It featured a retractable sliding rear roof section that allowed the vehicle to carry items that would otherwise be too tall for a conventional station wagon of the era.

Stevens was also the designer of the similarly named Jeep Wagoneer, a truck-based sport utility vehicle (SUV) that was also introduced along the Wagonaire for the 1963 model year.

[1] The Wagonaire roof design was inspired by Stevens' 1959 Scimitar concept car built in Stuttgart, West Germany, by Ruetter for the Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation.

[4][5] In 1962, Stevens developed prototypes for a new line Studebakers that included a station wagon named "Skyview" that featured a partially retractable rear roof section.

The mechanism includes a simple pair of tracks that allow the rear roof panel to slide forward over the headliner which is lowered to provide clearance.

In addition, the 1966 Wagonaire finally was made a model in its own right,[12] blending the exterior features of the Commander with the interior trim grade of the sporty Daytona.

Husky Toys also manufactured a model Wagonaire that was similar in size to the Matchbox product and also featured the sliding rear roof panel.

An additional feature adopted by GMC was the power operation of the roof section and a movable partition between the passenger area and cargo space.

[17] Similarly to the record of Studebaker's innovative Wagonaire, General Motors also produced about 12,000 sliding roof XUVs during the single model year it was offered.