A Chevrolet commercial claims they made the first, in the '30s. I was thinking Willys in the late-'40s.
It probably depends on how you define SUV, and there’s likely no “official” definition, but IMO it would be either the first Willy’s Jeep or Willy’s 4 wheel drive wagon in the 1940s.
I’m guessing the Chevy commercial is claiming the 1930s Suburban as an SUV, but IIRC that was more of a commercial truck than what we’d think of as an SUV today.
I think I read somewhere that AMC/Jeep coined the term “SUV” in the late 1970s, but I don’t have a cite offhand. It’s kind funny to read old Wagoneer ads from the 1960s-70s; they actually call it a “station wagon” because SUV hadn’t been coined yet.
What do you mean by an SUV? A Sports Utility Vehicle? That isn’t simply any 4x4. And essentially by definition is not a commercial vehicle. An SUV is a vehicle intended to aid your sport. Be it soccer moms filling it with kids, you taking your dive kit to far away places, camping gear, racks filled with ski gear of surf boards etc. On that basis the first SUV was the Range Rover. A 4x4 intended for rich urban buyers.
The Jeep Wagoneer predated the Range Rover, and I’d say it fits your definition of SUV.
I agree.
The Jeep Cherokee was the first vehicle to actually be called a sport utility vehicle ( the acronym came later).
The Suburban and the Wagoneer, and the like, were unofficially known as utility vehicles, and the Cherokee was the “sport” version
On display in the visitor center at Humboldt Redwoods State Park is this contender: Charles Kellogg’s Travel Log – “handmade in 1917 from a fallen chunk of a redwood log and mounted on a 1917 Nash Quad truck, the toughest, most rugged vehicle of its kind at the time.”
Let’s limit it to production vehicles, not one-offs.
I came here to suggest the Subaru Outback, based on a commercial they did with Paul Hogan, but I guess the concept of the SUV is much, much older than I thought. (Besides, remembering the commercial now, they said it was a "sports utility wagon."
We definitely need a “definition of terms” here.
I do not recall where in the Willys literature for my 1948 Willys wagon it was called a utility vehicle. It is painted on the tailgates of some of the early Willys wagons. I have seen this at car shows & in photos in advertising printed back in the day.
If it being used for sports, such as soccer counts, one of my relatives bought a '49 Willys wagon to haul their kids & horses to “Dressage” events. Does that count? It should.
What about the early cross country car “races”? I believe some of those events took place in 1911. Those rigs were all “factory” made, one at a time. Do they count? You have to admit those events were not all on road, heck, most of the routes were run off road since there were very few “roads” for cars at the time. OTOH, Few of those rigs were 4WD.
Everyone is going to have their own definition, based on the vehicle they favor.
What was the first vehicle to actually refer to itself as an “SUV” or “sport utility vehicle”?
see post #6
Somehow missed that one-Thank you for finding the answer.
to expound on that answer. The term “sport utility vehicle” arose in the late 70’s early 80’s, and the sports they were referring to were “outdoor sports”, such as camping, and fishing and hunting. This time saw the rise of the “weekend warrior” types. Those who worked in an office all week and headed out to the countryside on the weekend. So there arose a need for a type of car that they could drive to work and to play. They often turned to the utility vehicles, but these didn’t quite cut it. They were often too big and spartan for everyday use. So the car companies came out with slightly smaller, slightly more luxurious versions of their UV’s to fill this need. The Cherokee, the Bronco II, the Blazer, etc.
Trying to find cites; Car and Driver has this to say.
The first four-wheel drive passenger car that was mass-produced with a unibody frame was the 1955 Gaz-M20. In 1977, the Lada Niva, a relatively compact SUV-type vehicle, had a coil-sprung independent front suspension as well as a unibody construction. This vehicle was the predecessor of the crossover SUV.
Per AutoList, until the sales success of the 1984 Jeep Grand Cherokee XJ, SUVs with a unibody frame remained rare. It wasn’t until the 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee that all Jeep SUV models had started using unibody construction. . .
. . .
Before and during World War II is when the first SUV prototypes began to appear. The first examples were large and fitted with four-wheel drives, had large interiors, and were built for navigating tough terrains. The term SUV was first used in brochures for the full-sized 1974 Jeep Cherokee SJ.
and there’s this:
I think some of you are being unfair to the pre-war Suburban, which was a station wagon body on a truck frame. Being the '30s, it pre-dates 4WD, heck it pre-dates the entire concept of middle class suburbs, so in terms of market niche it doesn’t really have a home compared to the modern concept of an SUV. But in terms of the technology of the time, I have no problem thinking of it as an SUV. It was a family wagon that was more rugged than a normal family car.
Did people in the 1930s buy Suburbans as family cars, though? As I understand it, at that time station wagons were mainly considered commercial vehicles – the name derives from the fact that they originated as purpose built vehicles for carrying people and their luggage to and from the train station. Sort of the airport shuttle vans of the time.
Old MacDonald the farmer with 8 kids may well have had an early Suburban as a family car.
ISTM the key parts of the SUV definition as the Jeep marketers had it in 1974 was it was (somewhat) off-road capable, large capacity, but nice enough to be your daily driver in suburbia.
The 1960s era Ford Bronco & Chevy Blazer weren’t real large capacity by the standards of the day, but they had the other 2.