The Legendary Station Wagons Of India
Sadly, Indians never warmed up to the station wagon or estate form factor but we did get a lot of cool ones along the years. Here are all the legendary station wagons of India.
Indians have always been known to love practicality, however, they never warmed up to the idea of a station wagon/estate car. They were the ultimate in terms of offering space and practicality, yet the image of having a station wagon was one which could not be fathomed by us. One of the reasons for this was that sedans were considered top-tier luxury but the station wagons costed a lot more.
There were a few tries from manufacturers, and many sold them in some or the other form but sadly, they never picked up. Station wagons are non-existent now and everyone has moved on to SUVs which are essentially wagons. We have combined a list of all the iconic station wagons of India here:
Skoda came up with the Octavia Combi for the first generation of the Octavia in India. It came in both diesel and the hot vRS forms and it looked very classy. The car was very expensive and incredibly rare. There are not many of them to start with and finding a good condition car in India is very hard. The Octavia Combi was also the only station wagon which was offered with a sporty engine.
The Maruti Suzuki Altura was based on the very popular and Maruti’s most premium sedan at the time, the Baleno. The Altura was immensely popular but many people don’t even remember that such a thing existed. In modern times, the Altura might as well be the rarest of the Maruti’s in India.
The Tata Estate is what started it all. This was the first passenger car that was developed by Tata Motors. Ratan Tata was a massive station wagon as well and giving Indians a practical station wagon with lots of space was the right decision. The Estate did pretty well for a station wagon and also as the first car for the brand.
The Mercedes Bezn E220d All-Terrain is a rarity, with only a handful of them being sold in India. They are extremely cool and combine the practicality of a station wagon and the capabilities of an SUV. The All-Terrain was a surprise from Mercedes Benz as they have not really launched any of its station wagon models here. We are glad though that they did.
The Volvo V90 Cross Country is another one of the luxury off-road station wagons that was launched in India. Volvo has been quite the trend setter for this body style of a vehicle. There were a few more V90 Cross Countrys sold around the country and there are a few good examples which can be found on sale in the pre-owned market as well. Since a lot of people don’t know about them, they are an incredibly good deal. The V90 Cross Country was only launched with a 2.0L diesel engine option in India.
The Tata Indigo Marina was another one of those cars which Tata built just for the sake of it. It was affordable by standards of other station wagons but it was still more expensive than their sedan and hatchback counterparts. The Marina’s long boot was not the prettiest and people got the image of it completely wrong. Ratan Tata himself had one of these in his garage and it was used to take his dogs around.