National Lampoon's Vacation | Image: Warner Bros.
Even in a cinema culture whose proverbial aisles are littered and clogged with bad reboots and sequels, the National Lampoon's Vacation reboot has been received particularly poorly by many fans of the franchise. This gives some a reason to look back fondly at the original National Lampoon's Vacation. Mental Floss does just that in this list of anecdotes about the film. Ready for a road trip? The Metallic Pea Wagon Queen Family Truckster's doors are open and it's ready to roll. And speaking of the Truckster,
"1. IT PRETTY MUCH KILLED THE STATION WAGON.
Griswold’s plan to cart his family from Chicago to California to visit Disneyland stand-in Walley World required a durable vehicle. Obviously, he didn’t get one. The unheralded star of the film is the Wagon Queen Family Truckster, a station wagon with eight headlights and a pea-green finish. The car was actually a Ford LTD Country Squire heavily modified to be as unattractive as possible, and it did the job a little too well: following the release of Vacation, station wagon sales plummeted. Also known as “estate” vehicles, the models were shortly replaced in popularity by minivans and, later, SUVs."
A car that cool helped destroy station wagon sales? Unthinkable.
That's a shame about station wagons. I've always appreciate them. They're quite practical.
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Vacation killed the station-wagon? But... but... Ghostbusters came out the next year!
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