It was once estimated that the rise in popularity of SUVs had effectively undone all of the efficiency improvements made on internal combustion engines.
As in, the International Energy Agency said we’d burnt as much fuel in the previous decade as if we’d all stayed driving hatchbacks and made no tech improvements.
In 2023, some 60% of all cars sold in the UK were SUVs, up from 50% in 2021. There are two reasons for this. The first is that SUV is such a broad term that it now applies to a Ford Puma and a Tesla Model Y just as equally as it applies to a Jeep Wrangler or Land Rover Defender.
This is daft because these cars don’t all do the same thing: some SUVs are proper four-wheel-drive off-road-capable vehicles, while others are tall family wagons with big boots and a seat height that makes it easy for ageing hips or child seats to slide on and off them. Really we should call these practical family wagons something other than SUVs.
The second reason is that people think real 4x4s are cool and that off-roading might feel very adventurous, so they want to look like they do it. Hence some SUVs-not-4x4s try to look more like actual off-roaders. But not all 4x4s, let alone all SUVs, are created equal.
And I’ll let you into a secret, just in case you haven’t already tried it: off-roading is great. It’s as good a day out as a track day, by my reckoning.
Some of my best days at work are off-road days, typically where we hire a disused quarry and devise a series of objective tests for the assembled 4x4s.
Off-roading is so much fun that I go off the beaten path in my Land Rover Defender on my own time. I even do it on my motorbike, although, because that weighs a quarter of a tonne and I am a weakling, not terribly ambitiously.
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Yeah - tell your insurer!
More fun on a motorbike but either way enjoy it while you can before the Sad As Sith Ramblers association ban the practice.
Yeah , great, do with what you want with whatever Vehicle you own,but, be prepared for regular Garage bills for minor or major repairs.