Interesting time period. My guess is that that and the next few years were when the backlash against the image of the minivan was beginning. The SUV, as you correctly note, seldom sees off-road use and in many cases is ill suited to it, but *looks* rugged, as though you could leave your cubicle job or pediatrician-soccer practice-piano lessons shuttle route in favor of a safari at any time. See, it was all very carefully aimed at a demographic that you weren't part of.
That was also when the SUV fad was also getting underway -- also brought to you by Chrysler, which bought AMC and thus Jeep, including the new downsized, unibody Cherokee whose technology proof-of-concept had been the nice but overlooked AMC Eagle of the late 70s and early 80s.
The manufacturers cried all the way to the bank. In many cases, they could build the SUV on the basic technology of some existing pickup truck in their product line -- but sell it at a substantially higher margin. (There has since emerged a generation of deliberately carlike "cute utes," in some cases from manufacturers who don't really even have a pickup truck for the US market if at all; among these, the ante has gotten higher in roadability and interior sophistication.) Thanks to some legal niceties, "light trucks" also were allowed to lag cars in some safety, gas-mileage, and, I think, pollution-control requirements.
Also in that late 80s-early 90s time frame, there was a very deliberate effort to make pickup trucks nicer to drive and to be in, so as to increase their market share among women, commuters, etc.
Once people were *in* the things, they got used to the road-commanding seating position (which of course leads to a vision arms race as more people drive these large opaque vehicles) and the perception of greater safety. The latter is a complex issue, meaning that it has a real part and an imaginary part.
In partial defense of the SUV or the commuter pickup, there are some substantive reasons for buying one. Towing capability is a biggie. The front-wheel-drive, unibody sedan, especially with an economical engine option, usually has a tow rating no higher than 2000 pounds, sometimes a lot lower, or even forbidden by the warranty. Many Americans like a large boat or a travel trailer for their weekend fun, and might not be able to afford a second car for their normal driving, so they use the big vehicle for everything.
So those are some reasons why you came back to a nation of people who drive a sort of personal-sized school bus with four-wheel-drive that they seldom if ever use and in some cases don't even know how to engage.
Cheers, --Joe
