Station Wagon

If anecdotal evidence gleaned from trips through L.A.'s moneyed coastal enclaves like Malibu, Pacific Palisades and Manhattan Beach is any indication, there's a new automotive trend for the outdoorsy yuppie. It's a station wagon. Too culturally sensitive to be caught in an SUV, yet ever mindful of the curbside erratum that is the minivan, those with an active lifestyle or projection thereof clearly seem to be finding solace in the 2013 Audi Allroad. The car is essentially a more rugged yet equally sophisticated cousin of the A4 station wagon (nee Avant)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The owner of an auto body shop near the home of the Boston bombing suspects said the younger brother appeared in his  store on Tuesday, nervous and demanding his car immediately. Two weeks ago, said 44-year-old Gilberto Junior, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had brought in a white Mercedes 1967 station wagon to have the damaged rear bumper repaired. He said it belonged to his girlfriend.  That was not unusual: Tsarnaev often brought in cars for wealthy friends from Boston University and MIT, Junior said, and always paid in cash.  What was strange was that the man showed up Tuesday wanting the car back early, clearly agitated.  "He was very nervous, biting his nails, agitated," Junior said.

One of the quirkiest trends in the auto industry is Ford's success at selling the massive Flex in California. This is an odd vehicle - kind of a 1950s' Woody meets a 1970s Ford Country Squire station wagon. The Flex, however, is the third-best-selling full-size sport-utility vehicle in California through September, according to a report from AutoCount, the car data division of Experian Co., and the California New Car Dealers Assn. The Flex, which starts at about $30,000, is counted in that category but really is an SUV-styled station wagon.

You're too cool for a station wagon and no fan of SUVs. But you still want your German luxury wrapped in a practical package, so what do you do? BMW hopes you'll consider its new 3-Series Gran Turismo. Answering a question no one seems to have asked, this four-door hatchback is an all-new model for BMW and mimics the company's larger 5-Series GT version. It's almost eight inches longer than the forthcoming 3-Series wagon and sits a little more than three inches higher. Photos: 2014 3 Series GT hatchback announced This gives rear passengers more legroom than the 3-Series sedan or wagon and expands the cargo area by a cubic foot.

Ten passengers on an RTD bus were slightly injured Monday afternoon when a 17-year-old girl driving a station wagon turned left into the bus at a Northridge intersection, Los Angeles police reported. The driver, whose name was not released because she is a minor, also received minor injuries, but her car was crushed "like an accordion," said Officer Paul McMillin. The bus passengers complained of neck and back injuries, McMillin said, and the girl received a bruise on her head and leg cuts.

Let's make the point by word association: station wagon. Webster's--barely able to cork its enthusiasm--says it's an automobile with more cargo space than a comparable sedan, plus a rear seat that folds flat and a rear door hinged at any of four sides. Let's get serious. Station wagon: * Yards of tin stamped and painted to look like hickory ribs riveted to mahogany paneling. Given enough acid rain, the look matures to shelf paper around an Altoids box.

A station wagon hit a Ventura Freeway guard rail near Seacliff and was sheared in two early Monday morning, leaving a passenger with back injuries and cuts. Esther Lee, 24, of British Columbia, remained in fair condition at Ventura County Medical Center after the accident that police said occurred when the driver fell asleep at the wheel. Lee and Jin Kang, 20, of Riverside were traveling south on the Ventura Freeway on a nonstop trip from Seattle, according to California Highway Patrol reports.

Probably we'll not own another station wagon. You live life once, and those days will never come again. I say it with the same sharp ache of separation a general must feel for his last command, or an octagenarian for his lost teeth. The blue station wagon was a wonder. It carried us 237,000 miles--more than nine and one-half equatorial circumferences of the Earth. In memory, that splendid machine represents a time when we had it all.

A domestic airliner hit a station wagon and crashed while trying to land in southeastern Brazil, killing a woman and her 4-year-old son, a TAM Regional Airlines spokesman said. All 39 people aboard the plane survived. The spokesman said the 48-seat, twin-engine Fokker turboprop crashed at Bauru, 220 miles from Sao Paulo. The pilot and co-pilot were hospitalized, and some passengers were treated for minor scrapes and bruises.

Three people were injured, two critically, when a car traveling an estimated 90 m.p.h. struck the rear of a slower moving compact car Sunday in North Hollywood, police and fire officials said. The compact burst into flames after it was shoved nearly 500 feet onto the front lawn of a house.

