivan, they started trying to kill the station wagon line, even though they had a ready market (though small) for them through the K-car line. In the very late `80s, Dodge, for example, thought about moving the K-car wagon line to Mexico, since they had perhaps 40,000 willing customers for that model. They didn't, though--just let the line die.

Of the really huge wagons based on a full-sized chassis, I don't think mileage was so greatly different from sedan versions on the same chassis to have been the leading factor in their demise. If anything, it was model reduction to minivans.

Cheers.

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izzie

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Sun Jul-27-03 05:42 AM
Response to Original message

4. I still drive a small wagon 1996 and gets good MPH

I think the wagon went because of style, and the new thing was this van thing. I recall it coming up and the ads etc. It can not have much good to it. They roll over so and they take so much gas. I find every one yaps about that but then buys a new one. I have asked why do you drive that? You usually get back it is big and safe. Interesting as it is becoming the un safe one on the road. You also get this which is more to the point. Every one has one.Keeping us with the Jones' is still out here.

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dweller

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Sun Jul-27-03 07:14 AM
Response to Reply #4

5. big and safe?

depends on which side of the equation you are on.

State Farm Insurance operates with a similar philosophical bent. Its actuaries having discovered that fatality rates involving sport utility vehicles have a real upside. "SUV's," they told stockholders, "may actually save insurers money...by killing people who might otherwise have survived with serious injuries. Severe injuries tend to produce larger settlements than deaths."

from 'PostCards From The Planet Of The Freaks', by Lucy Gwin
in Everything You Know Is WRONG The Disinformation Guide to Secrets and Lies, ed. Russ Kick

dp

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izzie

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Sun Jul-27-03 08:23 AM
Response to Reply #5

6. State farm has my Ins go up as I drive a sm car.

Well it is understandable that I will be hurt more if hit by a SUV as they are twice as large and heavy and also since they think they are so safe they drive awful fast and pushy. But there numbers of accidents are going up in the SUV's and I drive even more on the safe side as I fear a car-truck riding my bumber.I am not sure letting the MPH on highways have not been a lot of the trouble as accident rates did come down when it went on the books, and up when they raised the limits once more.Frankly at 68 I am getting ready to stop driving which I have always hated to do any how.

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Norbert

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Sun Jul-27-03 08:37 AM
Response to Original message

7. It was the Mini-van

that initially hurt the station wagon in the 1980s.

SUVs further hurt sales of the station wagon but the SUVs also hurt passenger car sales as well.

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radwriter0555

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Sun Jul-27-03 08:44 AM
Response to Original message

8. station wagons are TACKY. Even as a kid I squawked when my folks

made us take a VACATION in a beat up old red station wagon. I WAS SO HUMILIATED.

They're the butt of all jokes. That's what killed em. They make mini-vans look fashionable.

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pstokely

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Sun Jul-27-03 08:46 AM
Response to Reply #8

9. minivans became the butt of jokes and made the SUV fashionable

Edited on Sun Jul-27-03 08:50 AM by pstokely

now SUVs are the butt of jokes, what's fashionable now, Crossovers

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bushisanidiot

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Sun Jul-27-03 08:47 AM
Response to Original message

10. Dude, How Many Threads Have You Started Today About SUV's?

Can't we just keep it in one thread? I don't get it..

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corarose

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Sun Jul-27-03 08:58 AM
Response to Original message

11. My Dad had one of the large Station Wagons

I was a kid when he bought it and I drove it when I turned 16 years old back in the late 70's.
You could get hit in that station wagon and you wouldn't even know it.
They were 8 cylinders and they drank gas but the didn't need to be taken off of the market.

I loved that old Station Wagon!

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newyawker99

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Sun Jul-27-03 09:05 AM
Response to Reply #11

12. Dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=87024&mesg_id=87024&page=1

I am locking this one. pstokely, please check your inbox.

NYer99
DU Moderator

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