I wish I fully understood my unceasing interest and appeal for cars that aggressively bite off more than they can chew. What I mean by this are cars that ambitiously want to do everything, or at least more than normal cars do. That’s why I like amphibious cars like the Amphicar, or strange Swiss Army Knife-like cars with movable flaps and panels that let them reconfigure themselves, like the Toyota bB Open Deck or the Chevy Avalanche’s midgate or the Skoda Felicia’s pop-up extra seats or the crazy jump seats in the bed of the Subaru Brat. I love the cleverness of all of these attempts, even though I know they rarely manage to do everything well, and the end result is usually a study in compromises. But I don’t care. I love that they tried. I think the grandfather of all of these bold, exciting experiments is a car that’s woefully overlooked today: the Frazer Vagabond.
Before we get to. the Vagabond, I just wanted you to consider some of the cars I mentioned and am showing you above as continuations of the Vagabond’s legacy; cars that are shapeshifters, transformers that can adapt, physically, to a variety of different jobs. Hell, we even saw Audi introduce a concept car with this sort of idea just this week! Also, since I mentioned the Toyota bB Open Deck, I’m going to make you watch this bonkers commercial for that car, which is full of mermen:
Okay, now that we have mermen out of our systems, we can talk about the Frazer Vagabond, and its badge-engineered brother, the Kaiser Traveler. If the Kaiser-Frazer name is unfamiliar to you, that’s not really surprising. The company was only around from 1947 to 1953, started by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser (who named this car after himself) and Joseph Frazer, who worked at executive-level positions for a number of carmakers. In 1953, the company bought Willys-Overland, and became Kaiser-Willys Corporation, and then became Kaiser Jeep in 1963.
I don’t want to get too deep into Kaiser-Frazer history here, though, because the specific Kaiser-Frazer I want to talk about is just too damn interesting. The Frazer Vagabond/Kaiser Traveler were built from 1949 to 1951 and were designed to be comfortable six-passenger sedans that could convert into what is essentially a pickup truck. And, unlike a lot of modern SUVs with hatches and folding seats, the Vagabond/Traveler wasn’t just playing around about this truck business, they meant it, with load space comparable to a pickup and access nearly as good. Plus a wood-slat-covered load bed!
You can tell that Kaiser-Frazer wasn’t playing around here, because they showed these things hauling fucking livestock in their ads:
Oh, your RAV4 has a folding rear seat? Your Tesla Model X is quite roomy? Great, want to shove a cow or horse in there? Yeah, didn’t think so.
These cars had some of the very earliest hatchbacks (not the first, though; I think the Citroën Traction Avant Commerciale from 1936 takes that prize) and also had a fold-flat long tailgate and a folding rear seat that formed the cargo area front bulkhead. I mean, just look at this:
See how the rear seat acts to protect the back of the front seats? Look how long that load bed is! And, when it’s all buttoned back up, it’s amazing how you would never guess that this tidy sedan is capable of such workhorse feats. It’s kind of like the shock you may have experienced when it was revealed that under that frumpy green sweater, Ned Flanders was ripped. The two looks just don’t seem to be able to exist in the same entity, and yet here they are.
According to this press photo from 1949, the load bed there is ten feet long. Just for perspective, a Ford F-150 bed can be as short as 5.5 feet long, just over half the length of the Traveler/Vagabond. Damn. Let’s just look at this in a diagram:
Amazing, right? I think so. Just look how much that jelly-mold body opens up, and even with the back seat up, so you can seat six, you’d still have a bed about as long as that F-150.
Oh! Another nice detail: like the original Mini, the license plate and lights would hinge to be visible even with the tailgate down, as you can see above there. I always liked that idea.
Even the price was pretty reasonable; $2,088 in 1950 comes to about $25,000 in today’s money, and I think that’s very decent for what has the best claim to be two vehicles in one of almost anything else I can think of.
Why something like this hasn’t made a modern comeback is baffling. EVs are the perfect platform for this kind of thing, with their flat skateboard chassis. You could have a boxy SUV with a genuinely rugged rear interior lining, and maybe make a short rear hatch that can flip completely flat onto the roof, a nice big tailgate that extends the load area, and have something that can actually transform into a pickup-like vehicle when needed.
You know, kind of like what Audi just showed:
Now, someone just needs to make this idea real again, not just a concept.
I love cars that seem eager to help you do all you can do with your life, and this design absolutely screams that. It’s literally transforming its body to meet your wide and varied transportation needs. There needs to be more of this thinking, even if it comes from a short-lived automaker hardly anyone thinks about today.
Except, of course, for today.
Kaiser Darrin, TVR Griffith, Fiat Panda 4×4 Sisley: Mercedes’ Marketplace Madness
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Trivia: most of the Traveler/Vagabonds had the left rear door welded shut, presumably to add a little bit of structural stiffness beyond the extra reinforcements welded to the body. The concept was Henry J.’s own, and his engineers took it from there.
Despite the extra tooling costs (for the “hatch”, hinges, spare tire mount, latches, etc.), these cars had a list price roughly $100 more than the standard sedans. Somehow, they didn’t cause many sleepless nights for their competition. But the, neither did the regular Kaisers and Frazers….
Guys, is there any reason my comments need to await moderation before being published ? I’ve followed most of your writers since early Jalopnik days and I went through this same fiasco with Jalopnik before someone removed this requirement after I emailed David directly.
