AND ANOTHER BITES THE DUST; VW ENDING PRODUCTION FOR ITS STATION WAGONS
Station wagons long ago ceded the role of the favorite family transportation mode to minivans and SUVs, and now two more are being relegated to the scrap heap.
Volkswagen recently announced that it was ending production of its popular Golf Sportwagen and Alltrack wagons with the 2019 model year.
It will continue to make the Alltrack at its Pueblo, Mexico, plant through December, but that will be it for the German manufacturer’s last wagons, ending for the segment that dates back to pre-moon landing days.
In a news release, the company said that the rising popularity of SUVs, which accounted for 47 percent of all vehicle sales in the U.S. in the first six months of 2019, and the strong performances for its Atlas and Tiguan SUVs were behind the move. Those two models accounted for more than half of VW’s sales for the first half of the year.
“SUVs have definitely assumed the mantle of family haulers from the station wagons and minivans we remember from our childhoods,” Scott Keogh President and CEO, Volkswagen of America, said in the release.
VW plans to release three new SUV models in the next two years, including one electric model, the CROZZ.
Certainly the declining sales of the Golf models (down 36 percent for the first six months this year) can’t be blamed on anything the company did wrong with them. They’re both good vehicles offering good hauling capability in a fuel-efficient package.
The Golf SportWagen 1.4T SE I recently had the pleasure of driving for a week offered better fuel mileage (combined 31 miles-per-gallon) with its 1.4-liter turbo 4-cylinder engine than my older Passat wagon (2.0T) usually gets on the highway. And it runs on regular 87 octane as opposed to the premium recommended for my 2007.
Front-wheel drive is standard, but a 4-wheel drive version is available with the SportWagen 4Motion model. Also standard is a 6-speed manual transmission, but an 8-speed automatic on my test vehicle came with no extra charge (as did the beige Leatherette interior and night blue exterior).
The 1.4T engine standard in the S and SE trims is rated at modest 147 horsepower at 5000 rpm but a more robust 184 pound-feet of torque at 1400, which helps when it comes to throttle response.
The 1.8-liter turbo-4 in 4Motion and Alltrack models are a bit on the peppier side with their 168 hp and 199 lb.-ft. of torque.
Standard equipment in the SportsWagen SE includes a stop-start system, safety equipment like Intelligent Crash Response System and rear-view camera, 17-inch alloy wheels, automatic LED headlamps and LED daytime running lights, Halogen fog lights, black roof rails, rain-sensing wipers, leather-wrapped steering wheels with paddles for manual gear selection, carpeted floor mats front and rear, a carpeted floor in the cargo hold with an adjustable floor and removable cover, a panoramic sunroof, and technology that includes blind-spot monitor, lane-keeping assist, adaptive cruise control, keyless access with push-button start, and Bluetooth connectivity.
All that and more is included in the MSRP of $30,890 (including destination and delivery). S models start at $22,790 (manual) and $23,880 (automatic).
With the Golf SportWagen and Alltrack ending production, VW dealers won’t have a new wagon to offer next year for the first time since its 1966 1600 Squareback Sedan, which had cargo space under the hood and above the engine in the rear. It was around for seven years.
Other wagon models from the company over the years have been the Type 412 Wagon (1971-74), VW Dasher 1974-81), VW Quantum (1981-1988), VW Fox (1989-91), Passat Wagon (1990-2010) and Jetta. The Jetta enjoyed two stints, 2001-2005 and 2008-2014.
The SportWagen’s run started in 2015, and the Alltrack debuted as a 2017 model.
What I liked about the 2019 VW Golf SportWagen 1.4T SE: It’s an attractive wagon, both inside and out, and its compact size is more agile than you might expect. At 178.9 inches long, it still provides cargo volume of 30.4 cubic feet behind the second-row seats and 66.5 cubic feet when those seats are folded. Infotainment features are user friendly — a rarity among German models.
What I didn’t like about the 2019 VW Golf SportWagen 1.4T SE: The space devoted to cargo comes comes at a cost for second-row passengers, who get only 35.6 inches of legroom, which isn’t cramped but not exactly generous either.
Would I buy the 2019 VW Golf SportWagen 1.4T SE? Yes. On a personal note, we have enjoyed our VW Passat wagon, which went out of production several years ago, and this or the VW Alltrack looked to be the best successors.
VW GOLF SPORTWAGEN SHOWS ITS TIME FOR THE STATION WAGON TO GET RESPECT
This is no fairy tale, but I’ll say it anyway.
Once upon a time, before crossovers, SUVs, and minivans began taking over as the favored providers of family transportation, there were perfectly capable vehicles for the task.
They were called station wagons.
They could handle a family of up to seven or eight members in relative comfort (depending on the age and size of the kids) and also offered plenty of room for weekly grocery runs and other routine errands, plus luggage space for the family vacation. There was even room for sheets of plywood in the back, something that those in the Southeast and Texas might appreciate during this hurricane season.
Many of them featured distinctive styling tweaks, like the fins of the 1950s, and many earlier models featured passenger compartments with real wood frames and sides. Later, station wagon designers mimicked the real-grain wood appearance but with the body finish done in steel or metal. My grandfather had a Jeep wagon like that.
