What Does SUV Stand for?

What does SUV stand for? It’s a question that more and more people are asking as the genre races to market dominance in this country and around the world. In the most literal sense, the acronym stands for Sports Utility Vehicle and had its origins in vehicles that were more or less civilian versions of military or commercial vehicles. The broad idea was that these SUVs could carry passengers in relative comfort but take them to off-road destinations thanks to their higher ride height and all-wheel-drive.

What do people these days really mean when they talk about an SUV? Although the term has been in use since the 1980s, these days it seems to cover a huge range of vehicles. The reality is that there’s no hard and fast definition of what an SUV is and isn’t. SUVs now come in all sizes large and small and everything in between and while they still generally still have a higher ride height and bold looks, the all-wheel-drive thing is very much optional nowadays.

Today, the term has been narrowed slightly to include vehicles which use a separate body on a ladder-chassis, much like old-school commercial vehicles and four-wheel-drives. That has led to the flip-side term cross-over, which describes vehicles with the SUV’s appearance and intent but that use a monocoque body like any modern passenger vehicle. Even then there are no hard and fast rules to this and some vehicles with traditional SUV qualities do, in fact, use a monocoque bodyshell. The other acronym to spring up has been AUV or Action Utility Vehicle, but this has its roots even deeper in marketing versus reality.

If you really dissect the literal SUV meaning, the name becomes a little comical as the extra mass of an all-wheel-drive driveline, the compromised quasi off-road tyres and higher centre of gravity means that the vast majority of SUVs offer less sporty motoring than a conventional car, putting the knife to the 'S' in SUV.

The phenomenal popularity of the SUV today is probably down to two or three factors: Firstly, there’s fashion. When the neighbours all have an SUV, the tendency is for the rest of the population to want a slice of the action. Secondly, SUVs are actually quite good to use in normal day-to-day use. You tend to sit higher for a better view of the road, and older folk who are not as flexible appreciate the higher seating position that is easier to enter or leave. The third factor is that some family car buyers think the SUV is bigger inside than the equivalent passenger car or hatchback. In most cases, they’re not as the packaging of the SUV’s mechanical parts eats into the interior space. Finally, you could add the notion that an SUV is a vehicle that can take its owners on that great round Australia road trip. The reality is that most people will never tackle this and that many SUVs have absolutely zero off-road potential beyond that of normal cars.

There’s nothing wrong with an SUV per se: They’re functional, practical and modern ones are nice to drive and fabulously equipped. There’s a strong argument for them when it comes to a higher cabin for older passengers or parents strapping kids into child restraints without bending over so far. It’s just that the term SUV doesn’t quite match the reality. And as with any marketing phenomenon, you’ll pay extra to jump on that bandwagon.