A station wagon or simply wagon in American, Australian and New Zealand usage and an estate car or just estate in British usage is an automobile with a body style similar to a sedan (saloon in British usage) but with an extended rear cargo area.
Certain cars with this body style have historically been called a shooting brake, a British term. A few models are referred to as a break, using the French term; and kombi or combi, from the German language term for this type, is also sometimes used (VW's name for a Kombi is Variant, Opel = GM's continental Europe division uses the word Caravan, Audi's wagons are called Avant). Another term once used by some American and Australian car makers is station sedan.citation needed]
Most station wagons are modified sedan-type car bodies, having the main interior area extended to the near-vertical rear window over what would otherwise be the enclosed area of the sedan version. A hatchback car, although meeting a similar description, would not enjoy the full height of the passenger cabin all the way to the back; the rear glass of a hatchback being sloped further from vertical, and the hatch tending not to reach fully to the rear bumper, as it commonly would in a station wagon. Station wagons also have side windows over the cargo area, whereas some hatchbacks have thick "C" pillars and no cargo area windows. Two exceptions to this rule include Rambler station wagons (1952–1962) on which the roof line subtly dipped down over the cargo area, and GM's Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser (1964–1972) and Buick Sportwagon (1964–1970) on which the rear roof section was slightly elevated and combined with four skylights; the "sportwagon" name has been popularised again in recent years by some manufacturers.
A station wagon is distinguished from a minivan (multi-purpose vehicle) or sport utility vehicle by still being a car, sharing its forward bodywork with other cars in a manufacturer's range. The popularity of the minivan in the 1980s and early 1990s is credited with the decline of the traditional station wagon.