7 Of The Most Famous Movie And TV Station Wagons Ever

The origin of the station wagon can be traced back to the Model T Depot Hack, which was so named for its intended purpose of ferrying passengers and their luggage to and from train depots. That function also inspired the label "station wagon," and the body style grew in popularity throughout the 20th Century.  Those of us who grew up in the 1970s and '80s recall years of fighting with siblings over who got to sit in "the way way back" of our family's wagon, and many Gen Xers learned to drive (and parallel park) in these unwieldy beasts.

The station wagon was eventually displaced as a family cruiser by the minivan and then the SUV, but wagons have lived on in our memories and in pop culture. If you want to buy a 2024 station wagon, you have to visit an Audi, Mercedes, Porsche, Subaru, Volvo, or Mini dealer, but American-made wagons are still among the most recognizable TV and movie cars in history. Let's shine a well-deserved spotlight on some of the most famous wagons to ever grace the big and small screens.

In the pilot episode of "That '70s Show," crabby dad Red Forman (Kurtwood Smith) passes his family's 1969 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser on to his son Eric (Topher Grace). The Vista Cruiser earned a place on our list of discontinued wagons we'd like to see resurrected, thanks in part to its inclusion on the show and its transparent roof and side panels. The Vista Cruiser is highlighted in the show's opening sequence, when the main characters are seen in different combinations cruising and singing along to the show's theme song.

When the show wrapped in 2006, Wilmer Valderrama — who appeared on all 200 episodes as foreign exchange student Fez  — bought the non-running car used on the show for $500. On an episode of "Jay Leno's Garage," Valderrama told Leno that he wanted the car as a reminder of what the show meant to him. "I was about to turn 18 when I booked 'That '70s Show,'" he said. "That's when I knew everything was possible."

Throughout the five seasons of "The Brady Bunch," family patriarch Mike Brady (Robert Reed) is seen behind the wheel of various Plymouth and Chevrolet convertibles, but his wife Carol (Florence Henderson) drives a brown Plymouth Satellite station wagon. Mike's salary as an architect was apparently enough to buy new cars on a regular basis. Over the show's five seasons, he drove five different convertibles, none more than a year old. 

The family also had a new brown wagon every year, moving from a 1969 model to a 1973 as the series progressed from 1969 through 1974. The family even uses the wagon to tow a pop-up camper in the Season 3 premiere, "Ghost Town, U.S.A." — the first chapter of a three-episode arc in which the family stops at a ghost town on their way to the Grand Canyon. 

A delusional local played by Jim Backus, who at the time was also playing Thurston Howell on "Gilligan's Island," steals the wagon and locks the Bradys in jail. Mike and middle son Peter (Christopher Knight) manage to recover the car and trailer in the second episode, and the family continues on to the famous national landmark. 

While "The Brady Bunch" shows the usually positive interactions of a harmoniously blended family, the  2013 comedy/drama "The Way Way Back" demonstrates that a union of divorced or separated parents and their children doesn't always go smoothly. The story follows Trent (Steve Carell) and Pam (Toni Colette), a couple on summer vacation in Wareham, Massachusetts with their teenage children along for the ride in a 1970 Buick Estate station wagon. Liam James plays Pam's son Duncan, who sheds his shy persona after befriending Owen (Sam Rockwell), the manager at a local water park. The film also features Rob Corddry, Amanda Peet, and Allison Janney in supporting roles. Carell's Trent is wholly unredeemable, cheating on Pam and treating Duncan with open disdain. 

Despite lack of support from any adult in his life aside from Owen, Duncan discovers a new, confident self over the course of the summer. His transformation is highlighted by the two rides he takes in the station wagon's third-row seat at the beginning and end of the vacation. During the latter trip, Pam crawls from the passenger seat to the way way back to join him, marking a shift in priorities from her failing relationship with Trent to a salvageable one with her son. The station wagon is only seen for a few fleeting moments beyond the two bookend scenes, but the contrast between the Duncan we see on the two rides is remarkable and heartwarming.

