station wagons: 1957-90...

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Bill,

Love the Plymouth! What a great color. I believe I also see a little Falcon in front of it. I've always had a fondness for those first generation Falcons.
I love those Regal wagons! I can honestly say that I've never seen one on the road around here, but they certainly caught my eye when I saw them at the local Buick dealership.
Too bad they're being discontinued. 🙁
Is the Sportback a wagon too? I'm not sure if that's what I've seen, or if it's the TourX.

Barry
 
Jeff,

Love the Chrysler!
When I was first driving, one of my dream cars was a '69 Chrysler Newport.
Something about the styling just appealed to me.
The closest I ever got was briefly owning a '69 Dodge Monaco.

Barry
 
Being an almost exclusive Buick owner, I too fell in love when I saw the Regal TourX at the 2018 Detroit Auto Show, it was in dark moon blue metallic, the color I wanted,

After test driving I felt it was just a tad too small for me, being 6’5” I found the head room to be a bit lacking. Instead if the TourX I ended up in an Enclave

Once I get the Enclave I’ll consider getting a second car again, if I do it’ll either be a used TourX or a used LaCrosse. I really like having the cargo ability, but I really miss the ride of a car
 
The first and only wagon I had was this '74 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser. 455 4-bbl. This was the colour, too. It had every conceivable option except... seatbelts color coordinated with the interior. Black seatbelts with everything else cream or wood grained. MPG record was 15 heading down 95 to Florida without traffic. Normally 12 hgwy, 10 city, and if you were driving unplowed roads and making your own parking spaces in snowbanks.... EIGHT.

Acceleration off the line wasn't great but 30 to 60mph instantaneous. With its limited slip diff. it was unstoppable in the snow with Sears Roebuck snows that looked like they belonged on an SUV.

IIRC wheelbase was 127" and length was 233". I have the number 5250 in my head for weight but can't remember what that refers to exactly.

Only chronic problem was that it ran hot, it was tuned that way for air pollution regs. Coolant overflow container was not nearly large enough. I eventually bought a much larger replacement.

Jim

warmsecondrinse-2020051114295604307_1.jpg
 
The Regal Sportback is actually a hatchback--big rear door. Same platform as the Chevrolet Malibu, albeit was made in Russelsheim, Germany. The Regal is also built in China, where they also have a 4D sedan (China-only) version. I worked for GM during the planning/launch period for the vehicle--they made some unusual European-based content decisions. The main one that everyone shakes their head at is limiting the availability of remote hatch release (no one understands that) and of remote start (understandable, as it's illegal in much of the EU). They needed to limit build versions (i.e. options) to make things more efficient which further led to some weird content decisions. They made some late adjustments to the color availability (one of the original proposed colors was called "Carrageen" which was a greenish-yellow color...it was a really "European" looking color that I don't think it ever made it here) It wasn't a roaring success, but as mentioned earlier, far exceeded their expectation in the LGBT community after a concerted marketing effort (I was a part of it--we did a photo shoot with the RenCen behind us; and wrapped one in rainbow colors for Motor City Pride). Had it been a more robust success, they would have made room for it at the Kansas City plant (where the Malibu is assembled), but here we are. They're still available at dealers (Buick.com will let you configure and locate them) so get one while they're hot!
 
Buick Regal Colors

When I set out to buy my Tour X, I wanted one in "Rioja Red" with the shale interior. My local dealers didn't have any in that combo. I did not want a black interior so I found the "Frost White Tricoat" with shale interior that I purchased at a dealer 100 miles from my home. GM did some odd things with the shale interior during the 2018 production run. The cargo area in my car is shale to match the seats and door panels and other trim. Later in the run, they changed it to be black. I really wanted a car with the shale cargo area because the cargo cover roller shade was also that lighter color which reflects the heat more than black would. I wish the carpet was also shale. I bought aftermarket carpet mats in shale just to brighten things up. No worries about soiling my light colored cargo area - my car came with a full complement of mats - all-weather rubber mats, cargo area mat, carpeted mats (black). The other "oddity" is that the rear seatbelts are shale to match the seats but the front seatbelts are black. Why, GM? Seatbelts should match the seat color in my opinion.
 
A question

Jamie, what would there be about a car that would appeal particularly to the LGBT community? I've heard the Toyota Yaris referred to as the "gay car", but only know one such person who has said car. All the others have a wide variety of vehicles - cars, trucks & SUVs. I personally wouldn't purchase a vehicle or any other product based on whether or not it was aimed at any particular demographic. 
 
