Crocodile Dundee Helped Save Subaru By Selling This Car On TV Back In '95

While Subaru still lags behind today's larger automakers when it comes to overall market share, the brand's rise from relative obscurity into being one of the American market's more popular purveyors of crossover SUVs has been a fascinating one. Following a similar timeline to other Japanese automakers, Subaru began operating in America in the 1960s, but unlike Honda or Toyota, which quickly became established in the market by selling mainstream economy cars as their bread-and-butter vehicles, Subaru's early offerings were a little unconventional.

Subaru's U.S. lineup began in the late '60s with vehicles like the tiny Subaru 360 microcar, and then in the '70s, Subaru began to establish itself with its niche four-wheel-drive offerings, including the unusual Subaru BRAT pickup truck. By the 1980s, Subaru of America had begun to earn a sizable following with its funky all-wheel-drive sedans and station wagons, especially among those who lived in winter climates — but the company's sales had taken a downturn by the early '90s.

One of the models that's credited with getting the brand back on track was the Subaru Outback. With its blend of car-like refinement and the rugged, all-terrain capability — and image — that was popular among SUV buyers in the '90s, the Outback had a lot going for it. That popularity and recognition of the Outback were further boosted by a memorable and long-lasting ad campaign featuring legendary Australian actor Paul Hogan of the "Crocodile Dundee" films.

Despite being one of Subaru's most popular and longest-running models, the origins of the Outback are actually fairly simple. Rather than an ambitious new model, the first-generation Outback was basically just a Subaru Legacy station wagon with some body cladding and a cool name, gaining a slightly raised ride height for 1996. For all its modest origins, the Outback would end up outlasting the car it was based on, as Subaru discontinued the Legacy completely in 2025. 

At the time the Subaru Outback debuted, SUV sales were booming, driven by models like the Ford Explorer and Jeep Grand Cherokee. Given the Outback's Aussie-inspired name, Subaru saw Paul Hogan as the perfect pitchman for the "sport utility wagon," which was marketed as a unique alternative to the traditional SUV competition.

The ads worked not just because of Hogan's inherent charisma and name recognition — but because they specifically highlighted the Outback's off-road capabilities, as well as its edge in comfort and refinement when compared to traditional SUV offerings like the Jeep Cherokee and Chevy Blazer. The Legacy-based Outback, as well as the smaller, Impreza-based Outback Sport (which Hogan also marketed), ultimately helped usher in a new era of success for Subaru.

The presence of Paul Hogan in Subaru ads lasted well beyond the launch of the Outback, all the way until the early 2000s. By that point, the Outback, along with the Subaru Forester that followed it, had established Subaru as one of the leading makers of car-based SUVs.  At the same time, other new models like the Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V were helping to lay the groundwork for a segment that's since overtaken sedans in popularity. 

While the Paul Hogan commercials were far from the only factor driving Subaru's renaissance, the campaign certainly helped mark a turning point for the brand. In the early '90s, Subaru's annual sales in America had fallen off significantly from their mid-1980s highs, nearly dropping below 100,000 cars. Beginning with the introduction of the Outback, the brand's fortunes reversed, with annual sales crossing the 200,000 mark by the mid-2000s. That trend has continued, and if you fast-forward, Subaru sold over 640,000 vehicles in America in 2025 — a year that saw the debut of the significantly redesigned 2026 Outback.

To put it another way, the tastes of the car-buying public have shifted right into Subaru's wheelhouse since the '90s, and to say the company's Outback marketing effort was effective would be an understatement. In fact, the Outback model name and presence of Crocodile Dundee in its ads even led some people to think Subaru itself was an Australian automaker rather than a Japanese one. Either way, the pitch worked: three decades later, the Outback remains one of Subaru's best-selling models.