Car description a stretch (well…not really)

The wife and I have started doing some initial car searching for a new “Family Truckster” (that’s a station wagon for those of you who never saw National Lampoon’s Vacation). So here’s my question. When did the hatchback suddenly become the compact wagon??? A wagon? really? Let’s just compare a couple of current one’s on the market shall we? Take the VW Rabbit Hatchback (yes, VW does still refer to it as a hatchback) and the Suzuki SX4 Compact Wagon.

The VW has the same amount of front headroom and MORE rear headroom. The XS4 is shorter in length than the VW and has a slimmer wheel base than the VW, yet somehow it’s a “compact wagon”? Somehow, the XS4 claims a (questionable) 38 cubic inches or trunk space to the VWs 15. This annoys me for no other reason than it requires me to sift through all of the faux-wagons in search of an actual wagon wagon that is still cool enough to not make me look like a tool while driving it. Though that’s a pretty tall order for any car company…