Last year, Americans bought 2.8 million non-luxury passenger cars, according to our parent company Cox Automotive. They bought 2.9 million pickup trucks, and they bought nearly 6 million sport utility vehicles.
We’ll do the math for you – Americans bought more SUVs than cars and trucks combined.
If it wasn’t clear before, it should be clear now, most new cars are SUVs.
Spend a day driving one, and it’s easy to see why. Their versatility is unmatched. They can handle just about any weather condition, haul and tow heavy stuff, and carry a full load of adults in comfort. And to face the truth about the endless car-height wars, many of us buy an SUV to see over all the other SUVs in traffic.
But all of that is an oversimplification. Some SUVs offer far lower payload and towing capacities than you’d expect, and others get built for comfort, though only for two.
SUVs, as a class, can do everything. But no individual SUV can do everything; you are going to have to choose your compromises.
This SUV guide will help you sort out which SUV is right for you.
What is an SUV?
The term “sport utility vehicle” was coined to refer to large, rugged vehicles built to handle off-road conditions. They were traditionally built on truck frames (more on that in a moment) with boxy, wagon-like bodies that put the cargo area in the cabin with passengers instead of in a separate trunk behind them.
Gearheads will argue whether the first true SUV was the 1953 International Harvester Travelall or the 1963 Jeep Wagoneer (they’re all wrong; it was the 1935 Chevrolet Carryall Suburban). It may not have looked like the modern SUV, but the fundamentals came early — a tough off-road build, a tall wagon-style body, and a can-do attitude.
Today, though, automakers have taken that concept in a lot of directions. Riffing on every aspect of the form, they’ve built off-roaders and SUVs that offer car-like smooth on-road manners but shouldn’t leave the asphalt. They’ve built SUVs that are among the largest vehicles available and SUVs smaller than small cars. They’ve built value SUVs that cost less than $20,000 and exotic SUVs for more than $200,000.
However, what they all have in common is a higher seating position than most cars and a cabin that encompasses the cargo space behind the last row of seats.
Crossover or SUV?
When shopping for an SUV, you’ll run into two terms for this type of vehicle. They’re sometimes used interchangeably and sometimes refer to two different things. That happens because they were once used to distinguish two different but similar ideas. Over time, the lingo of SUVs has evolved to blur the distinction.
Simply put, it has to do with how a vehicle is built.
The Meaning of “SUV”
Some vehicles are built with what is known as body-on-frame construction. This means the vehicle’s chassis is built separately from the body it is attached to. Building a vehicle this way allows it to flex, which has advantages and disadvantages.
A vehicle built with body-on-frame construction can flex to keep all four wheels in contact with the ground over uneven terrain and accommodate heavy and uneven loads. Pickup trucks are almost all body-on-frame to take advantage of those traits.
But built-in flexibility makes a vehicle’s handling loose. More flex in the body also means more bumps in the cabin for a rougher ride.
Traditionally, SUVs were built on truck frames. Many still are. GM’s line of large SUVs — such as the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon — are built on the chassis of the Chevy Silverado. They’re good at truck things, like towing and hauling heavy loads or crossing rough terrain reliably. But you wouldn’t want to race one on a curvy road.
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The Meaning of “Crossover”
Other vehicles are built with “unibody” construction. This means the chassis and body are built as a single, rigid structure. Unibody vehicles corner with more precision and offer a much smoother on-road ride. Sedans and sports coupes are built with unibody construction.
Many buyers want the great visibility and cargo space of an SUV but don’t plan to tow a boat or take it off road. For them, manufacturers developed unibody SUVs.
When that idea was new, the automotive press nicknamed these vehicles “crossovers.” Like a country musician recording a pop album, they blended attributes of two genres to create something with crossover appeal. The Honda CR-V, for instance, is built on the platform of the Honda Civic.
Over time, engineers have blurred the lines between classic SUVs and crossovers to the point that the two terms are almost interchangeable today. But when you hear someone use the term crossover to distinguish something from an SUV, they probably mean that it’s built like a car, not like a truck.
See the Best New and Redesigned SUVs for 2021
SUV Benefits
The SUV has grown to be the most popular type of vehicle in America, thanks to a host of strengths.
