June 24: Shed a tear

What went wrong? Where did we North Americans veer off the track of station wagon goodness and end up in the clutches of the ubiquitous sport utility? Why is it, that if we want to buy a station wagon (or sport wagon or whatever), we either have to be economy minded and look towards a VW Golf or be rather well off and look towards Volvo, BMW or Mercedes? There ain't nothing in between, folks. At least for us in Canada or the United States. I say shed a tear, since if we look to other parts of the world, not only is the station wagon embraced, but the supply of beautifully designed wagons are almost endless. So let's take a little tour around and see what is on offer elsewhere........

Yes, this is my favorite, the Mercedes CLS wagon and is there a better looking example anywhere? Not in my mind and it even comes in an AMG version. Love the car, hate the price, so let's look at something more bank account friendly, like this Honda Civic........

Surprised? Sure doesn't look like anything at our Honda stores. Too bad we live in North America (at least as far as cars are concerned). Or how about something a little larger, but still not a bank account breaker......

Now here is the Mazda6, which I think we almost had a chance of getting. To my eye it competes with the CLS for wagon beauty. Mazda showed it in early North American press releases, but I believe until the 6 starts selling like it should, this gorgeous, rolling sculpture will be kept from our shores.

Back to the higher end models with this Jaguar, again nothing short of great looking. Wonder what an XJ version would look like?

Not a chance of ever seeing a Renault on these shores ever again, but this Megane graces their showrooms in other parts of the world, along with the more budget minded Clio in the pic below it.......

A little funky looking, but hey, who says practicality has to be boring, after all, check out those other pics again (and this blog isn't focusing on the boring stuff).

I think the Ford Fusion, with its copy cat Aston Martin grille, is one of the best looking cars on our roads, but go to Europe, call it a Mondeo and this is one of the models that we'll probably never see, but which they love..........

......but think of the possibilities. You don't need an Explorer and don't want an Escape, then this is the perfect compromise. Oh, I know, the deal........it has to have fender flares and be raised up a few inches to at least look like a sport ute. Sigh!

But you need something a bit bigger, but want it to be a Ford and still be great looking........

..........here it is, the Taurus station wagon and so sad, that we can't even get it on our shores. I'd say it's a natural for North America and it comes in an all wheel drive version.

Shed a tear. Yeah, I know, I know, there are only a few of us who think this way, but why is it that VW and Mercedes can exploit this niche successfully? Sure, one doesn't see tons of Benz wagons, but at least they are on the showroom floor.

Unfortunately, I don't see a trend towards a few more wagons coming our way anytime soon. Shed a tear.

Until next time..........

PS.......did you spot any errors in today's blog?