While so-called traditional sport-utility vehicles are disappearing from the automotive landscape, a new generation of functional and fuel-efficient family movers emerges to take its place.
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The 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee will have a bit more emphasis on luxury to compete with the new Cadillac SRX and Lexus RX, among others.
Big, burly SUVs once ruled the road, carrying people to work, kids to soccer practice and supplies home from the local megamart. They were rolling symbols of success, power and strength. They guzzled gas, took up two parking spaces in the local shopping mall and towered above lesser 4- and 2-wheeled machines like titans of the tarmac.
But all that has changed.
Today the traditional SUV (a "body-on-frame" machine built on a sturdy pickup-truck chassis) has lost its iron grip on the American car buyer. Sales — and the SUV's social standing — have shriveled over the past five years like an aging baseball player who has stopped taking steroids. The big beasts cost an arm and leg to fuel and handle like a brick on wheels, two characteristics that people were willing to overlook until the global economy went south.
the SUV, don't be fooled. Although the traditional SUV has become a pariah, the utility vehicle is far from going quietly into that good night. Americans still want the functionality and versatility it provides. "There's still a core customer out there who wants real utility," says Ford Communication Director Jay Ward. "They just want a 21st-century solution; an SUV with fuel economy and driving dynamics to meet their needs."Consequently, the utility vehicle category here in the U.S. has evolved over the past decade, and that evolution is nearly complete as two of the most iconic utility vehicles — the Ford Explorer and Jeep Grand Cherokee — are being completely reconceived for the 2011 model year.
What exactly does that mean for you?
Restoring the Rep
For makers of old-school SUVs, the exodus of consumers leaves them two choices: Resign their models to niche status or reinvent them in hopes of broadening appeal.
Toyota chose to stay the course with its recently redesigned 4Runner. The 2010 4Runner is an old-school, off-roading SUV so square and macho it seems almost retro, with tall-riding seats and a trucklike ride and handling characteristics. Toyota acknowledges that the 4Runner is aimed at a shrinking yet still important audience. The Nissan Pathfinder is another proud, no-apologies truck, yet that also means it's on track to sell a measly 15,000 this year.
Compare: Jeep Grand Cherokee vs. Toyota 4Runner vs. Nissan Pathfinder
Ford and Jeep, however, weren't willing to watch their franchise SUVs become strictly bench players. The new Grand Cherokee, with a base price that will range from about $31,000 to $45,000, will still be able to conquer the daunting Rubicon Trail in California. However, it will be more modern and accommodating for everyday driving than any of its predecessors.
The 2011 Cherokee shares some underpinnings with the sophisticated Mercedes M-Class SUV with a stout chassis that Jeep says is stiffer than either a BMW X5 or Toyota Highlander.
The body looks sturdy and masculine, yet streamlined. The interior is a major advance in design, quality and features, with 4 inches more rear legroom and 15 percent more cargo space. Goodies include real wood and leather, heated and cooled seats, a heated steering wheel with power tilt and telescoping, adaptive cruise control, a massive dual-pane sunroof and rear-seat DVD entertainment.
Read: 2011 Grand Cherokee Debuts at the 2009 New York Auto Show
The Jeep's V6 engine, long a weak point for the Cherokee, is replaced by Chrysler's new, more fuel-efficient Pentastar 3.5-liter V6 with 280 horsepower. A 360-horsepower Hemi V8 with fuel-saving cylinder deactivation is also an option. Safety features include full-length curtain airbags, stability control and an electronic rollover mitigation system. There's a Quadra-Lift air suspension and the Selec-Terrain system that adjusts for various road conditions.
Exploring a New Market
If the Jeep updates the traditional Grand Cherokee formula, then the Explorer virtually tears up its own formula and starts from scratch. And nothing spotlights the Explorer's about-face better than this: Ford's family SUV will come standard with a sophisticated 4-cylinder engine. That's right: a 4-cylinder powering a vehicle that previous buyers would have automatically ordered with a V8.
Discuss: Are you looking for a sport-utility vehicle, but don't want the stigma?
Combined with extensive wind tunnel development to reduce aerodynamic drag, Ford says the turbocharged 2.0-liter Ecoboost engine will give the Explorer best-in-class fuel economy — 25 percent better than the current V6 version, or a jump from 20 to 25 mpg. The new Explorer will also feature an optional 3.5-liter V6. However, V8 fans will be out of luck.
