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.

AUDI A4 ALLROAD HELPS SPUR COMEBACK OF THE STATION WAGON FOR TODAY’S FAMILIES


This goes back far too many years that I care to acknowledge, but once upon a time my friends from high school and I got together with our families for an informal reunion about 20 years or so after our graduation.

Our meeting place was a park in our hometown, and it became somewhat of a running joke as the afternoon wore on that each of us showed up in a station wagon.

At the time this was the ultimate in automotive domestication, part of the “full catastrophe” cited by Zorba the Greek in the movie of the same name. I’ll pause now while you look it up on Youtube.

Back? OK. Let us continue.

My point here now is that if that gathering were held today and we were still of that age and with the same brood of young children, chances are that we would be showing up in SUVs/crossovers.

For though we didn’t know it then, our station wagons were about to experience a popularity decline that seemingly had them headed for the edge of extinction.

Minivans struck the first blow in the mid-1980s with the aforementioned SUVs and crossovers continuing to inflict blows. (Ironically, minivans now carry much the same stigma that ran station wagons off the road, that is being the nerd’s vehicle of choice.)

Domestic manufacturers pretty much bailed on the segment. Ford even billed its boxy, Flex, which has the profile and look of a station wagon if there ever was one, as a “crossover” when it introduced it a decade ago.

But thanks mostly to European automakers, the wagon never completely disappeared, and now it apparently is on a bit of a resurgence.

Citing data from Edmunds.com, Bloomberg Business reported that station wagons enjoyed an increase in sales of 29 percent in 2018, trailing SUVs and midsize pickups in growth rate but far ahead of tradition segments like compact cars, midsize cars, luxury cars, etc., which were all in negative numbers for the year.

Admittedly, the station wagon’s market share is still small. The volume of 229,000 vehicles sold is less than 2 percent of the U.S. market, but it apparently is getting off its death bed. Buick (TourX) and Lincoln (MKT) are even back with domestic offerings in the segment.

The modern wagon is far from the lumbering Wagon Queen Family Truckster that Clark Griswold packed his family into for their cross-country trek to Wally World in National Lampoon’s Vacation.

I’d say the 2018 Audi A4 Allroad is among the most striking vehicles I have had the pleasure of driving in recent months. Not surprisingly, combined with its performance and luxurious interior, the A4 Allroad is ranked 1 or 2 among available wagons by such sources as Edmunds.com and U.S. News & World Report.

Fully redesigned for the 2017 model year, the 2018 A4 Allroad is pretty much the same vehicle but with heated front seats as standard and some other changes to features in the higher trims. No major changes were made for the 2019 model either, so it may be to do some looking in the used car market if you’re interested in one.

The Allroad is offered in Premium (base), Premium Plus, and Prestige trims with a starting MSRP of $44,500. The Premium Plus package adds another $2,700 to that and is well worth it with features such as an upgraded Ban & Olufsen 3D sound system, 8-way power front seats with driver memory, front and rear parking sensors, LED headlights, Audi’s side assist system with pre-sense rear systems that react in the event of collisions from the side or rear, and SiriusXM satellite radio with 3-month trial subscription.

A Navigation and Telematics package adds another $3,000 and includes Audi’s MMI touch telematics system and Audi’s virtual cockpit. Those two packages and a couple of other extras ran the total of my vehicle for the week to $52,750 including destination and delivery, so no, this likely isn’t your grandfather’s station wagon.

All A4 Allroads get a 2.0-liter, turbocharged 4-cylinder engine that is mated to a 7-speed automatic transmission with paddle shifters and puts out a healthy 252 horsepower and 273 pound-feet of torque. Set in dynamic mode, it delivers credible throttle response with fuel mileage figures of 22 miles-per-gallon city, 30 highway, and 25 combined.

Audi clockers caught the Allroad getting from zero-to-60 mph at 5.9 seconds, which is not your grandfather’s station wagon either.

