I am objecting the claim that station/estate wagons are not manufactured any more. That is only true for Ford (US), GM and Chrysler and wasn't true until the late 2000s/early 2010s.
I would like to point out the reason listed for their decline was an American policy, not a UK one.
I would also point out that a 1970's era station wagon that was once owned by my mom seated 9 somewhat comfortably; two in the front, three on the bench seat, and four kids in fold down seating in the back, provided no luggage was being transported. There are few "cars" that can match this easily these days, but a minivan can nearly match this without sacrificing luggage space...
I was specifically referring to the US market (as
@Jacen1 said), and my concept of "station wagon" is that the vehicle is suitable for at least the following modes 1) 4 adults plus 1-2 children and 2) 2 adults plus some reasonable number of sheets of 4'x8' material inside of the enclosed volume. With optional fold-down seating in the rear cargo area, you could get 3-4 extra seats for (older) children.
I'm specifically thinking of the Mercury Colony Park, basically the station wagon variant of the Grand Marquis sedan, and
those were not made after the early '90s. (The sedan model continued to be made until sometime around 2008-2012.) I am not aware of
any new-manufacture vehicle available in the US (claiming to be a station wagon or not) that has equivalent (or better) passenger/cargo capacity and handling.
My experience with minivans is that they lose out in the handling: they are underpowered and have a higher center of gravity.
Outside of the US, a lot of vehicles are more compact, for various reasons...but I'm tall and used to large cars, so I don't find very many cars designed outside of the US comfortable to drive. Two-passenger cars may be an exception, but they usually don't have any cargo capacity to speak of.
