Subaru thrust its way into the mainstream in the 21st century thanks to its rugged, reliable, all-wheel-drive vehicles, including crossovers that drive more like normal cars than the truck-based SUVs of yore. As the traditional sedan was beginning to get replaced by the onslaught of these incredibly versatile crossovers in the late 1990s, Subaru applied the lifted all-wheel-drive treatment to its midsize sedan the Legacy to see if buyers would bite.
Very few of these lifted all-wheel-drive sedans were sold despite Subaru producing three-generations of them, but now they exist as intriguing automotive oddities. Subaru’s first off-road-oriented sedan was the Legacy Sport Utility Sedan, or SUS, that was introduced to America in 1999. It was basically a Legacy that had all the styling cues and lifted suspension from the Outback wagon. The first Subaru Legacy SUS was a U.S.-only model, and it lasted just one year.
After 1999, Subaru redesigned the Legacy and its ruggedized Outback sibling the Outback, and the Legacy SUS returned, now called the Outback Sedan. The new Subaru Outback Sedan followed the same recipe as the SUS, and it lasted from 2000 to 2004. Subaru redesigned the Outback Sedan for what would be its final time in 2005. The third-generation Outback Sedan was only sold for two model years from before ending production forever.
The Subaru Legacy SUS and Outback Sedan never sold as well as the traditional Outback wagon or their standard Legacy counterparts, which makes them quite rare. Off-road sedans as a vehicle category are quite rare — aside from the Subarus the only modern one is really the Volvo S60 Cross Country, and then you have the originator, the AMC Eagle four-door sedan. Subaru’s contributions to this elite group of segment-busting sedan things were the most successful of the lifted off-road oriented sedans, and it feels ripe for a return given how popular crossovers (and crossover-y alternatives) continue to be.
