A Sport Utility Vehicle is an automotive classification, usually in a form of an estate car, has “off-road” features like raised ground clearance, rugged exterior features, and sometimes 4-wheel drive capability. Most are being advertised to promote an “active” and “rugged” lifestyle, like this Toyota Rush:
The car is on an unpaved road, which presumably, is all it can really handle.
It made me think, what is actually the point with this kind of car? Because I presume most people who would buy it would never really take it off-road out of the comfort of the smooth urban roads, and if they ever decide to do so, it won’t be able to tackle rugged terrain because most of them only have 2-wheel drive.
1.) They're unnecessarily heavy.
Because manufacturers raise the ground clearance, and make the body of the car unnecessarily huge and the attach more butch body panels to make it appear “muscular” and beefy, adding the weight of the drivetrain, all these things combined make the car needlessly hefty.
2.) They use much more fuel.
Because of these addition to the vehicle’s weight, the manufacturer needs to fit it a punchier engine, which most of the time is a lot thirstier than normal engines, so this stronger engine needs to work a bit harder to haul the carriage around.
3.) They're so much more expensive.
Most of the time, the reason why they are so much more expensive than normal cars is marketing hype, and because of the kind of people they market these kinds of cars to. And normally, they are more expensive simply because it’s needlessly bigger, bigger parts, bigger cost.
4.) They're unreasonably wide.
Still going on about it’s extra size, being exceptionally wide naturally goes along with it. And when the car you’re driving is not really built to suit the requirements of the existing condition of our road infrastructure, several kinds of problems arise, like parking, tell me which is a lot easier to park, a Toyota Wigo, or a Toyota Rush? Also, it’s always gonna be a lot harder to deal with narrow streets and busy roads, where you hustle and bustle along with other motorists. And lastly, a big car isn’t exactly what we need in an already awfully crowded city roads.
5.) They're hopelessly impractical.
Aside from requiring a bigger parking space, that you have to provision using your “own” space. And although they claim them to be 7-seater cars, the third row seats are really just suited for small children and when those seats are deployed, there is barely any space for your luggage.
I agree mate :)
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If I were to carry people, I would buy a people carrier like a Toyota HiAce, or a Toyota Innova (I am not sure if Toyota sold the Innova there), and if I want to go serious off-roading, I would buy an old Land Rover when it's still purely mechanical, or a Suzuki Jimny. The thing is, when a car is built to do multiple things they end up doing it all badly.
Yes a Toyota hiace would be good for carrying people. No we never had the Innovative here. I had a Suzuki LJ80 1979 4WD nor long ago and I really like the new one they just released.
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