1989 Toyota RAV-Four

Meet the 1989 Toyota RAV-FOUR Concept, which debuted at the Tokyo Motor Show next to the production Toyota Sera (with gullwing doors) and the 4500GT Concept (which went nowhere). Toyota called the RAV-FOUR a "neo-urban 4WD car"—unusual verbiage for a crossover and SUV era that was about to begin.

Like most bonkers cars of its vintage, the real history of the RAV-FOUR begins with the Japanese economy, which was so flush with cash in the 1980s that companies didn't know what to do with it all. They greenlit the wildest cars. Multi-activity vehicles were all the rage, and the Suzuki Samurai was doing gangbusters in America riding on a little truck chassis. Toyota already had years and millions of dollars of experience with car-based all-wheel-drive vehicles in the All-Trac line, including the rally-bred Celica All-Trac Turbo. So what it built was maybe sensible, given the context.

The RAV-FOUR concept was far more Samurai-like than the eventual production car—much more 1980s than 1990s. According to official Toyota history, the idea dated back to 1986 when artists started sketching its wild shape. Aside from perhaps the rear side windows on two-door models, the deep strakes on the high side cladding were the most obvious styling characteristic to carry forward—albeit toned down—into production. The overall idea of a higher-riding but car-based vehicle built for fun and not hard-core off-roading survived and thrived in the market.

In retrospect, many RAV-FOUR details we think are particularly cool did not reach dealerships in the RAV4, which is a shame. By contrast, the production car's blobular headlights were arguably better suited to early 1990s tastes but much less charismatic. The front end of the RAV-FOUR concept has a lot of Honda City Turbo II flavor, with an asymmetrical grille, cheerful round headlights, and fender flares. Within that asymmetrical grille was a winch under a cover labeled "Emergency Only"—a really neat detail but one that'd be wasted on the eventual production car, with its very limited off-road chops.

Other sweet details abounded. The skinny, knobby tires wrapped around steelie-look rims are pitch-perfect, the freestanding fender-mounted side-marker lights had a whiff of Mercedes G-wagon about them, and the interior had netting on the dash to hold stuff down. At the same time, you launched it off a giant dune on a desert rally—or at least, it might have if the RAV-FOUR had been translated more directly to production. The RAV-FOUR, essentially, looks like something you'd want to drive and hard. More three-quarters scale rally truck than a Corolla wagon on stilts. It's not the RAV4 we ended up with, but it's the RAV4 we still deserve.

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