The Subaru Baja is basically an Outback wagon with an open rear cargo bed. Outbacks and Baja have a raised suspension and SUV-flavored styling, but all these vehicles share a basic 4-dr design with standard all-wheel drive and horizontally opposed engines. Four-cylinder models come with manual transmission or optional automatic. A 6-cyl engine powers Outback H6 and VDC sedans, and H6 35th Anniversary, L.L. Bean, and VDC wagons. Exclusive to Baja is a new Turbo model with a turbocharged engine that boosts horsepower to 210, 45 more than the standard 4 cyl. Outbacks except the base and H6 35th Anniversary wagons. Baja is 6 inches longer overall than the Outback wagon, seats four instead of five, and comes with a bedliner. The wall separating cargo bed from cabin has a panel that folds to create a pass-through beneath the fixed rear window. Roof lights and a bed-extender cage are options.
The Subaru Baja was a light-utility, all-wheel-drive, four passenger, four-door crossover manufactured from 2003-2006 by Subaru. The Baja combined the handling and passenger carrying characteristics of a car with the open-bed versatility, and to a lesser degree, load capacity of a pickup truck. The unibody design borrowed heavily from existing mechanicals, platform and sheetmetal of the Legacy and Outback wagons. Production began on July 18, 2002 as a 2003 model at the Lafayette, Indiana, factory (Subaru of Indiana Automotive, Inc., aka SIA) once shared with Isuzu.
The Baja's concept recalls many similar car-based, open-bed vehicles:
* Subaru's earlier BRAT four-wheel-drive, unibody pickup marketed in the US from 1978-1987)
* Other small US-marketed unibody pickups: Volkswagen Caddy, Dodge Rampage/Plymouth Scamp
* The prominent US rear-wheel drive Ford Ranchero and Chevy El Camino
* the two and four-door vehicles of Australia, known as Utes
* much earlier American car-based pickup truck known as Coupe Utilities.
The Baja is named after Mexico's Baja California peninsula – home to the Baja 1000 off-road race.
