While recording this week’s zany, alcohol-fueled podcast, the subject of rear-engined wagons came up somewhere. Back when one car model carried an entire lineup by itself, putting the engine in the back seemed like a great idea until it came time to actually get more room out of the back there, somehow.
Rear-engined wagons: they’re not just good for keeping your burrito warm; they feature actual usable storage space—front and back! After all, not many Family Trucksters can boast of having a cargo floor that’s at approximately nipple level, with just enough space for your luggage to ensure that you can’t see out the back. What’s underneath? Oh, just the most carbon-monoxide-churning impromptu luggage heater ever! Hope you’re not carrying plastic chairs or raw meat in the back!
How many rear-engined wagons can you name? I’ve picked out one of two low-hanging fruit already; you’ll just have to supply obscure Israeli-built continuations of Italian cars, or anything built under Soviet/Mexican/Greenland rule. After all, if these two low-hanging fruit could build pickup trucks, vans, and family sedans, and sell thousands to boot (no pun intended, if you’re British), then somebody out there must have thought it was a good idea too. Right? Right?
[Image source: Flickr]
Robert Crespo 
Jeff Glucker 
Kamil Kaluski
Surely the world has jest. I am the first???
<img src="http://www.allsportauto.com/photoautre5/renault/5/turbo/1/1980_renault_5_turbo_1_01_m.jpg">
<img src="http://i52.tinypic.com/25iupns.jpg"/>
Wait, what?
That is also mid-engined.
I'll take an easy one, and then keep learning from more obscure cars/comments.
So, here it is, Fiat 600 Multipla
<img src="http://storm.oldcarmanualproject.com/fiat/multi6000607s.jpg" width="500">
even in it's own ad it looks too small for that many people
<img src="http://storm.oldcarmanualproject.com/fiat/multi60001s.jpg">
Let's not forget it's slightly less spacious sibling, the 500 Giardiniera.
<img src="http://www.ma.by/files/images/e/4/1/25331.14047.282067.preview.jpg" />
I'll bet there are a few post-war Fiats that satisfy this EH. Here's a 2-door-wagon version of the 500.
<img src="http://i56.tinypic.com/nmbuxg.jpg" width="500"/>
Much as I'd like to continue as the lone voice of boosterism for the KV/KVS cause with these two gems:
the KV Mini 1 wagon:
<img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5092/5516235426_f2467a7b63.jpg" width="300">
and the KVS Mini 2 wagon:
<img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5057/5515644779_29408e716b.jpg" width="300">
I can't, because they're actually mid-engined, not rear-engined. Sorry.
Perhaps mid- and rear-engined should be defined as well.
I, for one, welcome our mid-engined wagon overlords.
Yes, because some of the posts so far are actually mid-engined specimens. The engine needs to be behind the rear axle, not just towards the rear of the vehicle, to qualify as rear-engined.
Here's a mid engined wagon:
<img src="http://www.sportscardigest.com/wp-content/uploads/1961-the-wagon-master-riviera-exhibition-dragster.jpg"width=500>
Hillman Husky. I'll leave it to someone else to point out the Corvair.
Yes, but only the '67-70 Husky. The earlier ones were front-engined.
Corvair Lakewood
<img src="http://www.shorey.net/Auto/American/GM/Chevrolet/Corvair/1962%20Chevrolet%20Corvair%20Lakewood%20Station%20Wagon2.jpg" width="500" />
very cool
Does this count?
<img src="http://blog.gessato.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/1930s-threewheeled-concept-car-the-Dymaxion-gblog-1.jpg">
<img src="http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/ss62/nomoregears/AWSshopper7890.jpg" width="400">
The 1971-74 AWS Shopper, based on the Goggomobil T250 chassis.
I think the Brasilia should count as a separate entry.
<img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2sOrOKKhF9s/SmtqT_f8XmI/AAAAAAAADco/qyl0WWplyXQ/s400/60.jpg"/>
Volkswagen EA128 – 1965 prototype for an American-sized rear-engined VW.
<img src="http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/236754.jpg" width=450>
Also, how about a Tatra ambulance prototype from the '60s? Is this awesome or what?
<img src="http://photos.igougo.com/images/p140629-Olomouc-The_TATRA_ambulance.jpg" width=450>
I knew there had to be a Tatra, I just could not find it! Thank you for posting this.
Skoda 1000MB Kombi Prototyp 1965
<img src="http://www.madle.org/og06skoda1000mbproto65.jpg">
Do you think if they made it today they would call it the Skoda 1GB Kombi?
Simca Fourgonnette (don't ask me the model)
<img src="http://blogautomobile.fr/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/simca_fourgonnette.jpg">
That's not rear engined – it's based on the early '50s front-engine/rear-drive Simca Aronde.
Damn!!! The Hooniverse is freakin' awesome!!!
This, if you listened to VW in the 60s.
<img src="http://www.vanagon.com/static/img/old/media/ads/ad_7_zoom.jpg" height=500 /img>
Chevy tried to pass off the Greenbrier as a "sports wagon."
<img src="http://www.cartype.com/pics/8100/full/chevrolet_corvair_greenbrier_sports_wagon_ad_64.jpg" width="500" />
I'd allow the wagon, but sports? Unless GM built a proto-RaceBus (which would kick copious amounts of ass), that's a bit of a stretch. I love it.
I would hope the Chevy engineers fitted at least one with the turbocharged engine. You know, for research…
Y'know, sports: huntin', fishin', campin'.
Did the pole dancers come as standard equipment?
Must…have…camper…unit.. .http://home.comcast.net/~mkellstrand/corvairs/camper.html
I'm not sure what class of car the Stout Scarab is supposed to be, but I think we can all agree that it has its engine in the back and a long roof.
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/Scarab_OHTM.JPG/320px-Scarab_OHTM.JPG"/>
Ahh, the love-child of a GM Futurliner and a '49 Nash Ambassador.
Technically mid-engine, but still badass.
<img src="http://www.globalmotors.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/ferrambo-17.jpg" width="500" />
I knew the early VW Gol use beetle engines but it turns out that they were front mounted. Ah well…
Maverick's wheelstander was mid-engine, but Outlaw's is clearly powered from behind.
<img src="http://www.draglist.com/artman2/uploads/2/B_9_Auto.jpg" width=500>
Slightly less impressive and I'm pushing the boundary between hatch and wagon, the Mitsubishi i.
<img src="http://www.autospectator.com/uploads/Mitsubishi/2007/i/Mits_i.jpg" width="400">
It's like a Smart with four doors.
If I was quicker on the draw, I'd have come up with some of these, but damn this bunch is good with this stuff.
Here's a rear-engined hatchback.
<img src="http://www.ronpatrickstuff.com/images/VW_Rear_Dr1_PScopy.jpg" width=600>
<img src="http://www.ronpatrickstuff.com/images/VW_Rear_Dr_Open1_PScopy.jpg" width=600>
<img src="http://www.ronpatrickstuff.com/images/AB12_15_05copy.jpg" width=600>
I think we can forgive it for not really being a wagon. We can, can't we?
With that hanging out the back I'll even forgive it for being a New Beetle.
seeing that car always makes me miss gunter… (my '02 NB) not that he had a jet engine sticking out the back.. but… still..
It's giving me terrible ideas for Entie (our '01)…