Subaru Baja

The Subaru Baja (pronounced ba-ha) is a coupé utility (pickup), all-wheel-drive, four passenger, four-door, open-bed vehicle manufactured from 2002 to 2006 by Subaru and marketed for the 2003 through to 2006 model years. The Baja combines the handling and passenger carrying characteristics of a traditional passenger car with the open-bed versatility, and to a lesser degree, load capacity of a pickup truck. The Baja is named after Mexico's Baja California peninsula—home to the Baja 1000 off-road race.

The unibody design borrowed heavily from the existing mechanicals, platform and sheet metal of the Subaru Legacy/Outback wagon. Production began on July 18, 2002 as a 2003 model at the Subaru of Indiana Automotive, Inc. factory in Lafayette, Indiana. One reason for the development of the Baja was to amortize the plant capital costs over more vehicles, therefore maximizing use of the assembly lines, partially due to the discontinuation of the Isuzu Rodeo no longer being manufactured at the Indiana location. The Baja also required little special accommodation at the under-utilized plant as it shared significant componentry with the Legacy and Outback.