Falcon in Picture

Hey, Barry,

Yes - that Falcon ahead of the 1954 Plymouth Wagon was my Dad's company car.
Two or three years later, my Dad bought my Mom a used Falcon 2 door.
She loved the Falcon because she was 4 foot 10 inches tall and it was more her size.
The used Falcon had belonged to a farmer (we lived in Nebraska at the time) and it always smelled like a barnyard inside. Nothing my Dad did could get rid of that smell!
Mom finally got her first new car in 1968 - a Falcon Futura Sports Coupe.
 
GM (Ford, Chrysler, …) analyze the buyers of their cars fifteen ways to sunday. The appeal to the LGBT community is more a psychographic activity (car X is going to appeal to urban people with high disposable income without kids, truck Y is for suburban married couples with 2.3 children, etc etc. When you hold those types of groupings against the population you can see where they intersect (and don't intersect) with any part of the population. Don't know if you filled out the post-purchase survey sent out after you bought the TourX but at GM they have an LGBT question (put in 20 years ago; as one of the chief product planners was a charter member of the LGBT employee resource group). As far as LGBT cars, they are generally smaller and more urban-feeling than the average car. Subaru (quintessentially the lesbian car) has advertised that fact for many years. While I was there the highest indexing cars (industry-wide) were Subaru, Mini, Jeep and VW. Saturn and Saab did very well for GM when they were around. The psychographic stuff, does break down a bit when you talk about hobbies and/or family makeup...IGRA (gay rodeo) folk drive very similarly to other rodeo folk, and gay couples with kids are led by the kids (rather than the LGBT-aspect), though I would speculate that the VW Atlas (SUV) and Subaru Ascent (SUV) index better within the LGBT community than, say, a Suburban or Explorer.
 
Son, did I get the TourX wrong! I recall reading an article in a car enthusiast publication when TourX first debuted which made the claim that it was likely being pitched to older, wealthier buyers who because of the ailments which affect the elderly like bad backs, did not want to climb in and out of an SUV or crossover. And, it talked about a niche market of wealthy car owners who have purchased luxury wagons such as the Mercedes E 450 for many years.

On a similar note, the television series "Baptiste" has made it to The States, and I have been watching it on my local PBS affiliate. Julien Baptiste goes about his work in Amsterdam behind the wheel of a Jaguar X Type wagon, something I had no idea existed. That got me thinking about how interesting it is that estate wagons in Europe are executive cars. Here in the states, a business exec might tool around in a BMW 7-series sedan; in Germany, that same Bimmer is likely to be in wagon form.
 
Don't get me wrong--the TourX had multiple overlapping/aligning targets which aren't mutually exclusive...but the "can't climb into a SUV" crowd was probably more targeted toward the Equinox (which, as a higher unibody SUV, requires less bending down than the TourX) or the Trax. The "import wagon" intenders probably were bullseyed by the TourX--I think I know the stories you were referring to that the buyers of the TourX had a relatively high household income. I was really peripheral to that kind of marketing at GM but it was fascinating.
 
My uncle

who was a Ford quality control person told my dad he needed a wagon. Showed up with his brand new 1973 Pinto squire. Dad asked, I thought you were getting a wagon?
He had it a year, then totalled it New Years morning going to work. drove a '69 catalina until that summer, then his '74 Galaxie Country Sedan came in.
 
Jim,

I agree, the Custom Cruiser was a Ninety-Eight with a tail-gate. On a long trip was a couch-on-wheels. Considering their weight, they were pretty quick, although at 6mpg on Premium fuel you knew you weren't driving a Rambler.

A 1970 Vista-Cruiser with a 455 was a ROCKET for sure!
 
Rare wagon

I'm sorry I don't have a picture to post.
But, in 1973, you could get the SS package on the Chevelle coupe, I believe the El Camino, and the Chevelle wagon. If I'm not mistaken, it was the only time Chevy offered the SS package on a true station wagon.
I've only ever seen one in person, and it was for sale. A medium blue metallic with silver stripes, turbine rims with white lettered tires, and a 454. Granted, it was the watered down 1970s 454, but still...
I was too young and broke to pay their price for it, which I think may have been $4,000.
I was young and stupid, so I probably would have wrecked it if I had been able to buy it.

Barry
 
A loaded Aires, or

Reliant K wagon listed out at about 8 grand. I did not think that was cheap for an underpowered, cheaply made car. You could get the minivan's for a grand more, two more tops.
 

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