If anecdotal evidence gleaned from trips through L.A.'s moneyed coastal enclaves like Malibu, Pacific Palisades and Manhattan Beach is any indication, there's a new automotive trend for the outdoorsy yuppie. It's a station wagon. Too culturally sensitive to be caught in an SUV, yet ever mindful of the curbside erratum that is the minivan, those with an active lifestyle or projection thereof clearly seem to be finding solace in the 2013 Audi Allroad. The car is essentially a more rugged yet equally sophisticated cousin of the A4 station wagon (nee Avant)

If anecdotal evidence gleaned from trips through L.A.'s moneyed coastal enclaves like Malibu, Pacific Palisades and Manhattan Beach is any indication, there's a new automotive trend for the outdoorsy yuppie. It's a station wagon. Too culturally sensitive to be caught in an SUV, yet ever mindful of the curbside erratum that is the minivan, those with an active lifestyle or projection thereof clearly seem to be finding solace in the 2013 Audi Allroad. The car is essentially a more rugged yet equally sophisticated cousin of the A4 station wagon (nee Avant)

The Ford Flex is an odd vehicle - kind of a 1950s woody meets a 1970s Ford Country Squire station wagon - and seemingly out of place in a state where the 50-mile-per-gallon Toyota Prius hybrid is the top seller. Yet, in one of the quirkiest trends in the auto industry, the massive Flex is one of the bestselling full-size sport utility vehicles in California this year. It is selling well even though gas prices are at record levels. The Flex gets about 20 miles per gallon and costs about $75 to fill up. "It has this retro style," said Joyce Solodovnikov, a part-time interior designer from Santa Barbara who finds the seven-seat Flex useful for size, comfort and hauling her six grandchildren around.

One of the quirkiest trends in the auto industry is Ford's success at selling the massive Flex in California. This is an odd vehicle - kind of a 1950s' Woody meets a 1970s Ford Country Squire station wagon. The Flex, however, is the third-best-selling full-size sport-utility vehicle in California through September, according to a report from AutoCount, the car data division of Experian Co., and the California New Car Dealers Assn. The Flex, which starts at about $30,000, is counted in that category but really is an SUV-styled station wagon.

Surely you've heard the story about Mitt Romney's dog. If you haven't, just wait. The more desperate the GOP primary campaign gets, the more likely you are to hear it again. In 1983, a 36-year-old Romney and his wife and five young boys piled into the family station wagon for a 12-hour drive from Boston to Lake Huron in Canada. As was the custom, Seamus, their Irish setter, rode in a crate strapped to the top of the car. Somewhere along the way, the dog began to experience, shall we say, digestive trouble that made its presence known via, uh, streaks on the back windshield.

The last surviving Brown Derby restaurant building, a link to the golden age of Hollywood, is on the market for $10.6 million. Now an Italian restaurant and bank, the domed structure at the intersection of Los Feliz Boulevard and Hillhurst Avenue was the fourth Brown Derby, a small restaurant chain popular with the entertainment industry. The owners, a group led by Adler Realty Investments Inc., let go of plans they had in the mid-2000s to raze the building and build a dense residential and retail complex.

From women fleeing the stigma of being a "minivan mom" to skiers seeking a snow-going alternative for the ubiquitous sport utility vehicle, a growing cadre of car shoppers is rediscovering the station wagon. It seems that in some quarters it's cool to be square. The boxy station wagon, almost killed off by the minivan and the SUV in the 1990s, is staging a bit of a comeback. The shapes, though, are sleeker these days and the accoutrements posher.

The state is trying to determine what to do with a $36,000 customized station wagon it bought last June for outgoing state Controller Ken Cory, it was reported Wednesday. The Sacramento Union said the new GMC Suburban was delivered to Cory three months after he announced in March that he would not seek reelection. A spokesman for Cory, who leaves office Jan. 5, said the car was ordered before Cory decided not to run again. The vehicle was customized by a Fort Worth, Tex.

Never underestimate the significance of doors. More specifically, the significance of sliding side doors on a type of vehicle that doesn't ordinarily have them. The ease of sliding doors was the reason that, after a week with the 2012 Mazda5 hatchback, my 8-year-old son declared the car his favorite of all the vehicles he's experienced me testing. And he's been driven in a Ferrari 458 Italia, Land Rover LR4 and a whole host of other truly stunning cars. Obvious cost benefits aside, the Mazda5 is designed for everyone inside the car, not just the driver.

Shane Mosley may be nearing the end of his long boxing career as he prepares to fight the dominant Manny Pacquiao on Saturday. At 39, a fighter isn't likely to win against a younger, faster foe, especially one who is considered the world's greatest pound-for-pound fighter. Yet Mosley has accomplished what those close to him say is something far more crucial in his development as a human being. He has come to terms with something that happened 23 years ago, offering perhaps the richest understanding yet of the drive that carried the Pomona fighter to world-title belts in three weight classes.