Performance Communications | November 7, 2014
With winter around the corner and weather warnings ahoy, some SUV drivers may feel a little blasé about it all. Should this winter bring a gentle frost or an avalanche (or neither), there are worse places to be than in an SUV, even if it doesn’t have four-wheel drive, which it probably won’t. With their chunky styling and commanding views of the road, SUVs have established themselves as a firm favourite of the family car park.
SUVs are increasing in popularity, thanks to models like VW’s Tiguan.
Perhaps the impending doom of winter has encouraged Vauxhall to announce that its evergreen Zafira and Meriva models will morph into new SUV models within the next two years. When the Zafira was originally launched, it was lauded as a revolution in the family car market. Mums and Dads were so astounded by its folding rearmost seats that they didn’t even notice that their offspring were sat in the crumple zone. It took up more or less the same space in the garage as their old Astra and frankly it was automotive wizardry.
Like the kids it used to ferry to the school gates, the MPV is growing up.
A decade ago, it would have been unthinkable that the MPV, darling of the school run, would yield to the SUV, a breed of car that became trendy to hate owing to its tractory-ness and poor environmental credentials. But now Vauxhall’s game-changer has been forced to evolve into that very same car to stay in the game. While MPV sales haven’t gone down, SUV sales have jumped by a huge 38% between 2004 and 2013, with 248,003 finding homes on British driveways last year compared to 150,766 MPVs.
SUV buyers also have more choice now than ever before. No longer is the SUV the reserve of the landed gentry or the Premier League car park; they are now refined and affordable cars thanks to dozens of niche models and a plethora of SUVs and crossovers derived from family hatchbacks. The ever-changing SUV party is well underway, and one that other manufacturers cannot afford to be late to.
As well as affordability, the success of the new generation of SUV depended heavily on convincing the environmentalists, too. I can’t remember the last time I heard the expression ‘gas guzzler’ or ‘Chelsea tractor’; it is simply impossible to deride today’s breed of eco-SUV as we might have criticised a Cadillac Escalade V8 in the past.
The SUV was once the definitive symbol of the non-eco car, but manufacturers have responded.
That’s not to say traditional SUV producers have been eclipsed; they have worked hard to make their products as efficient as possible without losing any of their appeal. Class leaders like the Range Rover Evoque score highly for efficiency and few Londoners won’t have heard the quiet hum of a hybrid Lexus RX.
Don’t want to alienate your customers? Get them to design your car.
Indeed, it is the enduring allure of the product and the willingness of manufacturers to improve their products that has kept the SUV, for all its past sins, on our roads. VW has captured the essence of SUV appeal in the latest ad for its Golf-derived Tiguan. A slightly depressed Mr. Average is seen in the throes of family life with all and sundry laying claim to his time and money, but when he reaches for the keys of his new Tiguan this all changes. The tagline ‘No Compromise’ reminds us that we can own a cool car and accommodate our responsibilities without obliterating the environment. For those reasons, the latest breed of SUVs should be on every family car buyer’s Christmas list.
