Wagon Queen Family Truckster

The Wagon Queen Family Truckster is a station wagon created specifically for the 1983 comedy National Lampoon's Vacation. The Truckster is based on a Ford LTD Country Squire station wagon that has been heavily modified.

The car was designed by George Barris (famous for other Hollywood custom cars such as the Batmobile, the Monkeemobile, and many others) and was deliberately designed in bad taste as a ridiculous station wagon, with absurdly over-the-top styling. The Truckster features overdone wood paneling, eight headlights — four on each side in a rectangular cluster, taken from another Crown Victoria/Country Squire — but inverted; a grille area largely covered by bodywork having only two small openings close to the bumper, similar to that of a 1982 Oldsmobile Toronado; a separate oil cooler grille, but no oil cooler; large chrome hubcaps with a huge crown logo; and a badly-placed fuel filler access door in the front passenger-side fender. Lampooning American cars of the 1970s, the engine knocked and rattled after shut down ("dieseled"), in a supposedly brand-new car, and had an airbag fashioned from a household trash bag.

In the film

Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) and his son Rusty (Anthony Michael Hall) arrive at the fictional Lou Glutz Motors at the movie's beginning and trade in their old station wagon, an Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser, for an unnamed Antarctic Blue Super Sportswagon with a Citizens' Band radio and the optional "Rally Fun Pack". The salesman Ed (played by Eugene Levy) attempts to fool Clark into buying the Truckster (because their lot is packed with unsold Trucksters, as the viewer can see at the beginning of the scene) by telling him the car he really wants has not arrived yet, and should be available in six weeks. When Clark argues with the salesman and eventually asks for his old car back, the dealership has already had it crushed. The salesman is not seen again, but Clark brings the Truckster home. He tells his wife it was "a great deal".

As the film progresses, the car is subjected to a large amount of abuse:

• In East St. Louis, Illinois, the hubcaps are stolen and graffiti reading "HONKY LIPS" is spray-painted on the side. The tire's sidewalls are also spray-painted green, leading cousin Eddie to later remark "I like those green walls", to which Clark replies "Yeah, we had a little trouble in St. Louis". Clark then falls asleep at the wheel and nearly wrecks the car, only to spin out and stop in a motel parking lot.
• At the first stop for fuel, Clark accidentally rips off the rear license plate, thinking that the filler cap was behind the license plate, where it was often located on 1960s- and 1970s-era American cars. Instead, the cap was located in the front passenger side, just behind the antenna, meaning that the tank was either in the front of the car or there was a long tube leading to the tank in back.
• In Arizona, Clark gets lost en route to the Grand Canyon and is too busy arguing with Ellen to realize the road is closed. He then drives the car off the road's end at high speed, flies through the air, and almost destroys it, popping all the tires, bending the axles, and obliterating the front end. He is able to get the car towed, but instead of receiving a properly repaired car, he gets four bald tires and is robbed of all his money by the garage manager (Mickey Jones), who also happens to be the County Sheriff.

In popular culture

• Several fans of the movie have created reproductions of the Family Truckster, and some may be seen at car shows and similar events.
• The only Truckster to survive filming is currently at the Historic Auto Attractions museum in Roscoe, Illinois.
• A Ford Taurus Wagon with a similar maroon-and-woodgrain scheme appears in Christmas Vacation.
• The car used in the movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles, a 1986 Chrysler Town and Country convertible, carries a similar paint scheme — metallic pea with woodgrain trim — in reference to the Family Truckster. That movie was directed by John Hughes, who wrote the screenplay for National Lampoon's Vacation basing it on his own experiences growing up.
• On The Fairly OddParents, the Turner family owned a station wagon that is the Turner Family Truckster.
• Vacation rental Web site HomeAway used a Truckster replica in a short film, Hotel Hell Vacation, and television advertisement during Super Bowl XLIV on February 7, 2010. Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo reprised their roles as Clark and Ellen Griswold on a road trip to see their son Rusty.
• The introduction to the television show Married with Children uses a clip from National Lampoon's Vacation, showing the Truckster merging from the on-ramp into highway traffic.