Ride height: An SUV allows you to see over more vehicles in traffic than a sedan. Of course, if we all buy taller vehicles, we’ll all want taller vehicles. A recent study found that large SUVs today are 11% higher than they were 20 years ago. That trend has to end at some point, right? But no one has found a solution to the height wars yet. So, individually, we can each gain a better view by buying a taller SUV.
Cargo space: With a sedan, you get a trunk in which to store cargo. It stretches to the end of the vehicle’s frame but can only be as high as the rear window. With an SUV, the cargo area behind the rear seats also stretches to the end of the vehicle’s frame but extends as high as the SUV’s roof.
The 2021 Toyota Camry and Venza are built on the same platform. The Camry’s trunk allows drivers 15.1 cubic feet of cargo space. The Venza has nearly double that volume — 28.8 cubic feet. Should you need more, you can fold the rear seats of the Venza down, giving you 55.1 cubic feet of cargo space.
All-weather grip: Most SUVs offer either all-wheel drive (AWD) or 4-wheel drive (4WD) as options, though many are front-wheel drive (FWD) in their base configuration. This can improve their wet and cold weather performance.
Many shoppers, however, believe this effect is much more dramatic than it is. Consumer Reports testing has revealed an FWD car with winter tires often has better grip on icy and wet roads than an AWD car with all-season tires. Since AWD SUVs typically cost thousands more than FWD models, this means many drivers could be safer and save money by choosing winter tires instead of an AWD model. Of course, an AWD car with snow tires is the grippiest option of all.
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Style
While there are practical reasons to buy an SUV, most people buy a car based on their emotional response to it as much as its functional value.
SUVs convey a rough-and-ready competence that few sedans carry. This spirit comes in several types. A Land Rover Defender evokes old-school safari resilience, but there’s nothing sporty about its boxy appeal. A 186-mph Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT is functionally an excellent race car and is much sleeker, but still looks like one that can take a punch.
You may never take your Ford Bronco Sport anywhere more challenging than the parking lot at work. But if it makes you feel capable, that feeling may offer value to you.
Ten Fun 2021 SUVs
Safety of SUVs
Today’s SUVs are just as safe as cars. For the 2021 model year, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) gave out its Top Safety Pick Award to 53 cars and 53 SUVs.
Some, however, are safer than others. We encourage readers to familiarize themselves with crash test scores from the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the IIHS, each of which performs its own battery of tests. Some SUVs do well in both sets.
Today’s vehicles offer many automated safety systems that can help protect you and your family. Systems like blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert are standard equipment on some models and added-cost options on others.
One safety consideration shoppers might also want to keep in mind is that taller SUVs can have a front blind spot. A small child or pet can be invisible from the driver’s seat if they are close to the vehicle’s front. We recommend vehicles with automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection to help ease this worry.
SUV Fuel Economy
SUVs usually outweigh comparable sedans. The added mass that gives them a higher seating position and AWD functionality adds weight and wind resistance, which weighs down fuel economy.
But today’s SUVs have come a long way from those of just a decade ago. Manufacturers now offer conventional gas-powered SUVs with considerably better fuel economy than you might expect. There are also hybrid and all-electric models of SUVs.
Make no mistake — a truck-based, full-size SUV is still one of the least fuel-efficient vehicles a family can own. But even those sip less gas than their predecessors.
See the Most Fuel-efficient SUVs for 2022
Performance and Horsepower in SUVs
SUVs are a bit heavier than their sedan counterparts and sit considerably higher. This influences their performance — a heavier vehicle is more sluggish than a lighter one. A top-heavy vehicle handles with less athleticism than one with a lower center of gravity.
But engineers innovated for several decades to ease those problems and worked a long way toward eliminating them. Most SUVs these days offer enough power to handle their weight in traffic easily and drive with surprisingly car-like handling.
Luxury and performance-oriented SUVs use electronic suspensions and terrain management systems that can give them grip in most conditions and make them handle like smaller vehicles did a generation ago.
At the extreme end, high-performance SUVs from sports car manufacturers can outrun many legendary high-performance cars and carry four adults and their luggage. The 2022 Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT, for instance, recently completed a lap of the Nürburgring (arguably Germany’s most challenging race track) with a time that could embarrass dedicated sports cars.
