Station wagons & Shooting brakes

[twazerk]

When I was young my gran had an estate car that she refered to as a 'shooting brake' now more manufacturers are calling them 'station wagons'.
Why shooting brake and station wagon?

[jno]

I think station wagon is the American term; the usual British one is estate car. I guess if they only sold them to people who wanted to go shooting they wouldn't get many sales. Not that many customers have stations, of course, but they used to be taxis that picked you up at the station.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_brake

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estate_car

[scousejones]

In Australia and New Zealand a stock farm is called a station., hence Station Wagon

[saxy_jag]

'Shooting brake' goes back to the time before we had cars. It was a horse-drawn vehicle laden with food, refreshments and spare equipment etc. that accompanied the nobility on game shoots - as per the wiki article.