I was thinking about another car evolution that has happened in my lifetime. In the 1950, 60s and into the 70s, the family Prime Mover was the old station wagon.
In the 1960s Ford introduced the falcon Van, and in the 80s Dodge gave us the mini van, ( mostly Ford people defected to Chrysler and ran that program after Ford's upper management killed the idea at Ford). Those early vans and minivans had no real hood to speak of, and the engine was between the front seats. Then, they moved the engine out and gave it a short hood, with the engine still in the passenger compartment. Next generation pushed the engine even further out front, and now look at the latest vehicles, and its like they invented the station wagon all over.

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags