IRVINE, Calif. - Elvis Presley died from a lethal mix of prescription drugs on August 16, 1977. When the news broke I was riding in the cargo area of a forest-green 1972 Ford Galaxie 500 station wagon traveling 70 mph on southbound Interstate 75 in Michigan's lower peninsula, making out with the daughter of family friends with whom I had shared a tenth birthday four days earlier. Crackling over the Galaxie's AM band and through tinny speakers, announcers doled out the bits and pieces of information emerging from Graceland throughout our trip home from the family cabin in "da yoo-pee." Our mothers, sock-hop participants and enormous Elvis fans as high-schoolers, sat aghast at the news upon the Galaxie's green vinyl front bench seat, weeping at times as they reminisced about one of rock-and-roll's pioneering icons.

Three decades ago, there was a station wagon parked in just about every suburban American driveway.a. Even my Elvis-loving mom had a burnt-orange 1973 Ford Gran Torino Country Squire named Betsy, complete with fake wood on the sides, a "sport" three-spoke steering wheel, a rear-facing third-row jump seat that folded down into the floor, and something she referred to as a "big whomping 351" every time she floored the accelerator to give her car-addled son a thrill.

But then, in 1983, Chrysler Corporation signed a death warrant for wagons when it introduced the minivan.

Minivan popularity lasted 10 years. Once the Ford Explorer successfully delivered rugged looks combined with four-wheel-drive and space for five, the minivan became forever tainted by a mommy-mobile image. Minivans were not cool, and later, at the end of the 1990s and into the 21st century, they were neither phat nor sick, though people did line up to buy the Honda Odyssey at prices above sticker. This anomaly aside, during the Internet boom and bust years, the sport-utility vehicle, or SUV, became the family conveyance of choice.

Meanwhile, wagons began to stage a comeback, starting with European luxury brands, and SUVs became more like cars and less like trucks thus creating the crossover vehicle. Culminating the crossover trend, Chrysler introduced the 2004 Pacifica as a "sports tourer," a vehicle blending the best attributes of a sedan, an SUV, and a minivan into one do-it-all kind of vehicle.

Ford's new Freestyle is that kind of vehicle, too, but better in most respects. Targeting consumers who want the comfort and ride quality of a sedan, the people- and cargo-carrying capacity of a minivan, the rugged look of an SUV, and all-wheel-drive to get them through difficult driving situations, the Freestyle is a modern take on the Ford station wagons of my youth - the ultimate family car.