Station wagons also served as a measure of what stage of life you were in. I remember once when about six of us from high school got together with our families for a small reunion probably15 years or so out of high school. Every one of us showed up in a station wagon. No more V8 coupes with dual exhausts and glass-pack mufflers for us!
But the oil crisis of the 1970s and evolving of the aforementioned SUVs and minivans, and later crossovers, eventually killed off — or nearly so — the station wagon in the U.S market. Clark Griswold’s Wagon Green Family Truckster from the movie National Lampoon's Vacation may have dealt the final blow. You think minivans don’t get respect today? Think about the Truckster.
Today, with Dodge having ceased production of the Magnum wagon nearly a decade ago, no domestic manufacturer even offers one in its portfolio. I would argue that Ford’s Flex with its boxy profile is more station wagon than it is crossover, but such is the scorn associated with those two words Ford marketers prefer to use the term “utility vehicle” in promotional material.
Ah, me. Where did we go wrong?
Fortunately -- at least in my view -- a handful of European manufacturers still offer a modern take on the classic station wagon in the U.S., including a couple from Volkswagen.
VW, which ceased production of its Passat Wagon a few years back, introduced the Golf Alltrack last year as a 2017 model after switching the SportWagen to the Golf fold from the Jetta family a couple of years earlier.
In essence, the Alltrack is a bit more sophisticated version of the SportWagen (and a few thousand dollars more expensive) and more adaptable to off-road treks with its slightly higher ground clearance. Not that you are going to take it out on the Rubicon Trail or anything, but you can venture off on more rugged dirt roads than you are the SportWagen.
I was able to spend a week recently in the 2017 Golf SportWagen TSI S w/4Motion wagon before the visit from Hurricane Irma kind of threw life off kilter. I liked it.
Apparently others do as well because U.S. News & World Report has it tied for No. 1 with the Volvo V90 in the wagon segment in its analysis of auto reviews. That’s remarkable in itself because with an MSRP starting in the low $20,000 range, the SportWagen is less than half the price of the luxury V90.
One issue I had going into the week was whether the SportWagen would offer enough room to really be a serviceable station wagon since it does carry the Golf nameplate. Though slightly smaller than the older Passat station wagon my wife drives, it does.
It seats five passengers and offers just over 30 cubic feet of storage space behind the second row. The older Passat has 35.6 cubic feet of space behind the second row. Fold those seats and the Golf’s capacity more than doubles to 66.5 cubic feet.
The Golf SportWagen comes in three trim levels — S, SE, and SEL — all with a 1.8-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine. With 170 horsepower at 4500 rpm and a 199 pound-feet of torque kicking in at 1600, the SportWagen doesn’t offer a whole lot in the way of “sporty” performance, but it’s no slug. Far from it, in fact. I didn’t bemoan any lack of hp.
For 2017, the S is available with VW’s 4Motion all-wheel-drive system (not so the SE or SEL) with either the five-speed manual or six-speed automatic transmission (with paddle shifters and a sport mode). The SE and SEL get only the automatic.
The combination of the 4Motion system and automatic transmission delivers excellent fuel ratings of 22 miles-per-gallon city, 30 highway, and 25 combined for the S using regular fuel — unlike the premium recommended for my wife’s Passat and its 2.0 turbo.
Front-wheel-drive models are even better at 25/35/28 with the manual, 25/34/29 with the automatic.
The automatic and 4Motion system does add a bit to the MSRP. The S starts at $22,400 (including destination and delivery) with the manual tranny, the S 4Motion with the automatic $25,750.
Standard equipment for the S includes the Intelligent Crash Response system, 16-inch alloy wheels with all-season tires, halogen headlights, black roof rails, manual climate control (which suits me just fine) heated front seats with power recline, cloth seating surfaces, a rearview camera, 8-speaker sound system, Bluetooth cell phone connectivity, a 6.5-inch touchscreen, and VW Car-Net App-Connect system.
SE and SEL trims offer such standard features as leatherette seating surfaces and a Fender premium sound system, and the SEL gets navigation as standard as well. Some other option packages not available on the S are offered on the SE and SEL.
The most significant of those are an SE Driver Assistance Package that includes blind-spot monitor and adds $595 to the MSRP of $27,850 and an SEL Driver Assistance Package that includes Park Assist, Lane Assist, and HID headlamps and tacks on $1,995 to the $30,790 MSRP.
If you can live without those features, you will find the SportWagen S w/4Motion to our liking.
What I liked about the 2017 VW Golf SportWagen S w/4Motion: It’s a lot easier to handle in an urban setting than many SUVs and even crossovers. The cloth seats may be even better than the leatherette, and I liked the manual controls the A/C and the two knobs to adjust the radio.
What I didn’t like about the 2017 VW Golf SportWagen S w/4Motion: Not a big deal, but I’m thinking that in addition to power reclining for the front seats, it might be nice to have them move forward and back via power rather than using the manual lever under the front of the two seats.
Would I buy the 2017 VW Golf SportWagen S w/4Motion? Definitely. The S is one of the best bargains around.
