The wagon Legacy ends
It's that time of the year again when we start to pore through automotive press kits to see what is changing for 2008. We use this info to update our databases and decide if the inevitable annual changes mean it's time to retest a car.
While leafing through stuff from Mazda, this cheery nugget caught my eye:
"To better meet customer demands for the Mazda6 Sports Sedan and 5-Door, the Mazda6 Sport Wagon will be discontinued for the 2008 model year."
Hmmmm. It doesn't seem like Mazda is short on production capacity for the sedan and hatchback. Last time I checked, there were plenty of Mazda6s in rental fleets; stats show that 43 percent of all 6's wind up as fleet vehicles. That sounds like they're building a few too many.
I'm guessing that this press release wording is just a nice way of saying that "No one bought the Mazda6 wagon, so we're canceling it." Given the slow sales, it would probably be a stretch to expect a new Mazda6 wagon when the car gets redesigned for 2009.
And there's more bad news for wagon fans in 2008. Subaru has been winnowing down their Legacy wagon line since the 2005 redesign. The Legacy GT wagon with a manual transmission? Gone for 2006. Now all Legacy wagons are dropped from Subaru's line-up for 2008. They fell victim to the much higher sales of almost identical Outback wagon (albeit with a higher ride height and plastic body-cladding). Subaru also dropped all Outback sedans to simplify the line. When the Chevrolet Malibu gets sleekly redesigned for 2008, the frumpy-but-practical hatchback/wagon Malibu Maxx is also getting the axe.
It's odd. Do wagons have to be SUV imitators (Volvo XC70 and Subaru Outback) or stuffed with a Hemi V8 (Dodge Magnum) to sell here? We often hear from people on our forums who crave an Acura TSX or Toyota Camry wagon as a less expensive or more reliable alternative to European wagons. Most European companies still sell wagons here; unfortunately, it seems that most Japanese or American auto makers would rather simply point to their SUVs as a wagon alternative. No doubt they sell better and they provide certain CAFE advantages, but SUVs often don't handle as well in our tests or return the same fuel economy as sedan-based wagons. Finally, some people just don't want to own a SUV.
Obviously, the appeals of a few voices in the crowd (count me in - I've owned two wagons) don't seem to be enough to support a broad selection of wagons. That's unfortunate--we're losing vehicles that blend practicality, better fuel-efficiency, and increased driving enjoyment in the process. Instead of hearing the traditional call of "Wagons Ho!" we'll instead hear a deafening "Wagons No."
Posted by: David Evans | Aug 13, 2007 8:22:37 PM
It was announced at the Toronto motor show: "Subaru announced officially that the next version of the Legacy wagon, scheduled to appear for the 2008 model year, would be a Canada-exclusive vehicle, and not sold in the United States."
A high percentage of Legacies sold here are wagons, I guess, at least, enough to keep Subaru in the wagon market.
Posted by: Tom Mutchler | Aug 14, 2007 11:48:43 AM
David, it seems like the Canadian market leans towards more practical versions of vehicles - for example, Canada got a hatchback version of the Toyota Echo we never saw here in the States. Canada is also a more price-sensitive market, and the Legacy often costs less than the Outback.
Posted by: David Evans | Aug 15, 2007 11:48:36 AM
True, but then companies like Kia turn our practicality against us, offering only half the warranty (100,000 kms, not miles, for 5, not 10, years), saying Canadians are too cheap to pony up for what the better warranty would cost!
Posted by: Gerard Robinson | Aug 17, 2007 6:51:11 AM
What I miss is the choices from the brands with better than average reliability and in the low $20K range. The closest seems to be the Scion xB, but it didn't feel like it could handle a 700 mile road trip without tiring me, and with its larger engine, its gas mileage is good, but not wonderful (despite lower weight than the Camry, its larger wind surface, I guess, drops its highway mileage rating 3 mpg lower than the Camry with seemingly the same engine and transmission, much like the Outback compared to the Legacy [although the Outback carries a little bit more weight than the Legacy]). The VW Passat wagon starts at $24K, and the announced 2008 Jetta wagon will hit the price point, but did I mention wanting a reliable brand :-)? Everything else is either low end (and noisy) or premium (while not testing out well enough to support their higher price). The small SUVs all pay a gas mileage premium for their size, weight and/or AWD. I just want a reliable, reasonably quiet and comfortable, relatively fuel and space efficient vehicle with an under $25K price and an under 10sec 0-60 time. Too much to ask?
Posted by: Bob | Aug 19, 2007 4:12:50 PM
___An interesting point: "it seems that most Japanese or American auto makers would rather simply point to their SUVs as a wagon alternative. ...they provide certain CAFE advantages...."
___SUVs are the vehicles people love to hate, until they go out to buy one. Peer pressure? Keeping "UP" (literally) with the Joneses, as if the height of the "commanding view" conferred some sort of "command". Or maybe it's the subtlety of the masculine secondary sex characteristics that go with an SUV. Sports cars were "outed" in the 60s as compensations for sexual inadequacies, and maybe it's time to do the same for SUVs. Ruggedness, brawniness, and a suggestion of heavy lifting are parts of the aura that originally went with SUVs. Perhaps if people were persuaded to associate sexual inadequacy compensation with them, SUVs might dwindle away.
___And then there's that infernal "commanding view", which is the automotive equivalent of wearing a large hat in a theater. (Ironically, the advantage virtually disappeared when the number of SUVs on the road increased.)
___Perhaps if the demographic most opposed to SUVs weren't so afraid to team up with drivers who smolder about slowpokes in the left lane, some political action might be drummed up for including ALL trucks in the left-lane bans for major highways, including SUVs. Such a move would kill SUV sales, and the sales of white-collar pickups, virtually overnight. A simple criterion of beltline height would do the job nicely.
___Removing, or greatly diminishing, the "CAFE advantages" would force or allow carmakers to offer more appealing high-mileage cars for sale in America. It's not ALL their fault for selling to the market structure our current laws and consumer demands dictate for them, but some coercion wouldn't hurt, either.
Posted by: Gerard Robinson | Sep 22, 2007 9:46:26 AM
Hi! Following back up on this.
What I wound up getting was another Subaru, but not a Forester. I purchased a 2008 Impreza 5-door with the Premium package, VDC and automatic. It is, of course, a compromise ... not as good mileage or roomy a back seat as a Nissan Versa, but likely much more reliable and with a flatter load floor; not as much space or ease of access as the Scion xB, but with a nice, quiet ride and AWD, yet similar highway gas mileage.
I got 31.2 mpg with it on a 1,400 mile trip, almost 5 mpg better than my 2001 manual Forester (I really wanted the automatic since I'll be commuting by car more to a suburban office instead of to NYC by train and my Forester was 7.5 years old). In test drives, it seemed fairly quiet, but on the trip, tire noise over coarse pavement intruded. That's it's only minus, so far.
Posted by: Kurt Pasch | Aug 13, 2008 7:07:41 PM
As a highly satisfied Subaru Legacy Wagon driver since 1990 I was ready to buy a replacement. Sadly, the market for us northern city-folks who need SPACE to carry a bass fiddle while enjoying sedan COMFORT with 4 WHEEL DRIVE for snow has all but disappeared! Instead. Subaru has limited its choice to the noisier, less comfortable, awkward to drive Outback which is so like every other SUV.