Hey Wardwilliam! We’re currently in between commenting systems (and the new system is requiring a bit more testing than I’d hoped). The old commenting system (which we’re currently still using) has a pretty rudimentary spam system and we had to dial it up because we were getting a lot of spammers again. It’s mostly random, but if you get caught up in the filter it’s most likely because you tripped a magic word. We’ll try to approve it ASAP but if it’s at night, early in the morning, or we get distracted by a video of a ute racing Bathurst it might take a minute.
I want one of these so bad now I would even choose the car over some good crack.
You can surprise her with a Kaiser, or amazes her with a Frazier.
Or you can get her a Tucker.
That must be one of those duck-sized horses that people are always challenging me to fight.
This should have been a hit with surfers. Casual campers too.
The restaurants are dead, but they still have like 300 hotels, strange social marketing strategy though
That was in reference to our favorite spammer, don’t know why it didn’t thread
My memory fails me but i believe Ford had a businessman coupe that folded seats into a bed for traveling salesmen. And the Nissan Pulsar had two different tops to go from sporty to cargo handler. Now neither is as brilliant as the cars mentioned but hey i liked them.
My grandfather would have loved this! One of his old cars he used to talk about his Nash that could convert into a sleeper. He said it was ugly, but he admired the versatility. This is why I wish the GR86 was a hatchback. Yes, I’ve hauled some lumber and plywood (cut down for Shaker-style cabinet doors), but it would have been much easier to load if the rear window lifted out of the way.
It is reminiscent of the 1937 Hudson Terraplane Utility. Yet another obscure car most have never heard of.
The Citroën C3 Pluriel seems like the only other car with a similar transformation trick, although a Nissan Pulsar NX is almost a pickup with the hatch removed.
As far as hauling big stuff goes, our Mazda5 could swallow an astonishing amount of stuff. While we had the washing machine delivered it did haul 4 air conditioners with room to spare and two bicycles plus all of our son’s dorm room stuff. Extra bonus for the fold flat 3rd row offering 6 seats or a huge trunk, or 2 rear passengersand 6′ of floor. We really miss our 5, although the CX-5 has its plusses it’s nowhere near as well packaged.
I had a Brat; it wasn’t good for hauling, but it got me through The Blizzard of 96.
The GMC Envoy XUV comes to mind too as another slightly similar vehicle that tried to do too much. I liked it in concept, but it was huge and awkward looking. I owned the similar wheelbase Envoy XL as a family hauler for a while. It was also a little awkwardly stretched, but they hid the bump up in the roof better behind the roof rails on the XL.
And speaking of the Envoy, were there any other SUV’s ever badge-engineered as much as the GMT360 SUV’s? Chevy Trailblazer/Trailblazer EXT, GMC Envoy/Envoy XL/Envoy EUV, Buick Rainier, Olds Bravada, Isuzu Ascender (5 and 7 passenger versions), and Saab 9-7X.
I mean, that is pretty much like most European hatchbacks (Fließheck), Ford Mondeo, Ford Scorpio, Ford Sierra, Audi A7, and a ton more I’m too lazy to look up.
Shoot, my very own 1999 Saab 9-3 back in the day. I fit a whole washing machine in there with a closed rear hatch.
It’s surprising what a difference a large hatch with foldable rear seats makes instead of a small trunklid and static rear seats.
It never got built, but the Rover TCV shows this off perfectly: https://www.speakev.com/attachments/rovtcv_06-jpg.135442/
My Saab will do this too, though you do have to lie it down.
My Renault 4 does this as well, provided that the width of the washing machine doesn’t exceed 87,5cm.
I could definitely fit a washing machine in the back of my Polo. I’ve fitted a whole sofa in there, admittedly it hung out the back, but that’s almost legal right? I transported half a ton of stone in it once, but as one of the springs snapped shortly after, maybe I shouldn’t have.
I’d take the Kaiser any day over the Audi.
“Smart Sedan to Pick-up Van in 10 seconds!”
Along with a similar functionality, this slogan needs to be resurrected by a modern car-maker.
My carpenter grandfather had one of these as a work vehicle. Every time he bought a new car in later years, he’d always lament they didn’t compare to his Vagabond.
Minus the neat extending tailgate, my 80s SAAB 900 did a lot of this. Once hauled a 7-foot couch 75 miles from IKEA.
My favorite part is that the ad says, “WITH REAR DECK CLOSED, the Vagabond takes on the appearance of the regulation Frazer Sedan …”
I’m glad they kept it within the regulations!
If nothing else, we need to bring back that name! Chrysler Vagabond sounds good to me.
I see it as more of a Ford name.
https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-resources/popular-topics/the-vagabonds/
Oooh, good point! I was assuming that Stellantis would own the Vagabond name through mergers (Kaiser -> AMC -> Chrysler -> Stellantis), so I picked Chrysler. Now that I say that, Citroen Vagabond sounds amazing…
With an electric, you’re also avoiding the vacuum effect sucking exhaust into the passenger compartment.
Today, Subaru likes to market their vehicles to dog lovers but do they even care about those of us who want to travel with our small bears or livestock? Kaiser knew a niche when they saw one.
the 41 Chevy Coupe Pickup was a bit more truck like, although they made an ad with a small horse in the Kaiser, the “Hatch” was till hitting the poor things head.
I think the Chevrolet Coupe truck box also was removable if you wanted to go back to regular sedan if I am understanding correct.
Learn something new everyday here, love that Chevy!
With all seats folded flat, our stow and go 07 town and country has hauled full plywood sheets; all be it with out the waterproofness of the kaisers wood floor.
Necessity being the mother of invention, this exists only because Kaiser-Frazer couldn’t afford to develop another body shell (eg, a station wagon), and decided to get creative and make an alternative out of their existing sedan
The factory location of the spare in these is delightful, too: