Tall Wagons Ranked

"472CID" (472CID) 03/10/2015 at 14:05 • Filed to: USELESSLISTS

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In the United States, wagons went from being the vehicle of choice for family in the 60/70s, to being a dying breed in the 1990s. A one-two blow knocked them on their hatched-asses, first with minivans in the 1980s then with SUVs in the 1990s. Automakers have tried follow the success of SUVs by raising and rugged-izing their wagons. What resulted was a weird category of mutant wagons, here's the best and worst of them.

Honda Crosstour - The Crosstour will go down in history as one of the famously ugly cars. It's awkward big-butt hunchback hatch coupled with it's oversized Accord front end left most car fans asking "why can't we just get a regular Accord wagon?"

Toyota Venza - The Venza served very little purpose in Toyota's line up. It was a car for people who wanted a wagon yet didn't want a wagon and people who wanted an SUV but didn't want an SUV.

Ford Freestyle/Taurus X - The Freestyle tried to continue the legacy of the wagon after the Taurus wagon disappeared, yet make it more attractive to mid-2000s car buyers by making it SUV-ish. The car just kinda hung around Ford's line up, went through that weird period where they changed the 500 to the Taurus, and then went away.

Chrysler Pacifica - The Pacifica burst onto the seen in 2003 found very modest success, and the faded to obscurity.

VW Passat Alltrack - VW wanted to join it's big brother Audi in the tallish awd wagon field, don't really know or care too much about this one.

Subaru Forester - The Forester started out as a funky off-beat wagon that could do just about anything. Over the years the car has morphed to better fit in with the small CUV crowd, thus killing much of it's specialness.

Subaru Outback - The Legacy Outback has been around a while now. Some generations look good some don't. Some came with turbo fours, flat sixes, and manual transmissions. Sadly today the outback is a blocky mess that's stuck with a four cylinder and a CVT.

Audi A6 and A4 Allroad - The original Allroad was a sharp luxury Swiss Army Knife. It's a great all in one kind of car that would be higher if it didn't have a bit of a bad reputation in the reliability department.

Volvo XC70 - The XC70 was the perfect segway between the traditional soccer-mom Volvo wagon and soccer-mom SUV world. High on the list thanks to handsome looks and a very Jalop list of powertrains.

AMC Eagle - The Eagle is the granddaddy of this segment, and as such was year ahead of it's time. The fact that you can get an inline six (a diesel was even available), a manual, four wheel drive (with the first IFS in a 4wd American vehicle) in an American wagon is reason to celebrate. Those pros also help mask the fact that it wasn't an especially good car - coming from someone who owned one.

Mercedes R Class - The R is at the top of the list almost entirely because of it's R63 AMG model which came with a 6.2 liter V8 that makes 500hp going to the rear wheels.

Most of these cars have come and went. The exceptions, Subaru and Volvo have made this category their little niche, and Audi/VW continues to actively pursue it. Honda mysteriously soldiers on with their Crosstour against better judgement. Absent from this list are tall hatchbacks (Subaru XV, VW CrossGolf). I debated putting the Ford Flex on the list and ultimately decided against it.

E. Julius > 472CID 03/10/2015 at 14:09

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Ha my parents had two Pacificas at the same time for some ridiculous reason.

Funktheduck > E. Julius 03/10/2015 at 14:14

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Wanted double the eventual break downs and interior parts breaking?

MIATAAAA > E. Julius 03/10/2015 at 14:15

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I would assume a BOGO deal at the dealer. :p

jariten1781 > 472CID 03/10/2015 at 14:20

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Such a weird category. I'd also throw in the 4wd Tercel and Corolla all-trac for some non-eagle 80s ness. Also the X1 skirts this category pretty hard.

Clay Smith's Revenge > 472CID 03/10/2015 at 14:20

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Love the XC70 like mad.

But no room for the mid 80's AWD Civic and AWD Tercel? These are some serious upright wagons.

