Re: [T3] The term Variant

[Jens Vagelpohl <jens@dataflake.org>]

<x-flowed>The term "Variant" is a moniker that was created by Volkswagen for 
their own station wagons only. They started using it with the 
squareback and it is still in use on the new cars today. It is not a 
general name for any other brand's station wagons.

The habit of creating a naming convention for station wagons was not 
used by VW alone. I believe it's Peugeot that used (and might still 
use) the term "Break" for at least some of their station wagons. Fiat 
sometimes used "Familiale" I think. The names never designated a 
specific line of car, they were added to various model names to 
designate the station wagon models.

jens


> > So are all Squarebacks also called Variant? or just some of them.
> >
> > What is the meaning or history of this term?
> >
> > I notice that searching the web, for VW Variants, a whole lot of
> > cars show up that seem to have been referred to as a Variant,
> > so does it mean something in particular about the body style,
> > that is the same across VW's?
> >
> >
> > --fess
> > john fessenden
> > '71  FI MT square  ( in driveway )
> > '6?  square ( place in my heart. )
> > '6?  notch ( place in my heart. )
> > '67  bug ( in florida with brother )
> >
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org

</x-flowed>