History of the Crossover

In the 1970s, families had station wagons. That’s just how it was. Many of us over a certain age remember riding around, unbelted in the back of some wood-paneled behemoth that we thought was incredibly uncool.


In the 1980s, Chrysler invented a new automotive segment that could displace the station wagon—the minivan. But we soon realized that the minivan was dowdy, too, and we wanted something cooler and tougher. That paved the way for the rise of the Sport Utility Vehicle in the 1990s.


It turns out, though, that America isn’t one constant mountainous terrain, we don’t really go off-road and we don’t need to pay for the thirst and extra engineering of vehicles that can handle those conditions. So, the newest segment is the crossover, which combines the room of an SUV with the ride and fuel economy of a car.


Below, we’ll take a look at seminal vehicles in the development of the crossover utility vehicle (CUV)—the fastest growing automotive segment—and evaluate how they got us here. Of course, none of this would have ever happened if we’d just accept that station wagons really aren’t that bad.

1996 Toyota RAV4

When Toyota released the RAV4 as a 1996 model, the Japanese giant kicked off a new automotive segment. But the goal wasn’t to offer what could arguably be called the first crossover SUV. It was to launch the first compact SUV. Not meant to be as rough-and-tumble as the Chevy Blazers and such, it was really the first crossover because it was built on a car-like unibody structure. Until then, SUVs had used a truck-like body-on-frame structure (other than the Jeep Grand Cherokee, which used a hybrid unibody/frame structure). While the RAV4 lacked the towing power and off-road ability of other SUVs, it delivered a smoother ride and far greater fuel efficiency. The Honda CR-V and Subaru Forester soon followed, and today the compact crossover/SUV segment includes close to 20 models.

1999 Lexus RX 300

Toyota Motor Corporation was also the first manufacturer to introduce a luxury crossover SUV, when the company’s luxury arm, Lexus released the 1999 RX. It was also the first midsize crossover, and the first crossover to be built on an existing car platform (the Camry’s). Buyers liked the butter smooth ride, raised seating position for enhanced visibility, easy entry/exit, and generous cargo room. Today the RX annually tops more than 100,000 sales, making it the midsize crossover SUV leader and the envy of other brands. The Lexus RX 400h, introduced in 2005 as a 2006 model, was also the first luxury crossover hybrid.

2000 BMW X5

Based on the proven and responsive 5 Series platform, BMW’s X5 was the first crossover to offer a sporty driving character with a raised SUV-like stance. Available with an optional 340-horsepower 4.4-liter V8, it was also the first crossover to be offered in a hot rod version. The X5 has since gotten larger and seating capacity has grown from five to seven, but for 2010, it is available as a true performance model, the 555-horsepower X5 M.