Audi’s quattro all-wheel drive system is standard and though you won’t be traversing the kind of terrain that vehicles like Jeeps and Land Rovers typically take on, you will find the Allroad up to navigating dirt and muddy and snow-covered surfaces and other unpaved roads quite well.

Lest we forget that certain functions are expected of a wagon, the Allroad also delivers there as well. It seats five comfortably, and rear stowage capacity is 24.2 cubic feet with the second-row seats in place and 58.5 with them folded.

What I liked about the 2018 Audi A4 Allroad: The Allroad handles so well you can forget that you are in a wagon. I love the virtual cockpit and the ability to change settings by flicking your thumb on the “view” button on the steering wheel spoke.

What I didn’t like about the 2018 Audi A4 Allroad: The display screen to show settings for Audi’s MMI infotainment system looks like an iPad stuck at the top of the center stack. It’s not a deal killer, of course, but there has to be a better way of incorporating it into the flow of the dash. In fact, I have actually seen better ways in other makes!

Would I buy the 2018 Audi A4 Allroad? Sure would. It is one of the more expensive wagons on the market today, but it is well worth a look, even if you are looking at a luxury SUV.

VOLVO OFFERS SOMETHING FOR CLARK GRISWOLD’S

 NEXT TRIP TO WALLY WORLD -- AND MORE

First it was the oil crisis in the 1970s.

Then it was minivans followed closely by SUVs.

More recently it was the crossovers that look like SUVs but drive more like a car and don’t like it when the wheels aren’t on solid pavement.

We are talking here, of course, about what killed the station wagon -- almost.

Before there were such things as minivans for soccer moms to drive, there were station wagons, big, lumbering vehicles that New York Times writer Joe Lorio once described as “wallowing land arks.” Think of the “Wagon Queen Family Truckster” that Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) took the family to Wally World in in National Lampoon’s Vacation.

But it wasn’t just their looks and awkward handling that was behind the station wagon’s demise in the U.S.market.

No, it’s what the station wagon represented, which was the arrival at an age and stage in life many of us really weren’t in a hurry to get to. Basically, adulthood and the end of the freedom of youth.

For guys who grew up idolizing Muscle Cars, getting behind the wheel of a station wagon was a form of vehicular castration. Might as well eat quiche for dinner.

And so the traditional U.S. manufacturer -- GM, Ford, Chrysler -- did what one does with a lame horse. They put the station wagon out of its misery. With the exception of Dodge, which gave the Magnum a four-year trial that ended in 2008, and Cadillac, which introduced the CTS Wagon a couple of years ago, the domestic manufacturers dropped out of the Wagon segment.

So much did U.S. automakers want to avoid the stigma that came with the image of that station wagon that even when they launched one, they refused to call it that.

I’m thinking here of the Ford Flex. Ford bills it a crossover, but slap a couple of pieces of wood on its sides and the Flex would be hard to tell apart from one of the woodies from the 1940s and ’50s.

So if you have shopped for a traditional station wagon in the last couple of decades, you pretty much have been limited to visiting showrooms of European carmakers. (Even Toyota refused to call its attractive Venza model for what it basically is -- a Camry station wagon.)

Like Volvo, for instance.

There is no mistaking the Swedish automaker’s XC70 for anything but a station wagon in the truest traditional sense, no disguising its boxy profile for anything but a true wagon.

Now in its third generation, the company says the 2012 XC70 is “more refined than ever,” and I would be inclined to agree. The interior matches the quality of Volvo’s upgraded S60, which I will get into a little later.

The feel of the steering wheel, with its soft yet firm leather, and the soft leather seats provide for one of the most comfortable riving experiences you can have.

There is plenty of technology available, including the company’s  Pedestrian Detection system that gives the driver a warning to alert the driver to the presence of pedestrians in front of the car and can even stop the car if the driver fails to take action.

I first saw this demonstrated at an introduction of the S60 a couple of years ago and it does work, at least at slower speeds.

