Station Wagons: Time for a Comeback? | Original Article

ABSTRACT:

With the advent of nuclear families in metros, everything seems to be getting small. From houses to flats, laptops to tablets, sedans to hatches small seems to be the mantra. In the given scenario, the possibility of launching a station wagon seems pretty slim as they are big, do not look as smart as their counterparts and need bigger parking space. Hatchbacks seem to be the perfect choice. They are more practical, easy to maneuver in bumper to bumper traffic and return a good fuel economy. But what happens when a family decides to take a road trip to Manali, Goa or Kerala. Extremely compact boot space of hatchbacks, lack of safety features and less room makes it nearly impossible to take it out on Indian highways. That is where station wagons come into picture. Smaller station wagons like Indigo Marina can fill this void of adventurous nuclear families who like to go out on weekends and enjoy a perfect sunset away from the concrete jungles of an urban city. Then there are compact SUV’s giving fierce competitions to sedans. This paper is a humble effort to analyze the possibility of product differentiation by finding a niche in the ever-growing automotive sector for a station wagon to make a successful comeback.