Buick used the Estate name on their full-size station wagon

Station wagon

A station wagon is a body style variant of a sedan/saloon with its roof extended rearward over a shared passenger/cargo volume with access at the back via a third or fifth door , instead of a trunk lid...

s.

The first Buick Estate used a wooden body and was offered on the 1940 Super

Buick Super

The Buick Super is a full-sized automobile produced from 1940–1958 ; it was built on Buick's larger body shared with the Roadmaster. It and the Roadmaster were replaced by the new Electra in 1959....

 model. It was available on Buick's B-body

GM B platform

The B platform, or B-body, was General Motors' full-size rear-wheel drive automobile platform. It was closely related to the C-body and D-body and was used for coupés, sedans, and station wagons....

 Special

Buick Special

In 1962, the Special was the first American car to use a V6 engine in volume production; it earned Motor Trends Car of the Year for 1962. This 198 in³ Fireball was engineered down from the 215 and used many of the same design parameters, but was cast in iron. Output was 135 hp at...

 series in 1941 and 1942, and later on Buick's larger C-body

GM C platform

The General Motors C platform was an automobile platform designation used for full sized luxury cars until 2005.-Rear wheel drive:...

 (Roadmaster

Buick Roadmaster

The Roadmaster was an automobile built by the Buick division of General Motors. Roadmasters produced between 1936 and 1958 were built on Buick's longest non-limousine wheelbase and shared their basic structure with senior Oldsmobiles. Between 1946 and 1957 the Roadmaster was Buick's top of the line...

 and Super) in the 1946-53 model years. From 1954-1958 it was only offered on the smaller B-body Century

Buick Century

Buick Century is the model name used by the Buick division of General Motors for a line of full-size performance vehicles from 1936 to 1942 and 1954 to 1958, and from 1973 to 2005 for a mid-size car....

 and Special, with all steel bodies. Among these were hardtop

Hardtop

A hardtop is a term for a rigid, rather than canvas, automobile roof. It has been used in several contexts: detachable hardtops, retractable hardtop roofs, and the so-called pillarless hardtop body style....

 Estate Wagons called Caballero that were offered only in 1957 and 1958.

From 1959 through 1964 it was still offered on the B-body which had been renamed Invicta

Buick Invicta

The Buick Invicta was a full-sized automobile produced by General Motors' Buick Motor Division from 1959 to 1963. The Invicta was a continuation of the Buick Century concept that mated the standard size Buick LeSabre body with Buick's larger 401 in³ Nailhead V8 engine, yielding what was referred...

 and LeSabre

Buick LeSabre

1959LeSabre and all other 1959 Buicks not only got new names, but all-new styling as well, adopting the new GM B- and C-body used on all of the corporation's full-sized cars...

.

The model was reintroduced on the B-body in 1970 and was simply called Estate Wagon.

From 1971 to 1976, the Estate Wagon was built on the C-body and used a 'Clamshell' design where the rear power-operated glass slid up into the roof as the tailgate (manually or with power assist), dropped below the load floor. The power tailgate, the first in station wagon history, ultimately supplanted the manual tailgate, which required marked effort to lift from storage. The Clamshell system — heavy and complex — remained un-adopted by any other manufacturer. Its first year, 24,034 were sold. The 1971-1976 models were the largest station wagons ever built. http://www.stationwagon.com/faq.html#q12 The Estate used the Buick 455 from 1970 to 1976

In 1977, the Estate Wagon was downsized and relaunched on General Motors' B-body. In 1979 an Estate Wagon Limited was offered with many extra cost options included as standard. To further differentiate the Limited model, fenders included four venta ports (up from three) and the interior had loose pillow designed seating. In 1980 body changes made the wagon more aerodynamic for better fuel efficiency. Also in 1980, the Electra Estate Wagon was introduced and replaced the Estate Wagon Limited. The 'base' model was called the LeSabre Estate Wagon. The Electra Estate model name was used in 1988 and 1989 even though the Electra

Buick Electra

The Buick Electra was a full-size premium automobile built by the Buick division of General Motors. The Electra name was used by Buick between 1959 and 1990.- 1959–1960 :...

 sedan used the front wheel drive C platform

GM C platform

The General Motors C platform was an automobile platform designation used for full sized luxury cars until 2005.-Rear wheel drive:...

. In 1990 the Estate model name was used, even though the Electra name was used for the its final model year, 1990, for the sedan models. After the Buick V8's discontinuation, the Estate initially came with either the Olds 307 or Olds 350 diesel.

Buick revived the venerable Roadmaster name with the introduction of the Roadmaster Estate in 1991. A "Vista Roof", a fixed sunroof over the second row seats, was standard. Initially the Roadmaster Estate used Chevrolet

Chevrolet

Chevrolet , also known as Chevy , is a brand of vehicle produced by General Motors Company . Founded by Louis Chevrolet and ousted GM founder William C. Durant on November 3, 1911, General Motors acquired Chevrolet in 1918...

's 5.0 L small-block V8, but used the larger 5.7 L version from 1992. GM discontinued the Roadmaster Estate in 1996, ending production on December 13 of that year. This was largely a response to the SUV craze, as the Arlington, Texas

Arlington, Texas

Arlington is a city in Tarrant County, Texas within the Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area. According to the 2010 census results, the city had a population of 365,438, making it the third largest municipality in the Metroplex...

 factory where RWD GM cars were built was converted to truck

Truck

A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, with the smallest being mechanically similar to an automobile...

and SUV production. When discontinued, the Roadmaster Estate and the similar Chevrolet Caprice wagon brought up the end of the era of the full-size family station wagon.

Sources

• Flory, J. "Kelly", Jr. American Cars 1960-1972. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Coy, 2004.