March 26: Creating an suv (revised)

 Got a station wagon in your product line that's doing "ok", but you really want to juice up its sales, but don't want to drop a load of cash on it in order to get those sales? Well, we all know the best route and probably the only route to go and that is what many car companies are doing these days. Cars like the all-wheel drive VW Golf and Mercedes E Class above were simply raised an inch or two (3-5  centimetres) and had some wheel well trim added. The result........instant suv (pretender).

Any car person in the know, realizes that this transformation has been around for many years, but it has become much more popular now that it is written everyone must drive an suv. So who started these wagon transformations? Last year I wrote that it was Subaru, who made a lowly Legacy wagon into the overnight success story, the Outback. How wrong I was. 

A bit of history......

All of these unusual creations are from the company that brought us the station wagon turned suv, that elicits such a heavy breathing response today. One time called Nash, but later changed to AMC - American Motors Corp, this perennial penny pincher had to come up with an inexpensive way to gain sales without breaking the bank. So what to do?

Take one attractive and moderately successful compact wagon and make some changes......... 

The key here is that AMC also had the Jeep brand in their portfolio. Jeep, the brand known for off road capability, had just introduced a refined all-wheel drive set up that could be used under a car. So, throw a few trim changes into the mix, along with this new system and this is what emerged in 1980.......

Yes, folks, what emerged is the very first station wagon, that with the addition of all-wheel drive, some wheel well trim and a little height became what we now think of as an suv. Not Subaru, not Volvo or anyone else, AMC, the lowly what can we do for cheap car company is the originator. Ahead of its time, certainly. Actually, about thirty years too early.

What happened to AMC? Eventually Chrysler bought them for the Jeep brand (and we know how that turned out), but saw no need for the cars, so they were dropped. In 2019 does Chrysler have a station wagon suv in their line, while everyone else does? No!

Until next time........