Not too many years after rider cars andtrucksbecame commonplace , lots of machine driver began to marvel : What if you could combine automobile - corresponding comfort and truck toughness into the same vehicle ?
In the 1920s , the answer to that question attain the marketplace , in the manakin of the now - familiar place wagon . You could even say that station wagons were the first " crossover " vehicle – come out decades before the trendy blending of truck - like bodies bolted to auto figure that are so popular today .
By the 1980s , the place wagon was eclipsed and then abandon ( at least in the United States ) for a new vehicle category call the " minivan . " The minivan , in turn , would be tip a decade subsequently as recoil against its " mom - nomadic " persona opened the penstock for ever - increase size of sportsman utility vehicles – S.U.V. .
tight - forward to the present , when $ 4 - a - gallongasolinespikes and raise environmental awareness have made horridly vast SUVs a liability . The solvent : Crossover SUV that smear the line even further between purpose - progress passenger fomite and occasional poppycock hauler .
But crossovers , it seems , are n’t as unambiguously innovative as the marketing honchos at auto companies would like us to believe . In fact , they ’re just one more quirky example of how trends in the car world tend to come and go – and come back again .
5: Station Wagons
Come on , now . Think about it . If station station waggon had n’t fare to be permanently affiliate with the Brady Bunch and the Griswold family vacation , they ’d still be ruling the roads and considered a select symbol of upwardly mobile socio - economic condition . Instead , they became a mobile metaphor for middle - class insipidity and recover themselves vanquished by the minivan in the mid-1980s . The Dipper body style never went wholly off , really . Especially in Europe and other station abroad , where car culture can differ from that in the United States as much as social polish . One matter ’s for sure , with their foundation in the twenties , station wagons were the first fomite to execute on the idea of melding a car ’s comforter and everyday drivability with the practical cart power of a truck .
So how did place wagons get their name ? Back in the other days of automobiles , they were originally anticipate " depot hacks , " since they were taxicab ( taxicabs ) that masses used in coming and going to civilize depot ( stations ) .
The earliest place wagons were regular cars such as the Ford Model T modified with more talkative back ends to oblige the baggage of taxicab customers . The first " product " motorcar that was aim - built as a place wagon , fit in to the site , was the 1923 Star , built by Durant Motors Co. [ generator : Manning ] .
Early station wagons had all - wood or Ellen Price Wood - panel waggon body , and were call , appropriately enough , " woodies . " In ulterior old age , manufacturing business transition to all metal or to vinyl insert panels made to resemble woodwind instrument but last longer .
Distinctive features of station Charles’s Wain are that they have between three and five room access ; a configurable interior that permit for either more rider way or load room in the back ; an extend rear with a exorbitant vertical fall at the back ( as pit to a trunk ) ; and possibly a beefier rearsuspensionthan a sedan fashion model , to better handle arduous consignment loads .
Many of today ’s crossovers do the accurate duty of the post wagons of antiquity , just updated with more avant garde styling and high ground headroom . They even share the familiar " two - boxful " profile . Just please do n’t call them " station wagons . "
4: Jeep
If ever there were a customer that really demand a railway car - alike , compact fomite that could do the impossible , Uncle Sam circa World War II would be it . Out of an urgent request from theU.S. Armywas deport one of the most iconic railway car brand of all metre : Jeep .
The original Jeep intention was developed by the Bantam Car Company in 1940 , meeting an incredible 49 - day deadline imposed by the government activity . With worries about Bantam ’s power to give rise the huge war - time quantities the government would demand , Willys - Overland and Ford were call in to actually bring forth the vehicle [ source : Heritage Region Jeep Alliance ] .
From its early examination , through its star military inspection and repair in World War II , through its transition to civilian life in multiple variants , the Jeep essay tough , various and highly capable . No one would ever mistake it for a Lamborghini in the looks department , but even nontextual matter critics came to praise its utilitarian melding of kind and function . TheMuseum of Modern Artin New York praise it as " a purely utilitarian design that forego styling in favor of efficiency and purpose " [ source : Museum of Modern Art ] .
It could tow weapon carom onto the battleground . It could cross shallow river and flooded areas on the count ofspark hoopla , air filters and vegetable oil filters that were placed high up in the locomotive compartment . It could cross dingy , hilly and overgrown terrain that stopped other vehicles in their track .
