What makes a crossover

But there are few justifiable instances. Serious off-roading returns us to those rough roads of yesteryear, once again demanding heavy wheels and suspensions, and a strong if not stiff structure to attach it to.

Towing loads can make a beeline through the frame rails to suspensions where the wheels are doing the pulling. By the way—there are many other types of chassis concoctions besides ladder frames and unibodies. The Chrysler Airflow anticipated unibody construction with a hybrid blend of a tubular skeletal frame webbed by load-bearing panels. Today's C8 Corvette is hard to categorize, being a structure composed of cast, extruded, and sheet aluminum, all bonded together the body is a non-load-bearing envelope.

And what about Supreme Court Justice Stewart's definition? I once attended a lunch with Subaru product planners who wanted our opinion on a new product they were considering "What if we raise the Legacy wagon it had FWD and give it all-wheel drive? So was born the Outback —what we now call a crossover.

And why I'm not a product planner. If a manufacturer thinks it'll sell more unibody crossovers by giving them tough, SUV looks that we "know when we see it," nobody can stop them. But it isn't going to impress Alex Trebek. SUVs had the adventurous glamour, but also the connotations of being gas guzzlers and needlessly large. By making cars that look like SUVs, automakers had cracked the code, and thus the crossover was born.

Today most vehicles that look like full-size, rough-and-tumble SUVs are actually crossovers. Crossovers, in effect, are replacing SUVs because of their efficiency, superior handling, reduced body lean, impressive ride quality and attractive image.

Their size advantage over sedans makes them an easy choice for many consumers. The areas that true SUVs are superior to crossovers are off-road driving and towing. SUVs might be gas guzzlers, but they do have the power to tow heavy loads, just like a truck.

Similarly, that body-on-frame structure might not be the smoothest ride, but it is excellent for covering harsh terrain. Sharing platforms used to be easy. Remove the bed of a compact pickup like the Chevy S, graft on a wagon body, and voila, the garage-sized Blazer of the '80s. Ford followed the same formula with the Ranger and Explorer. Until the late '90s, almost all utility vehicles rode on full frames, bouncing and guzzling fuel like the trucks they were. It proved SUVs could have the attributes of a car and the capability of a truck.

Today, we call them crossovers. Crossovers share much with their sedan and wagon siblings, but differences marginally affect performance and passengers. They are heavier because of their bigger bodies and all-wheel-drive systems.

They're also taller for the ride height and interior space owners love, but suffer diminished fuel economy. A higher center of gravity causes shakier handling. Overall, compromises are minimal. Let's compare the Volvo XC60 crossover and S60 sedan. Wheelbase length and track width are essentially the same, as is the horsepower four-cylinder engine.

The XC60 posts 31 mpg highway while the S60 achieves 37 mpg. That's partly because the XC60 weighs 4, pounds while the S60 weighs 3, pounds.

The SUV gave many Canadians their first taste of the attributes of the CUV and it was a common choice for those looking for generous and flexible storage, enhanced traction and higher levels of space and capability than a conventional sedan.

In the early years, SUVs tended to be big, unexciting to drive and, for some, too big to maneuver and park easily. Rising fuel prices also left many shoppers after a more fuel-efficient alternative. Simply, shoppers wanted space, traction, flexibility, and added ride height, but without the heft and thirst of an SUV. Enter the crossover. The revolutionary vehicle blends traction, ride height and capability of a larger and heavier SUV, with the more athletic ride, handling, performance and efficiency of a small car.

The result was a new type of utility vehicle with traction and capability to spare, but in a smaller, easier to use and far more fuel-efficient package. It turns out that our hunch was right: Strong demand for the RAV4 continued to grow, and the model is still a strong seller today — some 25 years and five generations later.

By combining the body and structure as one, the vehicle can be made lighter, more spacious, more flexible and more car-like in terms of ride and handling.

Virtually every car built in the past several decades and all crossover models use uni-body construction. For the crossover, uni-body construction allows automakers to create large and capable vehicles that also achieve excellent fuel mileage.