makiii

Streamliner; NorseWagon; I'm glad my wife never goes on the forum or your posts on building new houses would just give me another 2 weeks of we have to move, & you moved me 400 miles to far north. We moved to the Shenandoah Valley from Naperville IL, it was our 7th move into a town that we knew no one and had never been to before. Today we are in the midst of the DARK blue snow band of Izzy - looks like Chicago or Hartford CT. but in 72 days we will be in the 60's!
Retired 3 years ago, in my life this was my 24th address. Keep telling her unless we hit the lottery, I'm only moving 6' down.

NorseWagon

I showed 'em legal money, or rather investments but they want to see income to service the monthly mortgage payments.
It will probably work out, if not we will sell our present house then pay cash for the new one, and rent something while building.

Wow, 24th address, can't beat that...

Looking forward to a big garage, cars and toys under 1 roof, nice.
(Present house has a 1 car garage, one of the vehicles always has to sleep outside in strong sun or heavy rain, ​​​​​​​)

TennesseeZ4

Every time I threaten to move / downsize, my wife threatens divorce; I cannot afford both at this juncture in life! Or else, In a Van Down By the River!

Elvisfan0108

I showed investment income. All our income is investment income, except for social security. No problem.

makiii

Van down by the river, now that’s upstream living - I’d be lucky to get a trap under a underpass

allfortheunion

Having recently refinanced, I learned that banks have their own formulas to convert investment assets into a monthly income stream, set by banking regulators. So it all depends on the value of your assets and the loan amount you are seeking.

NorseWagon

I showed investment income as well, but it was automatically rolled back into the accounts.
Since I retired recently we never had to use any of the investment income. Now we use Social Security only to live of, cars, boats and properties are paid for, no bills..
It was nice to not pay bills, but we got pre-approved today for a $500k mortgage, mortgage payments starting again soon.
Guessing my 820 and wife's 790 Fica score convinced the bankers to open the purse strings.
Anybody want to buy a house on a canal in Fort Lauderdale later this year? We will be selling when the new house are nearing completion.

(Sorry for the thread creep, or highjack, back to station wagons now)


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Cao Black

Excuse me, but the fault lies with the introduction and promotion of the SUV. Oh, wait a second, wasn't that some European auto maker?

Streamliner

Mercedes-Benz has noted in the past, that their estate wagons were mainly purchased by their MOST affluent customers, often as second, third or even fourth vehicles. The wagons were very popular in places like Greenwich, CT and similar such, wealthy environs. They have probably never sold like hotcakes, but were a “halo” vehicle of sorts. A high end company, like MB USED to be, kept wagons in the lineup because they “should.” Today, I truly believe that MB could give a rat’s *** about what they “should” do and only care about copying other makers, behaving like sheep and only offering products that are directly competitive with their competition. It would be too much to ask that they do something unique, that might not be a high volume seller, just because they could and should. I guess we’ll have to call the G Wagens the exception to the rule, but I’d take a T-model any day of the week.

Elvisfan0108

Google states that the 1984 Jeep Cherokee is generally accepted as the first modern SUV.

Viper98912

I've always lusted over a CLA 45 AMG Wagon...

NorseWagon

TennesseeZ4

So, to me the 'Estate' is one of the statement cars of European vehicle design. Cabriolets have their place in that world, as do sedans, et al., however the Estate represents an 'ideal'; perhaps this vehicle was conceived in a post WWII world, but it represents an ideal of ones ability to toss some mental rigidness to the side, and enjoy the country, escape to the Estate. In the time Aston Martin, Rolls Royce, Jaguar, and others produced similar vehicles. Early Mercedes wagons included the 170 V , supplied by Lueg (Bochum) from 1953 as a station wagon, while at the end of the 1950's Binz (Lorch) produced an estate version of the classic Mercedes 300. Mercedes internal series production of the S 123 Estate model commenced in April 1978 at the Bremen factory.

In an era of copy-cars, the Mercedes wagon remains rather unique; somewhat under the radar. This is a vehicle providing usefulness, practicality, unique-ness, and possessing a drivability coefficient that is significant. I have driven all manners of vehicles, this motorcar is most special. Now I need an E63s!

DFWdude

LOL! I have a difficult time attributing SUV status to a vehicle that evolved from a lowest bidder govt contract for a WWII Army vehicle, a 4-wheel improvement on a military motorcycle. So what if it became the "Cherokee" when it added a roof and real doors in 1984? This was an answer to market demand for practicality, not any real proactive decision by ******/Ford/Jeep/AMC/Daimler Chrysler/FIAT/Stellantis/yadda yadda.

Ima think the honor goes to the Ford Bronco, although I couldn't care less for either vehicle. Neither qualifies as an Estate Wagon.

