BACKWARD GLANCES

BACK IN THE DAY THEY WERE CALLED Carryalls. The term “sport/utility” had not yet been coined. Most truck manufacturers had a panel truck based on their light-truck chassis, and that was the delivery van of the era. A variation was the Carryall, which added windows and seating to the equation. The Chevrolet Suburban is probably the best known of these, but the basic idea for a light-truck–based people mover goes back to the dawn of the automobile.

Adding four-wheel drive to the Carryall equation came just before World War II, when Marmon-Herrington began converting a variety of Ford products, including cars and light trucks, to four-wheel drive. Wartime Carryalls were built with four-wheel drive, and most