It's that time of the year again when we start to pore through automotive press kits to see what is changing for 2008. We use this info to update our databases and decide if the inevitable annual changes mean it's time to retest a car.

While leafing through stuff from Mazda, this cheery nugget caught my eye:
"To better meet customer demands for the Mazda6 Sports Sedan and 5-Door, the Mazda6 Sport Wagon will be discontinued for the 2008 model year."

Hmmmm. It doesn't seem like Mazda is short on production capacity for the sedan and hatchback. Last time I checked, there were plenty of Mazda6s in rental fleets; stats show that 43 percent of all 6's wind up as fleet vehicles. That sounds like they're building a few too many.

I'm guessing that this press release wording is just a nice way of saying that "No one bought the Mazda6 wagon, so we're canceling it." Given the slow sales, it would probably be a stretch to expect a new Mazda6 wagon when the car gets redesigned for 2009.

And there's more bad news for wagon fans in 2008. Subaru has been winnowing down their Legacy wagon line since the 2005 redesign. The Legacy GT wagon with a manual transmission? Gone for 2006. Now all Legacy wagons are dropped from Subaru's line-up for 2008. They fell victim to the much higher sales of almost identical Outback wagon (albeit with a higher ride height and plastic body-cladding). Subaru also dropped all Outback sedans to simplify the line. When the Chevrolet Malibu gets sleekly redesigned for 2008, the frumpy-but-practical hatchback/wagon Malibu Maxx is also getting the axe.

It's odd. Do wagons have to be SUV imitators (Volvo XC70 and Subaru Outback) or stuffed with a Hemi V8 (Dodge Magnum) to sell here? We often hear from people on our forums who crave an Acura TSX or Toyota Camry wagon as a less expensive or more reliable alternative to European wagons. Most European companies still sell wagons here; unfortunately, it seems that most Japanese or American auto makers would rather simply point to their SUVs as a wagon alternative. No doubt they sell better and they provide certain CAFE advantages, but SUVs often don't handle as well in our tests or return the same fuel economy as sedan-based wagons. Finally, some people just don't want to own a SUV.

Obviously, the appeals of a few voices in the crowd (count me in - I've owned two wagons) don't seem to be enough to support a broad selection of wagons. That's unfortunate--we're losing vehicles that blend practicality, better fuel-efficiency, and increased driving enjoyment in the process. Instead of hearing the traditional call of "Wagons Ho!" we'll instead hear a deafening "Wagons No."

--Tom Mutchler