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Station wagons seem to have gotten a bad reputation in recent years (maybe even decades), but I am hoping that is changing. That is because I have become a recent convert to the idea of a station wagon. When my compact car died last year, I was in a bind. Without the money for a used car and too strapped for big car payments every month, I had to buy an old station wagon off my brother-in-law, who was moving cross country and did not want to take the car with him.

I have had the car for nine months now. I am hoping it will last three more as one year was my original timeline for the car, and then we will be looking for a good used car to pick up. It did not take long for me to begin to like driving the wagon, a fact that amuses my husband to no end.

For starters, we needed something with more space. I was driving a small car, which I got when I was single and the thought of having children was far in the future. My husband drives a Chevrolet Cavalier, which is a decent car but still not good for long trips. We go camping and take a number of weekend trips, and we needed something bigger. Here is what we have found about station wagons.

First they have tons and tons of room. One of the complaints we have heard about the Dodge Magnum is that while it looks cool, there really is not a ton of cargo room in it. Our wagon is a Mercury Sable, which is a fairly popular brand of station wagon, and it could fit the entire contents of our living room in it. We take all of our camping gear, suitcases, and other stuff for trips to the lake in the back of the wagon. We have the rack on top, which is a pretty standard feature for station wagons, but we have not needed to use it.

The wagon also will fit furniture, including bookshelves and cribs, and tons of shopping goods. Station wagons actually have more room than many sport utility vehicles or mini-vans. The larger SUVs have huge seats that take up the back area, and drivers we know often talk about the lack of storage space for sporting gear and other kid-friendly stuff.

Speaking of kid-friendly, our station wagon was designed with carrying children around in mind. First, the seats sit high and the windows low so that even our toddler, who is still in a car seat, can see out of the windows while we are driving. It occupies him very well. Plus, the standard seats lie down. Mini-van commercials are touting the ease with which their seats lie down, but they have nothing on the wagon. We press a button, pull, and we are done. There is no twisting and turning and no removing seats from the car. Plus you can fold down only half of the seat so that one person still can ride in the back.

The car has a different social stigma from the mini-van or the SUV, but it is one that we enjoy. As a couple with one child and one on the way, we do have to think about transporting them. That means that we have to have plenty of room for the kiddos (and their car seats) and anything we get to go in the car. The mini-van mom is a sort of newly iconic figure, but she does not represent my style of parenting (or driving). I have no desire to be a soccer mom from the suburbs.

When we looked at SUVs, we kept coming back to one concern: the environment. Though we are not strict environmentalists, we try to do what we can, and the thought of driving an SUV was too much for our consciences to bear. The station wagon moms, though, are a bit more Bohemian, perhaps even a little hippie-ish, and that works for me. I am okay with that image, and all of the perks of driving the car (easier parking, more storage, and cool features), makes it worth it.