The SUV, that station-wagon-on-a-truck-chassis that is all the rage with aspirationally minded suburbanites who think that cheap ladder-frame trucks with solid rear axles and the aerodynamics of a shipping container are some sort of status symbol, and an appropriate conveyance for around town driving.
Every time I see one, a Superman-esque scene plays out in my head: Look, at the stoplight; Is it a car? Is it a truck? No! It’s Design-by-committee!
It’s big like a truck, and has a lot of room for hauling stuff, but it’s all on the inside, carepted and full of seats, so nothing can be hauled in it. It has a lot of seats, so it must be a car, but it handles like a dump truck and eats fuel like a school bus.
If the car/truck hybrid was such a great idea, the Country Squire and the El Camino would still be around, and thriving, instead of consigned, as they are, to the scrap-bin of automotive embarassments.