SUV Seating and Spaciousness
SUVs come in two or three-row models, with seating for as few as four to as many as eight people (or even nine in select versions of the Chevy Tahoe, Chevy Suburban, and GMC Yukon). The same general rules that govern rear-seat space in cars apply — small SUVs can bring limited foot room and hip room. However, the high roofline of most SUVs means that rear-seat passengers generally have more headroom in sport utilities than in cars.
Most 2-row SUVs seat five, except for a few luxury models that use rear bucket seats in place of a rear bench.
Many 3-row SUVs offer buyers the choice of a bench that seats three people or two captain’s chairs in the second row. Captain’s chairs are more comfortable for adults and offer storage space between them.
Trunk or Cargo Space
SUVs lack a traditional trunk but usually have more cargo space than corresponding cars. A car’s trunk reaches only as high as the base of the rear window. An SUV’s storage area, however, reaches all the way to the vehicle’s roof.
Some sporty SUVs have a more coupe-like profile, with a greenhouse that slopes down toward the rear. This can limit cargo space. Most manufacturers also offer a more conventional model.
BMW, for instance, builds two midsize SUVs on the same chassis, with the same engines and transmissions. The X4 looks sportier with its fastback roofline and offers 23.7 cubic feet of space behind the seats. The X3 looks more traditional and offers 28.7.
SUVs offer an additional cargo space advantage — you can fold the rear seats to fit large, bulky objects that take up much of the cabin.
Off-roading Equipment
SUVs look designed to go off-road, but some can and some can not handle those conditions. The latter will do better in light off-roading situations than most sedans but should not be mistaken for off-road vehicles.
The Hyundai Santa Fe, for instance, is an excellent 2-row midsize SUV that’s known for its higher-end interior and a long list of standard features. It is built on the same platform as the Hyundai Sonata midsize car. The Santa Fe offers 8.2 inches of ground clearance — just over 2 inches more than the sedan. It comes in FWD, though an optional AWD system is available that is tuned for slippery road conditions.
The Ford Bronco is also an excellent midsize SUV, known for off-road prowess and classic rugged good looks. It rides on the same platform as the Ford Ranger pickup. It brings up to 11.6 inches of ground clearance. The Bronco comes only in 4WD, with a terrain management system that lets the driver select for asphalt, mud, sand, snow, and other surfaces.
The Santa Fe will handle a muddy field parking lot at a music festival with ease but is not built for driving through mountain streams. The Bronco, on the other hand, will go nearly anywhere a wheeled vehicle can go.
Types of SUVs
Choosing which SUV is best for you can be a daunting decision. Whether you want to be eco-friendly and go electric, or find an SUV with three rows to take your kids and their friends to and from soccer practice, use our Car Comparisontool to help make the right decision that much easier.
Subcompact SUV
The smallest SUVs are practical, tidy vehicles that will meet the daily commuter needs of most people. All are built on unibody frames, giving them car-like characteristics. There are no true off-road vehicles in the category, most are FWD, and none can tow a load larger than a small personal watercraft. Their prices range typically from just below $20,000 to just under $30,000. Our Best Buy Award winner in the category is the Kia Seltos.
The Best Subcompact SUVs
Subcompact Luxury SUV
Luxury manufacturers build similarly sized vehicles. As befits of a luxury car, they are typically more powerful than their mainstream counterparts. They offer a long list of standard features, including leather seating, soft-touch surfaces throughout, and upscale sound systems. Their prices typically run from around $25,000 to a little over $35,000. Our Best Buy in the category is the Mercedes-Benz GLA.
The Best Subcompact Luxury SUVs
Compact SUV
Compact SUVs can comfortably carry two adults and three children. They can carry four adults for short trips, but their rear seats are not comfortable enough for everyday use with adults as rear-seat passengers. Though there are no true off-road SUVs in this category, some, like the Subaru Forester or Jeep Cherokee, have all-wheel-drive and terrain management systems. They offer light off-roading capabilities. All are built on unibody frames, giving them car-like ride quality.
Some compact SUVs can tow a small travel trailer or motorcycle trailer. Their prices range from around $20,000 to a little under $30,000. Our best buy in the category is the Toyota RAV4.
The Best Compact SUVs
Compact Luxury SUV
Compact SUVs have their luxury counterparts. These are typically quicker to accelerate, handle with a bit of sportiness, and offer every new bit of cabin technology and luxurious soft materials. Shoppers should expect to spend from the low $40,000s to the low $50,000s. Our best buy in the category is the Audi Q5.
