The Best American SUVs of All Time

America’s love affair with the SUV is decades old. Here’s where it started, where it’s been, and where it is today.

America’s affection for SUVs just keeps growing—to the extent that multiple American automakers have all but dropped traditional cars from their lineups, leaving SUVs to fill any need that pickup trucks can’t. Of course, that’s partly because the definition of SUV has become, well, pretty loose. Does an SUV need to be body-on-frame? Not anymore. Does it need four-wheel drive? Not necessarily. Maybe, to borrow a famous phrase, you just know one when you see one.

Whatever the case may be today, the spiritual origins of the modern American SUV are less obscure. Here are some of the greatest, coolest, and most notable from across the history of the American automobile.

Ford Bronco

It's not the first of its kind, but Ford’s equine-badged off-roader was the first to use the “sport utility” appellation. It was a hit and soon to become a classic, with an appealing price, rugged style, simple construction, real capability, and a relatively high level of refinement compared to its closest competitors.

The Ford Bronco persisted until the 1996 model year, through five distinct generations. After a long hibernation, the nameplate was brought back for Ford’s current line of off-road-intended SUVs, which hit dealerships for 2021.

Chevrolet Suburban

At a time when the concept of the suburbs itself was pretty new, a number of vehicles used some form of suburban sobriquet to communicate their purpose—namely, to facilitate travel between the center of the cities and their outlying areas. Ultimately, though, it was Chevy’s Suburban that outlived all others.

In continuous production since 1934, the Chevy Suburban has become the longest-running nameplate in the world. From that first basic formula of a wagonlike body on a pickup truck chassis through 12 successive generations, the model has grown into an undisputed icon and one of the unequivocal standards of the type.

Bantam BRC/Ford GPW/Willys-Overland MB: The Original Jeep

Form followed function with this now-legendary vehicle created to supply the military with easily manufactured, durable, field-serviceable, all-terrain transportation. Developed by the Bantam company and produced under government contract as the Ford GPW and Willys-Overland MB, more than 600,000 were built by the end of WWII.

Later, the basic profile and layout were carried over to the Civilian Jeep (CJ) models, and then to the Jeep Wrangler, which continues to shepherd the Jeep tradition deep into the 21st century.

Ford Explorer

Originally based on the compact Ranger pickup, the Ford Explorer SUV made its debut for the 1991 model year as a rugged midsize SUV that found near-instant success—it proved popular enough, in fact, to weather scandal over tire tread separation and rollover risk a few years later.

Now in its sixth generation, the Explorer is still a cornerstone of Ford’s lineup and an icon of SUV history.

Chevrolet K5 Blazer/GMC Jimmy

Not to be outdone, GM introduced the Bronco-bustin’ K5 Blazer and its GMC Jimmy counterpart in 1969. Based on shortened C/K Series pickup underpinnings, the SUVs proved plenty successful, evolving through three generations and even sharing their nameplates with a separate line of compact Chevy S-10 and GMC S-15 pickup-based SUVs before finally being rebranded as the GMC Yukon and Chevy Tahoe.

GM resurrected the Blazer name in 2019 for a new line of midsize SUVs. Although the latest Blazer doesn’t exactly carry the rugged standard of its forebears, reports indicate that GMC may soon bring back the Jimmy as a proper off-roader set to take on Ford’s Bronco once again.

Jeep Wagoneer and Cherokee

In some ways the platonic ideal SUV, the Jeep Wagoneer, introduced for the 1963 model year, was a full-size four-wheeler as capable of trail-running as it was of pulling station wagon duty. Although it’s not the best known of its kind these days, the Wagoneer’s influence on the burgeoning SUV market is difficult to overstate.

The Cherokee, the big Jeep’s first two-door iteration—and the first vehicle to employ the “SUV” appellation—arrived in 1975, but the nameplate didn’t come into its own until the introduction of the new vehicle that would carry it forward. Or, more accurately, two new vehicles.

The new—and, notably, unibody—Cherokee that made its debut for the 1984 model year was such a hit that when it came time to replace the antiquated full-size Wagoneer, Jeep decided to capitalize on the smaller model’s newfound cachet. Enter the Grand Cherokee, in 1993, which would go on to even greater success.

Hummer H2

With its origins in the AM General High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle—HMMWV or “Humvee” for short—the Hummer brand was developed by General Motors, which purchased the name in 1999, selling both the AM General-produced H1 and its own in-house-designed H2 that utilized existing 3/4-ton pickup truck architecture. A smaller H3 model would join the lineup for 2006, but by then the brand was becoming a symbol of excess and social irresponsibility in the eyes of the public, and GM was navigating rough financial waters. Hummer would be put on ice as part of GM’s 2009 bankruptcy.

The name would be revived, however, as the GMC Hummer EV, which arrived for the 2022 model year as a suitably over-the-top mega-machine with four-wheel steering, an available 1,000-hp tri-motor powertrain, and a curb weight of nearly 10,000 pounds.

International Harvester Scout

Better known for heavy trucks and farming equipment, International Harvester fielded a Jeep-fighter in the 1961 Scout 80, which aimed to explore the viability of a small 4x4 in the American market. That market soon grew to include the now-iconic Ford Bronco, but the Scout had already been on sale for five years by then.

International would beat Ford to market again with an upsized model called the Scout II, which arrived in 1971, years before the Bronco’s first major redesign for 1978. The Scout II soldiered on until 1980, at which point the nameplate went dormant until Volkswagen Group acquired and ultimately resurrected it for a future lineup of off-road-inflected extended-range electric and full-electric trucks and SUVs.

Cadillac Escalade

The turn of the century was a heady time, and opposite the Hummer on the giant GM SUV spectrum sat the Cadillac Escalade. Introduced for the 1999 model year as a rapid response to the success of the Lincoln Navigator, it was based on the GMT 400 truck platform that underpinned just about all of GM’s full-size trucks and SUVs of the era. None were more opulent than the colossal Caddy, however, which was snapped up by famous actors and musicians and soon became a full-on pop star in its own right. Had Lincoln’s full-size SUV, which was first to market, been as desirable, it might be on this list instead.

The Escalade line eventually expanded to include hybrid and, for 2025, battery-electric powertrains: the Escalade iQ EV SUV, riding on GM’s Ultium electric vehicle platform, is MotorTrend’s 2026 SUV of the Year.

Tesla Model Y

And now for something completely different. Love it or hate it, the significance of Tesla’s blockbuster electric SUV is impossible to deny. For multiple years running, the Model Y has been the top electric vehicle in the U.S. and, according to Tesla at least, it’s the bestselling vehicle period worldwide, with more than 4 million sold since its debut for the 2020 model year.

That’s no small feat for any vehicle, but especially for a full EV. You can chalk that up in part to the quality of Tesla’s charging network and app, and to Tesla being first to market, at least in the minds of many buyers.