It kicked behind on the battlefield – thanks to the supplying of a machine gun mount . And it ferried enlist men , officers , dignitary , even movie star , around military installations quickly and expeditiously [ author : Archive.org ] .
After the war , " Jeep " became much more than a elusive vehicle – it became a stigma synonymous with adventure , toughness and four - wheel fun .
3: Chevrolet El Camino
It sports the front end of a car , and if you confront it head - on , you might mistake it for one . But look again : from any other slant you’re able to intelligibly see that it ’s attached to the bottom of a pick - uptruck .
TheChevrolet El Camino , which give up production in 1987 after more than three ten of sales , has over the eld gain something of a religious cult following among sinew car partisan . At one point in the model ’s lifecycle , buyers could get it with a 350 - hp V-8engine ! With its sweeping lines and powerful locomotive options , the El Camino provided the answer to the age - old " car or hand truck ? " dilemma by answering , " Both . "
It love an highly foresighted life , as far as railcar simulation go . After a brief hiatus , the El Camino graced unexampled car heap from 1964 to 1987 , and wasbadge engineered –changed cosmetically without altering major components – into different model for Chevy ’s sister brands at General Motors [ generator : ElCaminoCentral.com ] .
unluckily for the El Camino and its kind , the 1980s think mantle for entire categories of cars as their grocery disappear . Muscle car emptor of the ' 60s and ' 70s were by this time proprietor of minivan and holders of mortgages . Gas gulping , condom - laying brute with little way for families were no longer selling well . Thus , Chevy declared the year 1987 the last for its bread and butter classic El Camino .
2: Subaru BRAT
Considering the crowded pantheon devoted to regrettably named vehicles , you could do worse , think it or not , than to name a car after a bad and whiney child . in reality , Subaru ’s BRAT – or Bi - drive Recreational All - terrain Transporter – by most accounts did a middling good problem of leave on- and off - road capability during its production run from 1978 to 1987 .
In the custom of theRancheroandEl Camino , the BRAT used a blended auto - cartridge motortruck body design . One of its neatest features was an " on - the - fly " all - wheel - drive feature that let driver switch to a better - traction mode at the press of a button when the going got hard . This power to switch back - and - Forth River to adjust to road ( and off - route ) conditions made the BRAT a " crossover " in the truest sense of the Logos .
Earlier versions of the BRAT had plastic seats instal in the pickup layer , facing rearward . We ’re not sure who would actually model in them voluntarily , but their inclusion allow Subaru to fudge goodly import tariffs on trucks brought into the United States ( the supererogatory butt allowed the BRAT to be assort as a passenger car and evade the added tax ) .
The little BRAT boasted neither hugehorsepower(a full 93 pony in the good example with the 1.8 - liter turboengine ) nor overall units sold ( a little over 92,000 amount ) . But it could claim an proprietor who was about as large a famous person as they come . None other than former U.S. President Ronald Reagan owned a red 1978 good example , for getting around his sprawling California ranch [ source : Burry ] .
The BRAT would n’t be the last undeclared crossover to raise that when it comes to vehicular versatility , size of it does n’t weigh .
1: Toyota RAV4
Baby SUV . cunning ute . Compact SUV . The Toyota RAV4 was like a category unto itself when it revolve onto the automotive scene in 1994 . For the U.S. mart , the first- and second - genesis RAV4s come at a time when U.S. motorcar buyers were just starting to suffer with child SUV fatigue : many enjoyed the rarified seating area spatial relation and perceived safety advantage of the sportsman utility vehicles proliferating in the mid-1990s . But for some , the almost big - semi balance seemed like overkill , the drive timber was jolting , and well , SUVs ' reputations asgashogs are fabled .
The midget RAV4 ( Recreational Active Vehicle , 4 - Wheel Drive ) solved many of those problems by attaching a downsized sport utility organic structure to the figure of an ordinary rider railcar . In the first- and 2nd - generation RAV4 ’s case , it shared its under - the - body bits with the Toyota Corolla . The RAV4 is in fact credited with being the first compact SUV [ root : MotorWeek ] .
While today RAV4s are in fact sort as crossing , it made our list because it come out in 1994 , many years before the terminal figure entered democratic use . And the ground - collapse RAV4 proved that even in a metre when massiveHummersfreely roamed the road , that there was a market for the non - extreme SUV .
For more information about crossover voter and other related topics , comply the links on the next pageboy .
