Why is the Wagon losing its Footing in North America, when the rest of the world is hot for this Car profile?
It's all in the Marketing:
Long story short, people are turning to the SUV platform because it is percieved as beign "cooler" in their minds. When you boil it down, thats the main general conclusion. People have this strange reaction when you tell them something or say something like, "you should buy a wagon" or on lady I told her that her Toyota Venza was a Wagon, and she got all defensive and argumentative that it was a Cross over, not a wagon! She exclaimed, when clearly it is mearly a raised wagon platform.
What we need in the Wagon platform, is to bring it's cool quotient back, or align it back to a more "cool" idea of acceptance for people to palate. Focussing on a Diesel, or not a diesel, or fuel economy, etc. is not going to create any momentum or make a difference to this market, regardless of whether they are going to offer the wagon or not. Look at what people think is cool, or sexy in a car, and its a Huge Dodge Ram truck, or a loaded SUV. What do they have? Aggressive styling and posturing, and a whole lot of horse power, yet, you can buy a simpler truck, with less HP and less Styling, but what makes them buy a truck or SUV? Its those ones that are aggressively styled, and have the big HP that make them buy it, it has made it cool, and even thought they can't afford to bump up to that package at the dealer they buy the entry level one that looks like it anyway. It still makes them feel like they bought that Tricked out one. So, what we actually need to do is, lobby the auto makers to bring the wagon back with a totally non traditional marketing strategy for the wagon platform. To brake the chains that define what a wagon is, today, and that is what I am promoting on my other page
This page is about shifting peoples relationship to what the Station Wagon Platform "is" in the minds of North Americans, to show them how great the Wagon can be, and right now.
The Cross over and SUV is aligned to the Truck profile, the aggressive, outdoorsman, outdoor sports person, and has pulled people to it and away from the Mini van, and the Station wagon by this rugged alignment and marketing.
What is the Station Wagon aligned with?
How do we make more Marketing power towards this platform?
Marketing the Station Wagon in Today's Car Market:
The Wagon is connected to the Sedan, which is connected to Race cars like the Nascar and other world class race car platforms, including the BMW, Porsche and Mercedes Race circuits.
At http://www.facebook.com/SpeedWagonStationWagon you find the connection of what I'm talking about.
If we lobby to raise the bar for the Wagon, to it being related to Sports car performance, this is what will shift the North Americans relationship to what a wagon is, and what a Wagon is for. This idea is how It is looked at in Europe. Just look at the Video on our page, of the Motor cycle, and the Audi doing 300 kph together. Thats's how you market the wagon back to our Show room floors. For those of you who just want a mild mannered daily driver Station wagon, with the standard under 200 hp engines with fuel economy, this is how you're going to get it back. Market to the Sports car, driving enthusiast, and the entry level Wagon will be your 175 to 200 hp model, with an upgrade in package to a 250 and 300 hp model. This is a performance vehicle, with Utility. Much like how they promote the Truck, in that you can put in the normal engine, or pack in thier 500 hp model if you choose, and this is why guys are hooked on trucks, and women find the sexy. Why do we find Maserati and Corvette, and Mustang Sexy? horse power. Why do people turn to the Mazda 3 and the similar small car platforms? because they are fast and zippy, look race like, and you can tune them on the mass market to be faster and look really cool. This is what is completely missing in the mid car marketing strategy, and its why its losing its magnetism, and "cool relationship" with people in North America. Some Manufactuers get this, and if you look, who is on top of the mid size car? The European manufactuers. This is what BMW does, and many other manufactures, and its very successful for them. What Mazda needs, is an "M" like package offer, something that raises the mind of the Market, as to what a mid size car is, and its place in the Market. This will really put the Zoom back into Mazda. Basically, like their Mazda Speed. Market the Wagon this way, and we may just get it back, as the wagon platform starts turning heads and making waves once more, and it may effect sales for the Sedan as well.
This is how it started for the SUV, with Rock stars and Rappers tricking out their SUV's, making them cool, people realizing that their Mini vans were not cool and they were looking for something that didn't brand them as a "family car", and at the time they also had a bad marketing view of station wagons, so they turned their eyes to the SUV. This is it! Its all about trend, Marketing and Customer Percetption. Its not about fuel economy, cargo space, convenience, what the manufacturers are trying to sell, etc. etc. Its about Fashion, and trend, and Market perception. This is what the Wagon is up against.
These SUV's at the time, had what looked like all the same things as their vans, and some Station wagons, they got to be "Cool" in an SUV, so they sacrificed road handling, Cornering, and yes, fuel economy, and the ease of loading that comes with a lower wagon for the SUV. Much later on manufactueres caught on to this, like Honda with thier CUV, and created a SUV look alike, that was on a Car platform, but had a raised wheel base. Mimicking the Jeep in many ways. It had very little off road capability and no all wheel drive. It was basically a riased Hatch back that had been boxed off. This started the Shift from the uncool Mini Van, to the Cross over. This trend grew, and jumped to every manufacturer, as the marketing for the wagon continued to be for, and as a Family vehicle, with no cool factor what so ever attempted in marketing. Its this stigma, fad, trend and fear of not being cool, that has hurt the wagon platform in North America. Something that is not a topic in other continents at all, the SUV does not share the mass trend in other car markets world wide. The Wagon platform is seen as a classy and sporty Hauler, and is also known as the best kind of Trailer hauler in Europe as well. Mazda actually won an award for best Hauling Wagon in Europe within the past few years.
Case and point, the wagon is not being marketed properly in North America, we need to align it to the Sports Car, and to the Tuning Community to bring back its credibility and cool quotient in our Market. We need to separate off from the SUV trend, and give it its own Identity.
Check out
and see for yourself.
There is a long history of Speed wagons in the World.
Support the cause, and become a voice for the Wagon at
So, lets bring back the Sports Wagon as a Target, Drop it in with the performance vehicles like Sports cars, and Sport Sedans, where it belongs, and focus on bringign it with 300Hp plus, and when that comes....., the base model will come too. :)
For a great example of this concept, alive and well in Europe.
Stop in and check out the new 3 series BMW Touring Wagon coming this Summer.
It will be available in base model, as well as a 300 hp model.
Another Company doing it right, is Audi.
The Grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, drives an Audi Wagon, that is capable of 300 kph on the Autobahn.
See this link on above pages as well.
Zx-10 being overtaken by an audi at 300kmph 
Driving from Augsburg to Munich together with an Audi RS6 ABT (700hp). The total distance of ~50km (~31 miles) was completed in under 15 minutes. That results in a average speed of around 215 km/h (~133 mph). You thought that a litre bike is faster than almost every car?
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