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The 2010 Ford Explorer is an excellent off-road vehicle with a luxurious interior — a rare combination in the realm of affordable SUVs.
And for the first time, the new Explorer will be built on a modified car chassis shared with the Ford Taurus and Flex crossover. As with car-based crossover SUVs, that chassis will make the Explorer lighter and more fuel-efficient, offer superior crash protection and allow easier entry and exit.
That puts the Explorer in line with an industry-wide trend to switch midsize and larger SUVs from pickup-truck frames to car platforms. And it isn't the only American automaker making the transition; analysts say that both GM and Chrysler are looking at switching truck-based SUVs, such as their respective Chevrolet Tahoe and Dodge Durango, to car platforms in coming years.
The New Face of Utility
Ford executives stress that the upcoming Explorer — its design drawing from the well-received Explorer America concept first shown in 2008 — is not a crossover, despite its use of a Taurus sedan platform. Consumers, they say, rarely know or care about whether their SUV is actually a car or truck underneath all the sheet metal. Instead, buyers base their perceptions of SUVs and crossovers on exterior styling and functionality.
Compare: Ford Explorer vs. Honda Pilot vs. Jeep Grand Cherokee
Indeed, J.D. Power and Associates classifies the Honda Pilot as a conventional SUV, in part because of its traditional truck styling. The Jeep Grand Cherokee, as well, has always been built on a beefed-up "unibody" car platform, rather than a truck chassis, yet no one would dare call Jeep's burly off-roader a crossover.
The Explorer will also be able to venture off-road, but in a more user-friendly way: A new Terrain Management System, similar to Land Rover's Terrain Response System, lets drivers call up simple, intuitive settings — such as mud, snow or sand — that automatically adjust the 4WD system, anti-lock brakes and other parameters for those situations. Previous Explorers featured push buttons to switch the vehicle's transfer case into 4-wheel-drive "high" or 4-wheel "low" for those tasks — buttons with functions that were a mystery to some owners.
Bing: Terrain Management System
"A lot of people never touched those buttons," Ward said. "One lady said she didn't want to touch them, because she was worried what they might do."
The Changes Are Working
George Pipas, Ford's chief sales analyst, said that while Americans may have stepped away from conventional sport utes, this new breed of utility vehicles is popular.
When the Explorer was first released in 1990 — before people were even calling them SUVs — burly 4-wheelers like the Ford Bronco and Chevy Blazer made up just 7 percent of the market.
But SUVs quickly rose to replace the station wagon as the family vehicle of choice, nearly tripling their market share to 20 percent by 2000. Add up all the SUVs and crossovers available today — there are almost 100 nameplates to choose from, roughly double the number of a decade ago — and utility vehicles as a whole capture 28 percent of sales, or more than one in four new vehicles sold.
The only difference, Pipas said, is that car-based crossovers have grown to utterly dominate the utility market. In just one decade, crossovers have exploded from 15 percent of utility sales to 77 percent today. Americans have also sharply downsized their utility vehicles, leaving jumbo SUVs off in the weeds. Over the past decade, compact SUVs and crossovers have jumped from 24 percent to 42 percent of total utility sales, with large SUVs plummeting from 22 percent to just 9 percent. In other words, fewer than one in 10 sport utilities sold today is a full-size model.
Discuss: Are you looking for a sport-utility vehicle, but don't want the stigma?
Those buying trends are giving Ford, Jeep and other SUV makers some hope: Americans still want space for their families and stuff. And as long as models like the Grand Cherokee and Explorer aren't too old-school and trucklike, they may well capture those in-betweeners — like Honda Pilot buyers — who want a family hauler with SUV styling appeal without the stigma of either a minivan or a macho Hummer.
"We could have done an old-fashioned SUV, but we wouldn't sell that many," Ward said of the Explorer. "We're looking to address the needs of 90 to 95 percent of people who use them day in and day out."
A Michigan native raised and forged in Detroit and a former auto critic at the Detroit Free Press, Lawrence Ulrich now lives in Brooklyn, New York. His reviews and features appear regularly in The New York Times, Robb Report, Popular Science and Travel + Leisure Golf.
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