We don’t yet know the exact price of Volkswagen USA’s 2017 Golf Alltrack.

We are certain, however, that Volkswagen, a company with a brand image severely tarnished in the United States, will be able to do no better than slightly undercut the basic price of the Subaru Outback.

And that might be a problem.

Increasingly seen as a vehicle no different from the standard crossovers of our day — the Toyota RAV4s and Ford Edges and Nissan Muranos — the Subaru Outback continues to distinguish itself as a true crossover. Blending the qualities of a typical high-riding utility vehicle – or emphasizing them with 8.7 inches of ground clearance – with a more traditional wagon shape, the Outback truly does cross over. John Edward would be proud.

Now in its fifth generation, the Subaru Outback has outright ownership of the sub-sub-segment it created. Pretenders to the throne, often inevitably rare premium brand tall wagons, have come and gone.

Now that you’re hackles are up, we’ll acknowledge the AMC Eagle’s role in crafting the category. But with Eagle – and AMC – left behind, Subaru carved out a corner of the U.S. market in which a handful of others have done little more than nibble at the edges.

Honda’s Crosstour, more of an elevated Accord hatchback than a wagon, almost an upsized Subaru Crosstrek, generated 109,000 U.S. sales since 2009. Subaru sold more than 152,000 Outbacks in the U.S. just last year.

Volvo, up a notch or two from the Outback in terms of price, sold nearly 20,000 XC70s in 2002, but XC70 sales declined in the following seven years and the XC70 now averages little more than 5,000 annual U.S. sales. Volvo’s U.S. division produced fewer than 3,500 V60 Cross Country sales over the last 17 months.

Audi USA gave up on the A6 Allroad; the A4 Allroad produced fewer than 17,000 sales since 2012.

Toyota Venza? Toyota USA has given up on the Venza’s attempt to bridge the divide between RAV4 and Highlander, or between the Camry and Highlander, or between the Matrix and Camry, or whatever. Sales plunged 45 percent between 2009 and 2014.

But if Volkswagen’s previously hurting U.S. operations are to recover from the diesel emission scandal’s self-inflicted wounds, entering a new sector may just be the ticket. If Fuji Heavy Industries’ little ol’ Subaru brand can do it, surely a global power powerhouse such as Volkswagen can do so, as well.

The foundation is worthy, though the idealistic all-wheel drive, manual transmission, diesel wagon so long sought after in North America won’t be available. But the Golf family earned the tenth spot on TTAC’s list of the best automobiles in 2016, and the platform is arguably at its best in its most practical wagon form.

At first, none of the Golf Alltrack’s three trim levels (S, SE, SEL) will offer a manual transmission, but every Alltrack will be fitted with the torquey 1.8-liter turbocharged inline-four and all-wheel drive. Every Golf Alltrack’s ground clearance will be elevated by 0.8-inch. Every Alltrack will feature the 360-degree cladding, especially important around the wheel arches, that will suddenly cause the collective American car consumer to consider the Golf SportWagen emasculated. Poor dear.

Yet all Golf Alltracks will be significantly smaller than the Subaru Outback. Remember, the conventional Golf is a direct rival of the Subaru Impreza, and we would think nothing of directly comparing an Alltrack version of the non-SportWagen Golf to the Subaru Crosstrek. The Golf wagon body provokes an unfair Outback comparison. The Subaru Outback is 10-inches longer than the wagonized Golf, greater exterior dimensions that create 15-percent more space for passengers, 17-percent more cargo volume, and 10-percent more cargo space with the rear seats folded.

The Golf Alltrack’s smaller interior highlights the difficult road ahead for Volkswagen’s semi-direct Outback rival. Not only is the Golf Alltrack’s Volkswagen badge representative of a scandal that will see the company buy back hundreds of thousands of diesel-powered cars and pay owners $5,100-$10,000, the smaller Golf Alltrack interloper will be priced right alongside the car which dominates the very segment it essentially created. (And the Golf Alltrack will be expected to add to Volkswagen’s tally, not just cannibalize the roughly 900 monthly Golf Sportwagen sales.)

Do the math. A Volkswagen Golf Sportwagen in base S trim costs $22,445 including destination — but that car includes a manual transmission, which won’t initially be available on the Golf Alltrack. The automatic? An extra $1,100. Also standard on the 2017 Golf Alltrack is all-wheel drive, for which Volkswagen USA charges $1,975 on the one model where it’s offered as optional equipment: the Tiguan.

Now the Golf Alltrack S price has risen from $22,445 to $25,520, or precisely $1,000 less than the least expensive Subaru Outback. But this assumes Volkswagen won’t charge a single penny extra for anything other than the transmission and all-wheel-drive system. Improbable.

Despite capacity constraints, Subaru sold 63,969 Outbacks in the United States in the first five months of 2016, a 6-percent year-over-year increase. Based on history’s perspective, the Outback’s share of the market appears unlikely to be dented by the arrival of the 2017 Volkswagen Golf Alltrack.

[Images: Volkswagen, Subaru]

Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures. Follow on Twitter @goodcarbadcar and on Facebook.