"Breaking Bad" transportation coordinator Dennis Milliken worked with series creator Vince Gilligan to select vehicles that matched the personalities of the show's main characters, leading to the selections of some great "Breaking Bad" cars. Mike Ehrmentraut (Jonathan Banks) and his boss Gustavo Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) got more inconspicuous cars to match their under-the-radar way of operating. Mike's Chrysler Fifth Avenue reflects his background as a police officer, and Fring's blue 1998 Volvo V70 station wagon is meant to cloak him in the guise of being nothing more than a fast-food franchise owner. 

His wagon is nearly 10 years old when Gus makes his first appearance near the end of Season 2, and it's well past a dozen by the time he meets his end in the Season 4 finale. Producers gave Esposito the car after production on "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul" were complete, and he sold it via auction in 2022.

In the 1977 pilot episode of "Fantasy Island," guests are ferried around in a red Jeep with a striped awning, but later episodes featured a similarly styled right-hand drive 1978 Plymouth Volare wagon serving the same function. The Volare was Jeepified; the doors and roof were removed and a canvas top with broad red and white stripes was mounted above the seating areas. 

The Volare and its Mopar twin, the Dodge Aspen, debuted in 1976 and won Motor Trend's Car of the Year Award that year. Chrysler sold more than a million of the two new F-body models in their first two years, accounting for more than half of Dodge and Plymouth's sales. Unfortunately for all those buyers, the Aspen and Volare turned out to be utter junk. Faulty hood latches, seat belt tensioners, suspensions, and more led to the models eventually becoming the most-recalled cars in automotive history at the time. Despite these issues, one chopped-up example did just fine cruising around Fantasy Island for a few years. If you have a reciprocating saw handy and want to recreate the Fantasy Island Volare wagon, Classic.com has some listings for 1978 models for between $6,000 and $12,000.

It might be a stretch to categorize a converted ambulance as a station wagon, but considering the structural similarities and the fact that the Ecto-1 from the 1984 smash hit "Ghostbusters" is one of the most famous movie cars of all time, we must include it here. 

The Ecto-1 was originally a 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor ambulance, outfitted with an array of ghost-hunting and trapping gear by the team of Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Raymond Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis), and Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson). "Ghostbusters" earned an Oscar nomination for best visual effects, and Ray Parker's theme song picked up another Oscar nomination along with a BAFTA for best original song. 

The comedy earned nearly $300 million worldwide and spawned four spin-offs and sequels. The 1959 Caddy wagon version of the Ecto-1 has appeared in every film except the 2016 remake. For that installment, the Ecto-1 was a modified 1984 Cadillac Victoria hearse. The car's model year served as an homage to the original film.

George Barris has built some of Hollywood's coolest custom cars, and one of his most memorable is undoubtedly the Wagon Queen Family Truckster, the vehicular star of the 1983 comedy "National Lampoon's Vacation." Barris built five Trucksters for the film from 1979 Ford LTD Country Squire wagons, adding more wood paneling and multiplying the stock headlight count to eight. Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) ends up with the monstrosity after falling victim to a bait-and-switch by a car salesman played by Eugene Levy, but Clark is forced to accept the deal when his trade-in, a 1982 Chrysler Cordoba wagon, is crushed by the dealership. The Family Truckster is painted in the hideous shade of "Metallic Pea" and  carries the Griswolds on a disastrous road trip from Chicago to the Walley World theme park in California.

"Vacation" was a springboard for Chase's career, along with those of director Harold Ramis and writer John Hughes. The franchise grew to seven films by 2015, and the most recent of them saw the return of the Family Truckster. Despite its objective lack of appeal in both form and function, the Truckster has been replicated many times by fans, including a real-life couple with the Griswold name. Another replica built from a 1985 Ford LTD wagon sold for $28,600 in 2020.