SUV's

ditto. SUV is US terminology.

In Australia they are 4WDs (or 4x4s) or AWDs. Otherwise we might as well start calling petrol gasoline and be done with it.

SUV = Sports Utility Vehicle

What do you mean by sports utility vehicle?
I like to race a beetle in some motorkhanas, which is a sport, but I don't think it is a SUV.
Not so sure about what you mean by utility though.
The beetle is not a ute.

The vehicles I have seen on US web sites and in magazines as SUVs are big F250s etc. Is this what you mean?

Sorry, I think I got it.

SUV relates to soft roader in Australia.
Thanks ED.

An SUV is something like a Holden SS ute or a Falcon XR8 ute - sorry I do not know how SUV relates to anything that goes offroad.

FWIW (for what it's worth),
Toyota cashed in on the SUV naming crap by calling the Hilux Space cabs & Dual Cabs AUV's (Action Utility Vehicles) thus intimating that they were tougher than a SUV.
Wonder if they were comparing with RAV4 Subaru Forester and similar or the Yank version of a SUV ( Ford 250, Chev and Chrysler "Light Trucks")

Me thinks that it might well be the former.

I flatly refuse to use the term SUV when referring to AWD or toy 4wd's Daihatsu terios and similar, they are "softroaders".

Disco

SUV etc.

Heard an Australian reporter the other day called into a Gas station for "GAS"

I could have given him some after the salad I had for lunch.

Redeye

Stupid Useless Vehicle

They don't suffer from lack of a low range in deep sand?

Not from my experience.
I had a Hyundai Tucson with 2" lift + MTR's.
Went out with the guys from 4WDMonthly to stockton and whilst I was the only softroader (or SUV ;) ). I didn't get stuck at all. Although a few cruisers did.

I even got up a big dune first go whilst others took 2 or 3 goes.

Having said that though, I did hit some dunes too hard and broke the thermal fan somehow haha...

Like I said before, clearance is the biggest problem for the softroaders is the lack of clearance :(

Large footprint, light weight. Wonder how a softroader would go up big red at the edge of the Simpson Desert. From the videos I've seen, the vehicles appear to take a kay of
run-up to the base of the dune first. Do any of them climb from a standing start? methinks not, so the softroadster would have to be in with a chance.

cheers
Terry R.

when we were at big red earlier this year a VW Golf shamed everyone and drove to the top without any problem

Ya gotta love that !
To be fair, the desert crossing vehicles are loaded up with supplies.

T.R.

Yeah well I wouldn't get too carried away with the "power" of the ford straight 6. For the last 6 years we've had a brand new falcon in the driveway (wagon) for my wife's work car, get's replaced every 3 years, now on our third. The funniest thing I ever saw was that in her new one (only done about 4k on it so far) it came with TRACTION CONTROL! HAHAHAHA, I laughed my head off. While demonstrating the usfulness of the traction control to my sports car fanatic brother, I switch it off and used full throttle and then a good bit of brakes with the left foot out side his house. Didn't even chirp the wheels! HAHAHAHA! The falcon just went "ERRRRRRRRRRR" and then drove away!

Yeah they pull ok when you rev them so hard that the dashboard vibrates like a 747 on takeoff, but as far as torque goes they are pathetic IMHO. (and I don't know nor care what the written specs for them are). I seriously reckon that the surf would go the falcon in first gear from a standing start (automatic 4 cyl diesel 2.5+ tonne 4wd against 4.0L 6cyl petrol station wagon) , after that the storey would be over, but they are so SLOW at take off it is embarassing.

Apparently the turbo 6 goes like stick, but you'd expect it to for the $$$ + size of motor + size of turbo. Even then, I imagine it would only be in the higher rev range.

I reckon it's about time ford caught up with the 21st and the rest of the world and brought out a V6 so that their vehicles actually had some usable city driving power.

Phil G I recently did Peake sand dunes with the High Range 4WD Club in the X-Trail and a group of AWD vehicles because of the light weight and momentum we all made the Dunes. The Cruisers & others struggled because of thier weight, the compact vehicles suffer from low clearence but driver skill an over come that.
You will have to come & join us one day. www.hr4wdclubsa.org.au

Doesn't the Kia Sportage have low range, hence it is NOT a soft roader?

Hi Cuffs,
Thanks for the website. Thats one of the best club websites around!
I've been to Peake many times - would be a great place to give the Xtrail a workout. Unfortunately, my wife owns the Xtrail, and doesn't want it to cop the odd scratch from offroading - she keeps saying NO at the moment :-((
But I'm working on it :-))))

There must be a few trips that would be good fun for your club - Googs Track, Simpson Desert and maybe the loop from Nullabor - Cook- Vokes Hill- Coober Pedy would be good, if you're interested in trying out the deserts.

Cheers
Phil

Hi Jeff,
Yeah, the Kia had low range, but in all other respects it resembles a softroader - I don't know where you draw the line. We used low range a lot of the time, even though he had an auto - it just seemed to go a bit further up the dunes in low, even though conventional 4wds usually do the whole trip in high.

Cheers
Phil

I thought that WAS where you drew the line. What other respects does it? I thought the Sportarges where a regid chasis origionally with 4 coils and two solid axels, later going to torsion bar IFS. How does that differ from any other 4by for sale in oz? It's smaller, but so is a Zook and they are not soft roaders, hilux's are smaller than landcruisers but they are not soft roaders.

Softroaders as I understand it, do not have low range, do not have a true solid chasis (neither do pajeros now mind you) and often don't have a centre diff lock, hence AWD rather than 4WD.

Jeff, Jeff, Jeff... I'll surrender now :-)))
I figured that because we had to tow it over many dunes it must have been soft!
OK, so I guess that means the Sportage is the softest HardRoader out there.

But the latest improved Sportage is definitely a softroader - no transfer case, monocoque and its got lots of cupholders!

Cheers
phil

Yeah, stupid yank sayings like "dude"