Station Wagons Ride Back Into Style

Remember station wagons? Those fake-wood paneled, nine-passenger-and-a-load-of-suitcases vehicles, in which people used to stuff the kids in the way-way back…way back when?

Well, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Axelrod,they're back.

And they're appealing to upscale suburbanites like Marianne Lucey of Greenwich, Connecticut. She just dumped her Jeep for an Audi wagon.

"I think the dowdy image is really a thing of the past with these new wagons. You don't see those big clunkers on the road anymore," said Lucy.

She's right—you don't. Be it in a Volvo, Mercedes, or BMW, wagons are the perfect way to stand out in the country club parking lot these days—now that even the gardener is driving an SUV.

"People want to have cars and trucks and minivans and sports utilities that are the envy of their neighbors," said Keith Crain, publisher of Automotive News. And wagons are envied because today's models are definitely not your mother-s station wagon, unless your mother's wagon cost between $40,000 and $60,000 dollars, had an 8-cylinder engine and a stick shift.

Phillipe and Melanie Radley bought one. They fit the profile perfectly.

"Empty nesters who want the comfort of a performance car and the fun of a performance car but still have dogs, skis, bicycles and have to cart things around," said Melanie Radley.

This year, BMW expects to double the number of wagons it sold last year. Other auto makers are enjoying a similar ride. a profitable trip to a bright future on road named memory lane.