You may have caught this 1956 DeSoto Firedome station wagon as our Pick of the Day earlier this week. What was most interesting about this chariot was its taillights, which were completely different than those found on DeSoto coupes and sedans. Through the 1950-60s, it seems that there were many station wagons that featured unique taillights that were completely different in design from their less utilitarian brethren.
Of course, if you’re a child of the 1970-80s, you may think, “Well, Mom’s Country Squire most certainly had different taillights from the sedan!” and you would not be wrong. However, hundreds of thousands of station wagons were built during this time, while the 1950 to early-60s were a time when wagons were picking up steam in America’s consciousness, if not in sales. Try finding, say, a 1961 Mercury Comet taillight (like in our lead image) over one for a 1971 Buick Estate Wagon — one is a wild goose chase, while the other was more of a common sight.
With the DeSoto’s inspiration, we have dug up images of station wagons with unique taillights. There’s a great chance that you may feel you’ve never seen them before, though it’s also possible that they were not memorable because, for a time, station wagons were not memorable.
Source: www.classiccars.com