When the Subaru Outback arrived in the United States for the 1995 model year, it felt like something of a fever dream. Here was a tiny Japanese automaker, tagging in a nameplate and advertising campaign drenched in Australian imagery, aimed entirely at an American audience.
Seen from that perspective, the concept sounds more than a little absurd—yet the Outback very quickly became Subaru’s hottest-selling model. Who knew that plastic body cladding, a modest suspension lift, and the many charms of “Crocodile Dundee” actor Paul Hogan could transform a dowdy family wagon into an affordable adventure mobile that unlocked an entirely new demographic for the automaker?
There’s no doubt that the Subaru Outback played an important role in legitimizing what became known as the crossover segment in the 1990s, in addition to cute utes like the Toyota RAV4 and the Honda CR-V. These vehicles and others led the move away from traditional body-on-frame designs (used by most sport utility vehicles at the time) to unibody car platforms that were lighter and more efficient yet still prioritized cargo space and offered all-wheel drive.
While it didn’t take long for a plethora of car-based crossovers to flood the market (laying the foundation for the SUV-soaked circumstances we find ourselves in today), very few manufacturers elected to follow directly in the Outback’s footsteps with rivals of their own. The sport utility tsunami also helped to wipe out traditional wagons in the U.S. for the most part, largely stifling any plans automakers may have had to give them muddy, Outback-style boots of their own.
There were a handful of exceptions to that rule, of course, most notably from Volvo and Audi, who built rugged style wagon models detailed below. More intriguing, however, are the Outback alternatives that we never got, the concepts and design creations that had a real shot at dethroning Subaru’s wilderness-friendly family car but didn’t get the chance to make it into showrooms.
Ford Teases But Never Builds Two Crossover Concepts
Of all Detroit brands, Ford was best positioned to field an Outback-like option. By the mid-’90s the Ford Taurus sedan was on the verge of a redesign that would, at the last minute, preserve its wagon body style by hastily grafting an extended roof over its oval-shaped sheetmetal. The midsize contender’s new lease on life outlasted the full-size models sunsetted by General Motors in 1996, and Chrysler elected to stick exclusively with sedans and compact coupes during that decade.
There is absolutely no doubt that the Ford Santa Fe concept, which arrived in 1997, was directly inspired by Subaru. Based on the Taurus wagon, the Santa Fe installed a 2.5-inch suspension lift and pushed its track out an additional 2 inches to fit more aggressive, trail-friendly rubber under the same kind of prominent plastic wheel arches outfitted to the Outback.
In case you didn’t get the message, Ford also made sure to emboss the rest of the Santa Fe concept’s body with the kind of imagery that suggested off-road acumen.