E. Julius > MIATAAAA 03/10/2015 at 14:24

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Haha no my dad got his as a company car. He could choose between that and a Chrysler 300, and picked the Pacifica because the three kids. The part that confuses me is that I guess my mom just liked it sooooo much that they leased a second one. I have no idea what would compel them to do that, and strangely enough it was also the only time they've ever leased a car.

E. Julius > Funktheduck 03/10/2015 at 14:24

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Oh yeah, couldn't get enough of that mid 2000s Chryslerness.

4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30 > 472CID 03/10/2015 at 14:43

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My dear mother has a '12 Legacy Outback with the Boxer Diesel and 6 speed manny tranny. You're not missing much. It's an extremely boring way to get to 70mph.

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > 472CID 03/10/2015 at 14:49

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For what it is worth... I wanted to like the Subarus... but everything after the Outback 2.5XT Limited 5-speed is mostly a joke. BTW, the Outback does come with an optional 3.6L flat-6... now ALSO CVT only... And still not very good looking.

Forester was so close... but the XT was bland, with all of the fuel-thirsty aspects of a turbo, without the fun of a manual gearbox, or WRX's 268 horsepower and sharpened handling... let alone not any STI equipment. The base and premium non-turbo Foresters offered a 5-speed stick, but minimal power, and minimal options... and also hard to find... until the 2014 re-design went weird-looking and knocked them out of the running for me entirely.

Aside from the inferior-to-Subaru/Audi AWD (but it is at least a bit better than FWD) I actually quite like my Venza, in the context that it is not in any way expected to be a performance vehicle. The V6 is torquey, so it actually gets up and moves when you put the pedal down. It has lots of options, and is quite comfortable on road trips, and accepts plenty of cargo, far more than would fit under the fastback roofline of a Crosstour/ZDX/X6/X4.

Biggest plus: It doesn't look ridiculous, nor is it over-sized. It isn't narrow and tall, it is wide, but not quite as bulky or as wear-prone as the 3-row MB-era-Chrysler Pacifica. The Venza's roof is not as far from the floor as many CUVs are. Excess head room is wasted space, and increased aero drag, as is a "blocky" shape that gets equated with rugged looks.

Frankly, if the Subaru Outback's drivetrain used a strong 6 or 7-speed automatic transaxle with VTD AWD, it would allow the H6 to utilize more power, and still have one of the best AWD systems on the mainstream market. If that were built into the Venza's wider, slick flared-fender body-shell, and amenities availability... it would be a better vehicle than either the Outback or the Venza currently are, and quite possibly beat every other vehicle on this list.

But that would never happen. It makes too much sense. Venza is getting cancelled while Murano/Edge/MKX are all now re-designed. Outback is stagnating as Subaru thinks that new headlights are the only thing required to make a bland aesthetic design look better... while continuing to limit option choices, and press everything into front-drive-biased CVT-only availability.

lucky's pepper > 472CID 03/10/2015 at 15:04

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What about the Flex? What is this thing if not a tall wagon?

jmart > 472CID 03/10/2015 at 15:05

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That's a lot of clearance..

472CID > lucky's pepper 03/10/2015 at 15:11

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Like I said (last sentence) I debated putting that on there. I always thought of it as a crossover trying to be a van, or wagon, or both, I don't know what they hell the Flex is supposed to be.

lucky's pepper > 472CID 03/10/2015 at 15:13

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Opps. Must of stopped reading by then. I have a short attention span.

472CID > Clay Smith's Revenge 03/10/2015 at 15:15

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Thought about those cars, Mitsubishi Colt and Eagle Summit too, kinda thought they didn't fit the context of this list. They strike me as proto-MPVs. The Subaru GL on the other hand...

ColoradoTaco > lucky's pepper 03/10/2015 at 15:18

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A square minivan

ColoradoTaco > jmart 03/10/2015 at 15:20

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Air bag suspension. It was a cool feature that failed a lot.

lucky's pepper > ColoradoTaco 03/10/2015 at 15:23

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I don't regard it as such but I certainly see your point.

Funktheduck > E. Julius 03/10/2015 at 16:05

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Gotta love brakes that are set to perma squeak