From 1987 to 1996, Toyota sold new Camry station wagons in North America. While the first-year longroof Camry can still be found in junkyards, the final-year cars are more elusive. However, one was recently spotted in a Silicon Valley car graveyard in April. Despite the decline in wagon popularity since the 1970s, someone was willing to buy this car and keep it on the road for 27 years.

Car shoppers in North America had been losing interest in wagons since the year of Peak Wagon in 1977. The trend towards de-wagon-ification accelerated with the rise of minivan sales in the 1980s and the SUV craze in the 1990s. By 1996, Toyota showrooms had the RAV4 and the Previa to lure away potential Camry Wagon buyers, with the increasingly macho 4Runner standing by to snare those who didn’t mind driving a truck with a jouncy truck ride.

While some may expect a member of Generation X to be a fanatical supporter of station wagons, the author’s personal experience with wagons is limited. However, they believe that station wagons make more sense for most real-world applications than nearly all SUVs and most minivans. It is disappointing that they have been shunned so thoroughly.

This particular Camry wagon racked up a respectable final mile count of 226k, though this is not noteworthy by Camry standards. Used-up Camrys with better than 300,000 miles on their odometers can be found, including an ’87 wagon with 322,110 miles. This car has the base 2.2-liter four-cylinder and 125 horsepower, though the 1996 Camry could also be purchased with a 188-horse V6.

While new Camry sedans were still available in the United States with manual transmissions in 1996, the last year for a three-pedal Camry wagon was 1991. The 1992-1996 Camry wagons had cool-looking dual rear wipers and were called the Scepter in Japan, where they were an American import.

In conclusion, while station wagons may not be as popular as they once were, they still make sense for many real-world applications. This 1996 Toyota Camry wagon may not have been the most powerful or luxurious car on the market, but it served its purpose for 27 years and is a testament to the longevity of Toyota vehicles.