[Aditya]

Estate cars or station-wagons are versatile vehicles that can be used to transport a large amount of luggage as well as carry 4 or 5 people in comfort. Most often these cars have siblings that are sedans and hatchbacks. In India, while the latter two have been strong sellers, estate cars have really not managed to capture the imagination of the regular car buyer. At the moment, there is not a single estate car on sale in the country. Over the years though, there have been attempts by various automakers to launch some really good estate cars. Here's a look at some of them.

Premier Padmini and Hindustan Ambassador
It all started with the Premier Padmini. Well, this wasn't a factory-built estate. Actually, Premier only supplied a driveaway chassis and it was some dealers who took up the job of building the estate body. As a result, the market for the estate was limited.



The Hindustan Ambassador, which was the only other car sold in the country back then, had a similar story. The company only provided a driveaway chassis, while the body was built by other players.



Tata Estate
The first serious attempt at building an estate car was made by Tata Motors. This car was conceived and built as an estate only. It was not based on a sedan or hatchback. As a result, it looked a lot better than what had been dished out in the earlier years by Premier and Hindustan. In fact, it had a luxurious feel to it. Features like power steering and power windows enhanced its appeal. However, it was a heavy car and used a 1.9L diesel engine that put out just 68 BHP. This made it quite sluggish. Its reliability was not a strong point either.



Rover Montego
A result of a tie-up between Bengaluru-based Sipani Motors and British manufacturer Rover saw the advent of the Montego in India in the 1990s. The car was available in sedan and estate body shapes. Once again, this car looked like it was designed to be an estate and not just a mod-job on a sedan. It was very luxurious for its time and had a 2.0L turbo-diesel engine that made 80 BHP. It was the quickest car available in India in its days. Sadly, it was way more expensive than anything else available back then and Sipani was too small a player to actually compete with other established manufacturers.



Image source

Opel Corsa Swing
Opel's second offering in India was the Corsa sedan. This car was based on a hatchback and looked like a hatchback with a boot added on as an afterthought. In the coming years, Opel introduced an estate version called the Swing which looked a lot better than the sedan. It had the same 1.6L petrol engine as the larger Astra sedan and performance was quite impressive. A 1.4L petrol was also available. Being a German car, its quality too was among the best.



Image source

Maruti Baleno Altura
The Maruti Baleno sedan was popular for its performance and interior space. However, not all people liked the way its rear end looked. The Altura changed that. Still, the car was just not well-accepted by the Indian public and faded away without a trace.



Fiat Palio Weekend / Adventure
Like some of the cars above, the estate version of the Palio looked better than the sedan (Siena / Petra) did. The Adventure came with plastic cladding and roof rails giving it a rugged look. Fiat as a company, never managed to maintain any momentum it gained in order to keep going. Despite some great engines and strong build, like other Fiat cars, the estates were slow sellers.



Skoda Octavia Combi
The Octavia sedan was a big hit in India. To add some variety to the range, Skoda offered the estate version of the car as well. To start with, it was powered by a 1.9L turbo-diesel engine. Later, it got a 1.8L turbo-petrol with 150 BHP on tap as well.



Image source

Tata Marina
Tata's second attempt at an estate car was this wagon based on the Indigo sedan. It was very spacious and looked better than the sedan, but suffered from poor quality like many Tata cars of the past. As a result, sales didn't take off.



Audi RS6 Avant
The Audi RS6 Avant was not just an estate, but a true blue performance machine with enough power to outrun sports cars. It had more than 550 BHP on tap, a 0-100 km/h time of 3.9 seconds and costed Rs. 1.35 crores (ex-showroom). It was never expected to sell in huge numbers.



Image source

Volvo V90 Cross Country
No list of estate cars is complete without a Volvo. The Swedish company offered the stunning and well-equipped V90 Cross Country in India for a while. It was powered by a 2.0L turbo-diesel engine with 232 BHP on tap. This car was aimed at the higher end of the market and sales were low. It has been removed from Volvo's website now.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line.

[giri1.8]

Only way for wagons to sell here is to add puny third row seats, XL6 looks very much like a station wagon if you ask me, people will ignore the shape thanks to the extra seats.

[EightSix]

Great thread Aditya, I am a fan of station wagons and vans and couldn’t believe there were so many of these in India. Infact, some cars like the Baleno Sedan and Corsa and even the indigo look better in their SW versions.

PS. You missed the Mercedes E-Class All-Terrain


I believe there was a R-Class in India too, which might be considered a SW.

Question: Can the Datsun Go+ be considered a station wagon?

[Mr.Boss]

Originally Posted by EightSix

Question: Can the Datsun Go+ be considered a station wagon?

Go+ (-minus) 3rd row seat = Station wagon

[v12]

Lovely compilation Adi! Station wagons are to cars what Cafe Racers care to motorcycles.

Thanks for posting a pic of our ex-Baleno Altura!

[Mr.Boss]

I always had a soft corner for Station wagons, sadly couldn't own one. First time I saw an Estate was during mid of 90s, when NEPC group had their guesthouse opposite to our home. Some higher official stayed there and either TATA Estate or TATA Sierra used to pick him up every morning.

