Consider the Long Roof

In my early years of this madness we call the Car Hobby I was only interested in shiny 2-seater British convertibles or the stoutest Detroit muscle I could get my hands on.  Nothing else mattered. Nothing.

That was more than 35 years ago and, as time went by, my opinion and appreciation for other types of vehicles changed.  No one change in perception has surprised me more than my desire for a vintage station wagon.

The once lowly “Long Roof”, Mom’s grocery-getter, the family vacation mobile, the car that was forced into pickup truck duty when there was no pickup available is now finally getting some of the respect it deserves.  And not just from me, but from many other car nuts as well.  Perhaps this is due in part to the fact that many of us who have put 50 years + astern remember taking long vacations to faraway places in the back of a Country Squire or the Kingswood Estate.

Perhaps another reason is that there are still plenty of older wagons available and they, for the most part, aren’t priced in the Stratosphere.

Given that fact and that the wagons were almost always identical to their sedan siblings from the cowl forward so you get the just about same performance for less green and that makes them quite the interesting proposition.

There are even websites devoted to the Vintage Station wagon.  Old Station Wagons For Sale.com is among those and list the wagons currently on E-Bay.  (www.oldstationwagonsforsale.com)

Oh and, dare I say it, there’s room for the Grandkids in the back.  I can’t think of a nicer way to introduce the next generation to the madness we call the Car Hobby.

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Trent Poole is the Technical Assistance Coordinator at  Steele Rubber Products. He spends most of his work days answering questions like, “Will this weatherstrip fit a ’74 and ’73?”  He has more auto knowledge than anyone else we know.