Sixties Icon

A cursory glance at the collector-car hobby through today’s rose-tinted glasses would have you think that the postwar domestic industry made a mint on mass-marketed two-door hardtops. Artistically conceptualized ads often featured such coupes that oozed sporty, open-air excursions to the country from deep inside concrete-n-steel cities and burgeoning suburbs. Attractive as the hardtop coupe was though, four-door sedans were the biggest seller, while the real country excursion cruiser, better suited for the whole family, was the station wagon.

Without question, the biggest purveyor in the station wagon market was Ford. Although the phenomenon started with the division’s Model T-based depot hacks, the first mass-produced, formally named “station wagon” was unveiled in 1929 as part of the critically acclaimed Model A line. More than 11,300 woodies were built during the A’s reign, 4,954 of which emerged in this body style’s first year of existence. During the early V-8 era, Ford’s wagon output amassed a sales total of 77,043 units through