Do You Have A Weird Wagon You Can Bring To Wagonfest ’26 Next Weekend?

I went to Wagonfest last weekend, in my silver ’89 Volvo 240 wagon (aka 245). Here’s a photo of it parked between a couple of other Autopians, up on the roof of the Petersen garage:

https://imgur.com/a/U0UqvKe

Roughly a third of the maybe 150ish participating wagons were late-model German ones. Which is not surprising, given that actual recent wagons from American, Japanese, and Korean brands are mostly non-existant.

That’s fine and all, but after the first few dozen, all those low-slung, pricey, black Audi and Mercedes wagons sort of start to look the same.

There were a few genuinely charming early Japanese wagonettes, and one early 3-series BMW wagon that I’d love to own, and a big, bubbly, GM one (from the very early ’90s maybe?) with cool motorized vent windows all the way in the back by the C-pillar (from another Autopian). There was also one W123 Mercedes diesel wagon driven by a mom from central casting and her kids, and a few handsome W124 wagons too, which seem a bit petite when parked next to newer German wagons. BTW, lots of different wagons had folding rear-facing third-row seats (including mine).

Sadly there wasn’t a single Citroen DS wagon (you can always count on at least two or three of them at the Best of France & Italy car show at Woodley Park). Mine was the only old Volvo wagon of any kind, which surprised me, since 140/240 wagons were so popular back in the day. There was one low rider wagon with hydraulics, tons of chrome, and great paint. And I think there were 3-4 Saab wagons too, which are always great to see, and there were two Toyota Crown wagons, which were very nice (as you’d expect them to be). There was but a single Dodge Magnum, which (again) surprised me, given how many of those were on the street a couple decades ago. There were a few almost-wagons too: tall-roof/wagony Japanese hatchbacks, etc… and an Omni/Shelby GLH too, which is definitely a hatchback, but so what? 😉

Overall, it was a fine way to spend a cloudy Sunday morning in LA, even though I hate to leave the house so early. There was complimentary coffee and bagels, provided (I think) by Cars & Bids (apologies if it was someone else).

And thanks Autopian for the ticket! The Petersen Museum wanted $50 to bring a car (and the parking machine thing tried to charge another $21 to exit), so the free ticket was appreciated… I’d never have been able to rationalize attending otherwise.

I’d like to attend a Swedish car fest, since older Volvos and Saabs are so interesting (to me). There must be one around SoCal somewhere.