Sure but SUVs in general sold like crazy, they had a few years to watch the rav4 sell extremely well, BMW came out with the M3 at the same time, and Mercedes was already making a ton of money selling luxury SUVs. I just don't see how this is a good example of price before product, or how much of a risk it was given what was happening in the market.
The Jeep Grand Cherokee has always been a unibody SUV and it came out in '92. You could make an argument that it was the first crossover, but it certainly wasn't the first unibody SUV.
The Rav4 was the first CUV (unibody SUV) and it only came out in '94. The fact that a sports car maker was right there with Toyota is kinda amazing.