While recording this week’s zany, alcohol-fueled podcast, the subject of rear-engined wagons came up somewhere. Back when one car model carried an entire lineup by itself, putting the engine in the back seemed like a great idea until it came time to actually get more room out of the back there, somehow.
Rear-engined wagons: they’re not just good for keeping your burrito warm; they feature actual usable storage space—front and back! After all, not many Family Trucksters can boast of having a cargo floor that’s at approximately nipple level, with just enough space for your luggage to ensure that you can’t see out the back. What’s underneath? Oh, just the most carbon-monoxide-churning impromptu luggage heater ever! Hope you’re not carrying plastic chairs or raw meat in the back!
How many rear-engined wagons can you name? I’ve picked out one of two low-hanging fruit already; you’ll just have to supply obscure Israeli-built continuations of Italian cars, or anything built under Soviet/Mexican/Greenland rule. After all, if these two low-hanging fruit could build pickup trucks, vans, and family sedans, and sell thousands to boot (no pun intended, if you’re British), then somebody out there must have thought it was a good idea too. Right? Right?
[Image source: Flickr]