Towards the end of the 1990s, manufacturers were churning out big, bulky SUVs that were being gobbled up by families looking for a rig capable of taking the kids to school. Many of these heavy, body-on-frame utilities were tough and could perform off-road, but they were often crude to drive in most conventional suburban situations. Consequently, some folks looking for something more civilized picked a new station wagon due to the perceived lack of choice. Here, Nissan saw an opportunity. It sensed a gap somewhere between those two different automotive worlds and decided to create a new kind of SUV altogether.
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