TennesseeZ4

I would have to throw in the Chevrolet K5 Blazer / GMC Jimmy from 1969 as the expansion of the 'trend'; obviously the Texas Cadillac (n.e. Chevrolet Suburban) fits that mold as well. The Bronco was out first, and others followed, but the acceptance of the SUV in my part of the world, really took off with the introduction of the GM products.

Alan Smithee

If the SUV is defined as we now know it…a lifted four door unibody…the Cherokee may have been the first in 1984. But to bring this back around, the current All-Terrain dates back to a different AMC product…the Eagle.

Even though the American station wagon, complete with rear facing third row, was an institution for many decades before the first ‘estate’ was built by Mercedes in 1979?

TennesseeZ4

IMO, different in concept and execution: the American land yacht wagons were just immense. Even my Dad's 1957 two door Ford 'ranch wagon', or his 1959 Chevrolet Impala wagon, were just large. While the American 'wagon' was certainly an institution at the youth baseball park, the Estate in Europe presented more of a graceful vehicle for country jaunts; similar to the shooting brake vehicles in concept. Both wagon variants having their place, my preference is the European version, and the MB E class wagon has been one of the best available.

The BMW 5 series remains of value in the States, as do the older versions of the E class; Volvo retains their wagon, and Audi continues with the All Road and the RS versions; US manufacturers (with the exception of the Opel based Buick wagon) have abandoned the genre, going all in on the SUV; and it appears that the Europeans are migrating there as well. Homogenization in the automotive business will soon place all of us in a relative box of some type, blobs as someone mentioned earlier.

My preference is to have some automotive individuality, and the E class wagon provides that, along with good performance, respectable fuel consumption, and flexibility of usage: this is our third wagon. Under the current manufacturers mindset to move away from the Euro-wagon, those out there have almost a cult following.

NorseWagon

The Buick is gone as well, 2020 was the last model year in the US. (I had a 2019)
It was a good wagon, but much lighter than the E-450. Only a 2.0 liter motor, but 250 hp.
Bought it brand new for $28.5K January 2020, (Sticker was $37.5K) sold it September 2021 to Carmax for $27K.
Bought Kroger Grocery stock for the $27k, the stock grew to $33k in 3 months.
The car paid for itself, then some..

Alan Smithee

Sounds glamorous, but where I grew up in the 80s, Mercedes and Volvo wagons were used interchangably with American and Japanese wagons of all sizes. A few had already adopted SUVs, and really big families had Suburbans or vans.

I'm the one who mentioned the blobs.

The G Man

Depending on where you are, in the US, Mercedes are considered luxury cars. In Europe, Mercedes could be anything from a taxi to a executive cars. Mercedes load up all the US models with options to increase profit. One thing common between all Mercedes, they do last a long time, especially the diesels.

NorseWagon

Yup, I drove Mercedes taxi cabs in Europe, started when I was 20 years old,
Used the money for a flight school in the US and after a few years of flying for a living bought my own MBs.
No more taxi driving, 16 hours a day, snow and ice, steep hills, no 4-wheel drive, no ABS brakes back then in 1976, instead I took drunks home
from night clubs and bars.

Hundens

The wagons are loaded up with options yes indeed. I could do without the weight and complexity of the 4-Matic and I would much rather have a spare tire instead of that I expect incredibly expensive third row seat.

fleuger99

I'll be hanging on to my 2020 E-wagon forever then. I definitely don't see Volvo as an alternative. I test drove the V90 T6 and was very disappointed. The 4 cylinder is unrefined and noisy, power output is pathetic and it struggled to merge onto the highway. The interior is decent material wise but it had about 25% less cargo space than my previous 2015 XC70 T6. I've owned several Volvo's but don't like them anymore.

thenothingblack

I understand that wagons are a pretty small market now and a company cant keep producing something that only a few people buy every year, but this is still a shame to hear. I may be biased, but I really do think wagons are a better option than SUVs for the average person (assuming price is not an option since most newer German wagons are fairly expensive, but then again so are new SUVs). Most wagons have more cargo space than SUVs and get better gas mileage, in addition to better handling. SUVs definitely have their use cases and I understand that lots of people just flat out prefer them now, but I think a lot of people (especially in America) are sleeping on the wagons true usability.

Streamliner

Well, yes and no. Most MB passenger vehicles sold these days are full of electronics and other sophisticated systems that tend to not age well. The basic power trains may be close to bulletproof, but all of the ancillary electronics, hydraulics, etc. can easily require repairs that are so expensive, that keeping these modern vehicles for much beyond the extended warranty period, gets to be reasonably close to playing roulette—Russian roulette. That is “THE” reason these cars plummet in value on the used car market and I truly believe they are designed to be that way, so customers keep buying new ones.