The American station wagon once roamed this land in vast numbers, but is almost extinct, having become threatened by the rise of the minivan and SUV in the 1980s and 1990s. This endangered species will never completely disappear, thanks to the preservation efforts of enthusiasts like Carlos and Kathy Heiligmann, who purchased their Pontiac Le Mans Safari brand new in 1978, and have faithfully maintained it in its original form, ever since.
General Motors had redesigned its intermediate line for that year, with the Chevrolet Malibu, Pontiac Le Mans, Oldsmobile Cutlass and Buick Century sharing the smaller, more space-efficient, A-body platform. It was a 1978 Malibu wagon, driven as a company car, that got Carlos’s attention. “We had a Vega at that time,” he recalls. “It had no power, acted…