the SUV was supposed to be a niche class of wagons for the estate and farm owner to travel in luxury between their rural homes and the city or to go hunting with (hence why the first SUVs were all 4WD and built mostly on truck platforms). then the 1975 CAFE standards on light trucks being in effect and the 1980s oil glut made it possible to take the early SUV and just neuter it into an smaller platform still larger than a station wagon to make it palatable to urbanites with the Cherokee XJ and the Explorer.