When you think SUV, you think of a mom driving her kids to school in a giant Suburban, plowing through pedestrians like an elderly man at a Santa Monica farmer’s market.
CANYONEEEEEERRROOOOOOOOOOOOOO
But SUVs have changed over the past few years — drastically.
Gone are the gas-hog Hummers like your cousin bought and wouldn’t shut up about.
Gone are body-on-frame truck SUVs in general, outside of the occasional Wrangler or Mercedes G.
The crossover is here to stay – and we’re already past the first generation of X5s, ML320s, and RX300s.
the weird looking concept that started it all, from the era of peak bodycladding
We’re in the era of the luxury utilitarian crossover (LUC), where you can stroll into your latest luxury automaker’s lavish dealership, drink too many free cappuccinos, then plop down the cost of a decent 4-bedroom house in Dallas for a short wheelbase limousine with a higher center of gravity.
if you told someone in the 60s that this was a cadillac of the future they’d slap you with their martini-holding hand
In fact, here’s a fun party game to play (if you have no friends):
Name a luxury carmaker who has never made an SUV.
The person who guesses “Lamborghini” will get slapped repeatedly.
Not only did they make the go-anywhere-beast LM002, they’re also making the Urus, which will handily go over most curbs while piloted by the girlfriend of a Russian commodities tycoon.
runs hand along the hood, hand starts bleeding profusely
Aston Martin? Well, they did come out with that Lagonda concept a couple years back — the first time I’ve ever seen a show car be released to audible gasp. Sans deterrence, they’re making a DBX crossover for people who have accidentally lost their DB9 front bumper on concrete parking stops.
if the “fat girl” in the sorority was a car…
Cross “Bentley” off your list too, with their new Bentayga SUV set to underwhelm at a showroom near you.
clickbait!
And soon, even Rolls-Royce will be an incorrect answer.
No longer content with the SUVpremacy of…*shudder*…”Indian-owned” Range Rover, the grande dame of British automakers is set to create an SUV to rule them all.
that’s…well…”not bad”?
Dubbed “Project Cullinan”, some weirdly-short-wheelbase jacked-up Phantom prototypes have been testing what’s sure to be valet-parked in the front row of Chanel for the rest of the decade.
i’ll take it as-is!
So which luxury/sports automakers still haven’t had the compulsion to make a vehicle taller than a normal car?
- Ferrari is the most notable brand that has, so far, resisted any and all opportunities to create anything resembling an SUV
- McLaren, which has stepped back on the scene after a seemingly-endless hiatus, is still just a sports car manufacturer
- Bugatti, because an SUV with 1000 horsepower is far too dangerous in the hands of mere mortals
- Koenigsegg, because of the above
Aaaaand that’s about it.
See who among your friends can name a carmaker that’s never made an SUV.
[Btw – Alfa Romeo, Jaguar, Lotus, Maserati, Maybach, and Tesla are coming out with SUVs in the next 2 years.]
THE FUTURE