Ford's SUV sales went up. But now comes a real threat to the SUV empire, the worst kind of threat - a competitive, appealing product that does more than most SUVs without having the safety and environmental problems of being one. It is the 1999 Saab 9-5 Wagon. Let us look at the car from the floor up. Most SUVs have rear floors of limited utility.
Rear seats fold down to expand cargo space, but that's about it.
By comparison, the 9-5 Wagon's rear floor is a work of genius. This is important. Many people who die in front-end hits actually are killed by rear cargo hitting their heads. There's also an optional sliding load floor, which can be rolled out nearly 20 inches and can support up to 440 pounds of cargo. It eliminates potentially harmful back bending when loading the rear, and can be used as a picnic table, too.