What is the real difference between a car and a SUV ?

Question

I have heard SUV's are built using a truck chasis, while cars have a car chasis. Not sure what the difference is...

Answer 1

The difference is whether a vehicle uses a body-on-frame design ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body-on-frame ), or a unibody design ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monocoque ).

In a body-on-frame vehicle, most of the structural strength of the car comes (usually) from two metal rails welded together with cross-members. This is called a "ladder-frame." The body is built separately and then laid on the frame. Almost all pickup trucks and commercial trucks ever made use this design, because it offers far greater overall strength, and allows the vehicle to flex a bit. These are desirable traits in a vehicle designed to haul cargo. Also, until about the 1970s, most cars also used this design, due to the ease of placing different bodies on the same chassis.

Unibodies, also called monocoques, are a concept originally from aircraft. In a unibody, the body of the car provides all structural strength, and there is no frame holding the car together. There may be "sub frames," small frames holding together suspension and drivetrain components, but these do not give any structural support to the passenger compartment or body panels. A unibody doesn't imply that EVERY body panel is a structural member (bumpers and front fenders usually aren't....the roof and the rear quarter panels usually are), just that there is no frame. Almost every sedan, station wagon, coupe, and hatchback made in the last 30 years uses a unibody. The only exceptions in the last 15 years or so (in North America and Japan anyway) have been the Ford Panther platform cars (like the Crown Victoria, which you probably know from its use as police cars and taxis) and some sports cars which use unusual body types like a spine (some TVRs used this), or tube frames (like in NASCAR).

An SUV used to be a truck with a fully enclosed (or enclosable as in a Jeep Wrangler) passenger/cargo compartment, and usually more than just the front seats. Prior to the Jeep Cherokee XJ, I believe all SUVs WERE on truck frames. Since then there has always been the occasional unibody SUV.

When SUVs replaced station wagons and minivans in terms of popularity in the 90s, due to people being total poseurs who want to look like they're driving something TOUGH AND RUGGED, with capabilities they never use, and because they view a minivan or wagon as a sign that they aren't cool anymore because they've given their lives over to practicality and family....despite the fact that mommy trading her Family Truckster in for an Explorer transfers the uncoolness of the wagon to the SUV... Anyhow, SUVs have gotten more and more car-like. The start of that process was SUVs based on the same platforms as popular cars (the CR-V based on the Civic, the RAV-4 based on the Corolla and such.

Answer 2

In real basic language cars are set lower to the ground and SUV's/Trucks have more ground clearance. I'm not sure if there are any "guide lines" for the classification of SUV's but generally they have all wheel drive or 4wheel drive. Also they have more ground clearance than cars and more room inside with no trunk. The rear of an SUV just opens up into the entire vehicle.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

the number denotes the octane rating. basically it's more bang for the buck. A higher octane will have a higher energy in the ignition phase of a four stroke engine. It's all about carbon compounds. Some engines need higher octane--like race cars, jets, etc. Jet A fuel is one hundred something octane. In a regular normal car, your owner's manual will tell you which gas you can use to get the best mileage. If you have a high performance Porsche or Vette then you will need to use higher octane due to the engines higher compression ratio. If you use a lower octane in a high performance engine, you get pre-ignition. In other words the gas/air mixture in the cylinder ignites before the spark and since the timing is wrong, it messes up the engines performance. Chevron/Texaco Corporation fuels are about the best for performance and I think BP/Amoco Corp's fuel has been rated the cleanest. And in actuality I think there are only like 5 producers of gasoline anyway. Chev/Tex, Exxon/Mobil, BP/Amoco, Sunoco and one other. These 5 make gasolines for everyone.

Answer 4

People with personality problems drive SUVs

Answer 5

SPORT UTILITY VEHICLE

Larger than a car, not as big as a truck.

Answer 6

SUV IS BETTER

Answer 7

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