Archives

Car August Year to Date
Caliber/Compass/Patriot - 9,643 - 133,490
Vibe - 6,243 - 33,154
Scion XB - 4,626- 35,637
Journey - 4,587 - 30,767 3 months
Saab 9-3/5 -2,160 - 20,195 All models
Ford Flex -2,010- 5,593 Introduced in June
VW Tiguan (SUV)-1,071 -3,600
VW SportWagen - 867 - 1,481 Introduced in June
VW Passat - 488 - 4,577 Wagon only
Volvo V70 -195- 2,531 Wagon only
Dodge Magnum - 148 - 6,742


Volvo Sales fall off cliff
Ford Flex and Journey have good first 3 months
VW Sportwagen selling as fast as VW can shio them
Chrysler's Caliber/Compass/Patriot model sales slightly down, but still best selling wagon

Ford should have pushed the Focus wagon instead of killing it . Shame that they made that decision before this fuel price runup. It is a better little vehicle than the Caliber.

The Magnum -with the smallest V-6 ,a 2.7 lt - gets "not too bad FE". Shame the Magnum is tanking. With a really good 4 cyl it could be a winner (and it could probably carry 4x8 material suitably modded-).
Charlie

Charlie,

Agreed, the Magnum has a fine large Station Wagon platform. The Magnum would be a winner with a 4-banger option. Chrysler even has a decent 4 banger with approx. 135 HP - shoot driving at 55 MPH; I bet a 4 banger Magnum would get easy 38-40 MPG.

Instead the engine choices are overpowered and waaaaaaay overpowered.


sad

The Focus wagon was a total dog and deserved to be killed.

We have 4 in our fleet and every single one has left someone stranded, chewed through tires faster than any car should, deteriorated in overall ride quality faster than any car should, and two have had transmission problems.

All of them have less than 40,000 miles on them.

Sorry to hear that about the Ford, it is a shame that Ford isn't making a 103" - 110" wheelbase station wagon which is simply a standard family sedan with a different rear end.

@vooch

The 2.7 in the magnum is about as weak as a most people could stand. All those cars based on that chassis are pretty heavy.

With a 4 cylinder, I can't see it going 0-60 in under 15 seconds, must people expect to be passed a quartermile by then.

cmoney44 - shame about that, but being a wagon had nothing to do with it being a dog. Ford screwed up I guess on those years of the Focus. I liked its size and the styling was OK. The drivetrain, electrics,tires, wheels are all but the same as the sedan.

Like Vooch said ,a stationwagon is just a sedan with a roofline extended back and the trunk deleted. It usually has a sharp drop in the rear rather than the more rounded hatchback (which is pretty much a stationwagon with a rounded rear instead of a flat rear.
I'm generally not a Ford booster-Found On Road Dead -Fixed On Road Daily -little more truth to the slur from GM boosters than is good for Ford. By most accounts Ford has improved QC quite a bit in the last 6-8 years.
Charlie

Charlie

Volvo is getting killed over the exchange rate. Average car is over priced 5K to 10K dollars.

Phloebeisis, I think the wagons might have been made in a different factory than the sedans.

Not sure though.

I do know that all hatch models were made in Mexico and actually enjoyed much better reliability records than the wagons.

Go figure.

cmoney- wow- guess I will quit looking for a Focus wagon as a potential Suburban replacement. It is kinda small, so I'm not too disappointed. The Taurus wagon is a better replacement. Wish Chevy had a true wagon. They quit building the big wagonsi n the mid 90's I think.

Charli

I think that's a good idea ;)


As for the Volvos, I can't help but think their horrendous FE might be hurting their sales too.