[1] The styling was described as having "a very short nose and long passenger compartment designed to provide plenty of room for people and cargo" at the 1990 Chicago Auto Show.
The same placard stated that Subaru developed the car because the company "has long been recognized as having the most popular line of import station wagons in the US" and that "to strengthen this leadership position, Subaru Research & Design developed the SRD-1, a family station wagon concept car, with characteristic attention to the future needs of the mature wagon users in the latter half of [the] 1990s".
[1] It was supplied with a 3.3-liter DOHC 24-valve horizontally opposed 6-cylinder engine and full-time 4-wheel drive with electronically controlled center differential.
The headquarters were moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1998, and the company was renamed Subaru Research and Development, Inc. later that year.
[3] The move facilitated SRD's primary mission of supporting emission testing and certification of Subaru vehicles at the EPA National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory in Ann Arbor.