Originally Posted by narayans80

The underrated Ford Fusion?

Going by today's standard this is C-SUV, not a station wagon

[saikarthik]

Great Thread!

Little offtopic, will Isuzu-dmax-v4 with canopy come under station wagon definition?
Obviously it is not right out of the bat from manufacturer, but still.. serves the purpose.

And cargo is not directly accessible from the passenger compartment.

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by Mr.Boss

Going by today's standard this is C-SUV, not a station wagon

That's right! But in 2007, the CUV or crossover terminology was yet to be invented

The Marina and Fusion were both around 4200 mm mark.
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There used to be a Datsun stationwagon that used to just lie around in the Ambika Appalam depot warehouse in T. Nagar in the 80s (the present day Raj Palace hotel). It was locally registered is all I remember, but it laid unused for the years the warehouse existed. I can't quite remember the name though.

[chandu]

I have a Volvo V90CC and I love it. The convenience of an SUV without the ride quality issues on the highways.
Sad that they did not sell well in India.

[Jeroen]

Nice thread.

I must admit I am a bit of a fan of Estates/Station wagons. Although I have only owned a few though.

My very first one was a Datsun 120Y. Remember that one?

We are talking 1982 or thereabouts. My then girlfriend, to be wife and I had just started living together in Brighton, the UK. A good friend of her from her home country Barbados was living in Brighton as well. He had one of these and when he returned to Barbados he left me this Datsun for free.



Datsun at the time were incredible dull and boring, but also incredibly reliable. When we moved to the Netherlands some 4-5 years later I tried to sell it, no takers, so I took it to a scrap yard. They would not take it, they told me, these Datsun are so reliable there is simply no market for parts! In the end I had to pay the scrap yard to take it off my hands.

Probably one of the nicest estate I had was an Audi A4. One of the nicest car I owned (or rather leased as it was a company car). I always thought it looked considerably better than the standard A4 sedan/

And of course, lets not forget the modern mother of all Estates: The Mercedes W123 T- version!!



Interestingly, at the time Mercedes management was not very keen on the estate version at all. In those days, in Germany, nobody that was anybody would drive an estate. But the UK was pestering them to get an estate model. Estates had always been very popular in the UK. If you believed you were anybody in the UK you would be driving an estate! (Think gentry, shooting brake, hunting dogs in the back etc)

It became a huge succes for them over the years. Today a good well maintained W123T is difficult to come by and commands a hefty premium over regular W123.

Pretty advanced for its day, with self levelling pneumatic suspension and all.

Jeroen

[TejasKinger]

My only memory of being in a station wagon in India was when I rode in one of the Meru Tata Indigo Marina taxis to the Bangalore Airport when it was newly inaugurated back in 2008-09ish.

I remember Meru, along with EasyCabs being the first Radio Taxi operators having operations at the airport. Meru had a fleet of aquamarine-colored Mahindra Logans and Tata Indigo Marinas.

The Marinas had a short-lived existence. They were phased out pretty quickly due to poor reliability. In contrast, I still see the aquamarine-colored Logans chugging along nicely in the outskirts of the city/in Tier-II/III cities outside Bangalore.



Representative image [credits]

[haisaikat]

"You secretly admired someone but ended up marrying someone else for fear of your parents and society "

Yes, I too had that infatuation for wagons. Back in 2007 while making selection of my first car purchase I had the Indigo Marina shortlisted among the final ones but due to partly "what people will think" mindset and the edge over rear seat shoulder room and better petrol engine I ended up buying the Getz Prime. They both came in similar budget though, within 5 lakhs INR back then.

Only if there was a foldable 3rd row seat in the Marina no matter how compromised I would not have plunged for it.

Nevertheless, excellent thread Aditya, rated 5 stars.

[dileepcm]

A distant relative of mine had the Marina a few years ago and almost no one liked that car at that point of time including me. He was in the UK before that and had a wagon over there and then he landed back and ended up with this Marina. Now after being in Netherlands for a few years, I have turned out to be a station wagon fan (I like SUVs too). I feel sorry for all the dislikes my relative had to face back then.

Unlike that of India, regular cars are rarely used as status symbols in here. The sheer amount of space on offer is something very valuable and tempting and that keeps the demand high for station wagons.

When I purchased a pre owned VW Golf wagon to replace my company leased Volvo V40, one of the reasons was all about space. Very important to have enough space for bags, baby stroller, Ikea runs, all types of other transportation needs etc.

Whereas in India, I think form over function is key and people wants to stick to the looks than what it offers.

Given good options, I would buy a wagon even in India unless I am able to go for a full scale SUV. Once you are used to the value it provides, its very hard to turn back.

[Carpainter]

Actually not just in India but globally station wagons are not popular anymore. I was watching a documentary a couple of months ago about how station wagon sales have plummeted both in US and in Europe. Only some Scandinavian countries still love them.

I think for India people prefer a hatch because of its small footprint and easy to drive in city nature or a sedan because of the boot space, better looks and social status. Station wagons are sandwiched in between and may be people don't find the silhouette attractive enough. Indians would rather buy a jacked up station wagons we call SUV/MUV for the same price for better ground clearance and snob value.