Being a Volvo, it has plenty of other safety features. After all, safety is one of the first, if not the first, things that comes to mind when you think of Volvo.

What you might not associate the Swedes’ product is its performance. Under the hood of the XC70 you will find either a 3.2-liter normally aspirated in-line six-cylinder engine or a slightly smaller inline six that is turbocharged.

 I can’t speak to the difference in performance because I didn’t drive the 3.2 version, but I was impressed with the throttle response I got when I pushed the T6. It made me forget I was driving a wagon.

But the difference becomes obvious when you look at the numbers. The T6 puts out 300 horsepower and 325 pound-feet of torque. Numbers for the 3.2 are 240 and 236, respectively. a significant difference when you’re lugging around more than two tons of vehicle.

Not surprisingly, that extra power does come at a cost in fuel mileage. The T6, which has standard all-wheel drive, is rated at 17 miles per gallon city, 23 highway. The 3.2 got ratings of 19/18 city and 25/24 highway depending on whether it was a front-wheel or all-wheel drive model.

Oh, yeah. Both engines drink regular gasoline and are mated with a six-speed automatic Geartronic transmission that allows for manual selection of gears.

Pricing for the 3.2 version of the XC70 starts at under $33,000. For the T6, the price tag starts at under $40,000.

One other thing. In case you were wondering, the XC in XC70 stands for “Cross Country,” and, though it is not designed for heavy off-road maneuvers, the XC does have a ground clearance of 8.3 inches and can handle rougher terrain a better than any of the crossovers on the market.

Which brings us to the S60.

You probably have seen the commercials for the latest generation of Volvo’s most popular sedan. It is a quite a looker.

Volvo calls the S60 “the sportiest Volvo ever,” which a little over a decade ago wouldn’t have being saying a helluva lot. Through the 1990s Volvo cars represented safety, durability, safety, value, safety, and practicality.

Oh. Did I mention safety?

Looks? Not so much. The sedans used to be as boxy as the wagons.

Well, beginning with the introduction of the C70 in the late 1990s, Volvo began to step it up in the design department. As well as durability and safety, the company began putting out cars even teenagers wouldn’t be ashamed to be caught behind the wheel of.

The 2012 S60 continues that trend.

It looks great, both inside and out. The exterior profile is couple-like with its sleekness. The use of high-quality materials throughout the interior makes for a classy, comfortable  ambiance for both driver and passenger. Ward’s AutoWorld rated the interior as one of the 10 Best available today.

As with the XC70, the S60 has a lot of technology options, but their operation doesn’t require the skills of a computer tech or savvy 12-year-old. Simply push clearly marked buttons for such functions as audio, navigation, or climate, and the proper image appears on the screen. Then turn the appropriate knob to get the desired result.

I’m big on simplicity.

The S60 comes in three versions for 2012, all with turbocharged power and all mated with a six-speed automatic transmission. All also used regular octane fuel.

The T5 comes with a 2.5-liter, five-cylinder rated at 250 hp and 266 lb.-ft. of torque and moves you from zero-to-60 mph in 6.8 seconds, according to company timers. It is front-wheel drive, and fuel economy is rated at 20 mpg city, 

Both the other two models are AWD.

The T6 has a 3.0-liter inline six with hp and torque figures at 300 and 325, respectively. Zero-to-60 time is 5.8 seconds.

The T6 R-design is the bad boy of the group. It’s 3.0-linter six-cylinder engine has been tuned to 325 hp and 354 lb.-ft. of torque, but, frankly, I’m not sure the gain in zero-to-60 time (5.5 seconds) is worth the extra cost

The T6 R-design starts at just over $43.000 including destination and delivery, the T6 at under $36,500. The T5, the baby of the group, starts at under $31,500.

With the S60, Volvo has put out a legitimate competitor in the entry-level luxury field both in looks and performances as well as price.

With the XC70, the company has much less competition.