What Subaru BRAT or Baja? Unofficial Subaru Brumby Suicide-Door Truck Proposes 2+2 Layout

Back in 2015, at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Hyundai boldly debuted the Santa Cruz concept. Years later, they dared to leap head-first into the revived compact pickup truck sector in the United States with production based in Montgomery, Alabama (HMMA – Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama) and a unibody design of a four-door based on the Tucson crossover SUV.

That was a bold move, indeed – but also one that was a bit too long in the making. That's because they allowed enough time for one major rival to develop a competitor: Ford's reinvented Maverick nameplate is now a Mexico-produced unibody compact pickup truck sharing its underpinnings with the Escape and Bronco Sport compact crossover SUVs. As a 'thank you' for giving them the bright idea to attack the reborn compact truck segment, the Ford Maverick is now outselling the Hyundai Santa Cruz by almost 15k units during the past quarter!

As such, nobody is surprised that many carmakers are pondering their return to the segment – including Ram with their new Brazil-based Rampage, as well as Japanese automakers like Toyota and Subaru. Speaking of the latter, Toyota is rumored to either bring back the iconic Stout nameplate or develop a cheaper Corolla Cross-based compact unibody pickup truck to fight Ford's Maverick and the Santa Cruz.

Meanwhile, Subaru has two significant alternatives worth exploring – the Subaru BRAT (aka 'Bi-drive Recreational All-terrain Transporter') from 1978 to 1994 coupe utility or the Subaru-Isuzu-built Baja four-door produced between 2002 and 2006. As such, it is no wonder the rumor mill thinks they might also try to hunt down the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz. And just like with Toyota, the rumor mill doesn't seem ready to settle down on a revival or the other, with the imaginative realm of digital car content creators trying one reinvention or the other.

However, there is one glaring exception. This virtual artist, known as Theottle on social media, has resorted to CGI slicing and dicing the new Subaru Sport Mobility Concept into a very cool Ute. The Subaru prototype was presented at the inaugural edition of the Japan Mobility Show, formerly known as the Tokyo Motor Show, for almost seven decades. Over there, it mainly referenced classically quirky SVX (Alcyone) coupe. Still, it also had a few crossover-like details – and they were enough for this pixel master to get into the mood of designing a 'coupe utility' compact pickup truck.

Alas, he didn't want to use either the BRAT or Baja monikers because he wasn't entirely sure he wanted a two-door Ute like the BRAT or a larger four-door like the Baja. Instead, all he knew was that he wanted to use the concept's aggressive styling for an excellent unibody compact pickup truck – and he came up with the idea of recycling the Hyundai Santa Cruz concept's suicide-door setup for a Subaru 2+2 named 'Brumby.' Sure, the Japanese automaker's diehard fans might remember this as an alternate moniker for the BRAT.

As such, we know that he subliminally opted to favor the latter over the Baja successor. Still, the result is quite fetching – too bad it's just wishful thinking, and Subaru may never reenter the American compact pickup truck sector out of fear of ending up like Hyundai, a big loser in the face of great Ford versus Toyota adversity if the latter also decides to enter the market with its own unibody design.