Our Versatile, Durable Pickup

America may have been the home of that great innovator Henry Ford, but the inventor of the gas-powered automobile was Carl Benz, a German, and most early car technology originated in Europe. Cupholders aside, two innovations that are distinctly American stand out: the station wagon and the pickup truck. In the 1950s, suburban American families fell in love with the station wagon—until they didn’t. The last American-made full-size station wagon was manufactured in 1996, replaced by the minivan and the SUV. Meanwhile, every mainstream European car company still has a station wagon in its lineup. These vehicles are called estate cars in Britain, kombis in Germany and Sweden, and breaks in France. The obscure origin of the last term is the shooting break, or break de chasse, a horse-drawn wagon that carried dogs and gear for hunting parties. Thus, like the British estate car, the French break conjures an image that is sporty and upper-class rather than suburban. Ironically, the origin of the plebeian American wagon is likewise upper-class: The first Ford station wagons—the charming woodies—were expensive vehicles, marketed to country estate owners and resorts to ferry their guests from the railroad station.