The Best Compact Luxury SUVs
Midsize 2-Row SUV
Automakers build and sell a lot of 2-row midsize SUVs. They are comfortable family cars and can regularly carry four adults in comfort. Some are designed for a car-like ride, while others are built to tow and for off-road capability. So, buyers must compare specifications carefully to ensure that they’re buying an SUV capable of what they need it to do.
The most off-road-capable SUVs are usually classified as midsize. But vehicles like the Jeep Wrangler and Ford Bronco are not as practical as family haulers. They are more useful as off-road specialists.
There is immense variety in the towing capacities of midsize SUVs. If you’re shopping for a midsize SUV and plan to tow with it, don’t assume they’re all similar. The 2021 Toyota Venza and Jeep Grand Cherokee are both 2-row midsize SUVs. But the Venza can tow just 1,000 pounds. Properly configured, the Grand Cherokee can tow 7,200 pounds. Our best buy in the category is the Hyundai Santa Fe.
The Best Midsize SUVs
Midsize 3-Row SUV
Some midsize SUVs have a third row to allow drivers to carry more people. The third row in a midsize SUV is usually smaller and less bolstered than the third row in a large SUV, so most are not suitable for carrying adults every day. But they are excellent for large families who need to carry more than two or three children and extra adults when needed. Our best buy in the category is the Kia Telluride.
The SUVs That Have a Third Row
Midsize Luxury SUV
Luxury midsize SUVs are now the best-selling vehicles in many automakers’ lineups. Porsche, for instance, sells more SUVs than cars. Midsize luxury SUVs are a crowded category. It features grand family cruisers like the Lincoln Aviator, legendary off-roaders like the Land Rover Discovery, and high-performance vehicles with luggage space like the Porsche Cayenne.
Because of the huge variety of vehicles that fit this description, shoppers can spend anywhere from $40,000 to the low six figures. Our best buy in the category is the Genesis GV80.
The Best Midsize Luxury SUVs
Full-Size SUV
Manufacturers offer only six full-size SUVs in the United States in 2021. But that is still a large enough number to give shoppers a useful set of alternatives. Two popular models — the Chevy Tahoe and GMC Yukon — share almost all of their parts and are functionally different trim levels of the same vehicle.
All have three rows, and their third rows can carry adults and children comfortably. Most full-size SUVs are built on truck frames and are capable of hauling and towing truck-like weights. However, full-size SUVs are not particularly fuel-efficient, given their great weight. Shoppers should expect to spend at least in the low $50,000 range for a new full-size SUV. Our best buy in the category is the Ford Expedition.
The Best Full-size SUVs
Large Luxury SUV
Large luxury SUVs offer three rows of space, with genuine room for up to seven adults to ride in luxurious comfort. They are a specialized enough vehicle that only a few manufacturers build them. But SUVs like the Cadillac Escalade and Mercedes-Benz GLS can tow more than 7,000 pounds and offer the comfort of semi-aniline leather and high-end speakers even to third-row passengers. Prices begin around $70,000 and can stretch into the low six-figures.
See the Best Large Luxury SUVs
Super Luxury SUV
Luxury automakers have taken the SUV to the high-end with $100,000-plus vehicles like the BMW X6 M and Mercedes-Benz G-Class.
Within the last five years, super luxury automakers have begun to offer their own tall, off-road vehicles with wagon-like bodies. SUVs like the Bentley Bentayga and Lamborghini Urus have appeared, offering 600-plus horsepower and quarter-million-dollar price tags.
Electric SUV
Electric Vehicles (EVs) remain a tiny percentage of the cars on American roads today (less than 3% at the time of writing this article). But sales of EVs are growing faster than sales of any other category of vehicle. That includes electric SUVs.
The upscale Tesla Model X and more affordable Tesla Model Y are among the five fastest-selling EVs in America. Challengers like the Cadillac Lyriq and BMW iX should give Tesla new competition soon. We expect to see the electric SUV category grow quickly, with more than two dozen vehicles possible by the end of 2022.
When you start shopping for a new or used SUV, check out our KBB Car Valuation tool to help you find the fair market price and the vehicle that works best for you.
