SUVs and crossovers have been very successful in the automotive market for a few years now. These vehicles, at the crossroads of genres, borrow characteristics from sedans, 4x4s, minivans, and even coupes.
Manufacturers have all rushed into this new trend as they did with minivans a few years ago. The Toyota Rav4, the Opel Mokka, the Citroën C4 Cactus, the Renault Kadjar, and the Fiat 500X are all part of this wave of innovative vehicles while they are in different segments.
When you want to buy or even sell a car in the UAE, it’s vital to understand the difference to choose what suits you best.
SUV
The SUV or Sport Utility Vehicle is a hybrid between a 4×4 and a minivan. An SUV offers a comfortable cabin volume, ideal for family use. Most SUVs have a 4WD mode that provides true off-road capability.
However, an SUV is much closer to a classic vehicle than an all-terrain.
Among the most popular is the Peugeot 3008, the Opel Grandland, the Skoda Karoq, not to mention the most modular: the Volkswagen Tiguan and the Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace.
With their big engines and bulky bodies, SUV vehicles offer lots of space for passengers and cargo. As they’re built for comfort rather than speed, they have better fuel efficiency than sports coupes.
Crossover
The Crossover, less spacious and more urban than the SUV, is placed between the 4×4 and the sedan while consuming less fuel. Often considered sportier than SUVs, Crossovers also have a 4×4 mode. You can see the Crossover as the missing link between 4×4 and SUVs.
Crossovers are cars that combine the functionality and versatility of a sport utility vehicle (SUV) with the road manners of a compact car. They typically come equipped with high ground clearance and four doors.
Crossovers provide both practicality and style. The design makes them ideal vehicles for families who want something spacious and comfortable. Because they are relatively large, they offer plenty of room inside. And because they don’t look like regular SUVs, they fit into almost any parking situation.
A crossover combines attributes from two or more different types of vehicles. This means that they have characteristics similar to both a sedan and a truck. For example, some crossovers include a hatchback, which provides additional cargo space.
The Difference Between SUVs and Crossovers
Car Body
The difference between the crossover and the SUV mainly lies in the structure of each. The chassis and the frame of the crossover cars are one base. While the SUV uses the chassis of trucks so that the outer frame is designed and manufactured and then installed on the truck chassis.
That difference makes SUVs heavier with a stronger grip and stability. On the other hand, the crossover body gives it agility and flexibility to launch more dynamic and fast, without any of the two options affecting the safety and security systems in the car.
Fuel Consumption
The weight differences between SUVs and crossovers are reflected in the fuel consumption of each. Crossovers outperform SUVs in their low fuel consumption rate as an opposite to the high fuel consumption in SUVs. With that, we can say crossovers are more economical than SUVs.
Personal preferences play a big role here whenever you through the sentence “value my car” if you are thinking about cashing it. Some buyers look for fuel efficiency, while others search for power and acceleration. Thus, it’s important to study the factors that play a role in evaluating your car.
Engine and Thrust
SUVs have a standard V6 engine with a four-wheel drive system and a possibility of modification and development by increasing the number of cylinders to 8. Thus, it becomes a V8 engine instead of a V6 engine.
Crossover cars rely on a V4 engine with a front two-wheel drive with the availability of all-wheel drive versions and the possibility of increasing the number of cylinders to 6.