A station wagon, also called an estate car, estate wagon, or simply wagon, is an automotive body-style variant of a sedan/saloon with its roof extended rearward over a shared passenger/cargo volume with access at the back via a third or fifth door (the liftgate or tailgate), instead of a trunk lid.he first station wagons were a product of the age of train travel. They were originally called depot hacks because they worked around train depots as hacks (short for hackney carriage, an old name for taxis).