Auto News 5

In 1996, Subaru's second year selling the Legacy Outback, the marketing team delivered a killer calling card for the earliest incarnation of the modern crossover: "The World's First Sport Utility Wagon." Playing to the era's penchant for SUVs, Subaru produced a vehicle that could swallow all the gear and manage any terrain that the American family adventure would throw at it. Unlike the burgeoning mob of SUVs, though, it promised the comfort of a car because it was unencumbered by their unwieldy dimensions and big-displacement thirst. It was an ideal compromise. Subaru of America's then-president, George Muller, taunted the traditional sport-utes with a simple truth: "We can make our cars look like trucks better than they can make their trucks behave like cars."