WTF Motor Trend: SUV of the Year Slam
 

Quoted From: ht tp://blogs.motortrend.com/oh-the-variety-why-our-suv-of-the-year-test-is-so-interesting-18581.html


It feels weird admitting it, but from the first time I turned the steering wheel I knew that the Range Rover Evoque would be our 2012 Motor Trend SUV of the Year. Yes, one single turn of the steering wheel is all it took and I just knew there was something quite special, quite different about this particular Range Rover. Now granted, I was driving the red 3-door (aka “The Shooting Brake” as I insisted on calling it) that had the fancy Dynamic mode and magnet-power suspension, but I still knew. This newfangled Evoque is one special kind of SUV.
And oh look, a “new” Jeep. A Wrangler, specifically. Totally, almost comically old school. Do two solid axles even count as a viable technology in the age of Twitter-powered Middle Eastern revolutions? Isn’t that more of a novelty? Case in point: associate editor Scott Evans and I ran to the hardware store to buy some hex-wrenches and discovered that with a little practice, we could get both doors off and leaned against a wall in about three minutes.

Yes friends, in the age of multiple airbags and Federally mandated traction control, you can still unbolt the Wrangler’s doors and fold down the windshield. Sure, they stuck a new engine and transmission in her, but that just moves the Wrangler from Mesozoic to Cenozoic. And yes, you big fat nerds out there, I’m talking the Eocene as opposed to the Pilocene. Also: hi Mom. Best Wrangler ever? Without question. But compared to the Evoque? Well, you know how dogs and seals evolved from a common ancestor? The Jeep’s that ancestor.

The larger point here is the burgeoning diversity within the SUV category, and how much of that diversity we experienced at this year’s SUV of the Year competition. Last year we had just two entrants with traditional body-on-frame construction, the Infiniti QX56 and the Lexus GX 460. This year there was only one: the “new” Jeep. Next year? Could be zero, but then again, since diversity rules, it could be eleven (though probably wont be). We just don’t know.

And let’s not forget the rest of the field. How are the Dodge Journey, Mercedes-Benz ML and Mini Countryman even related, beyond four wheels? Besides ground clearance, are they? And that’s really the thing with modern SUVs – there’s no template. No right way to do it, though I can think of several wrong ways. Unlike Car or Truck of Year, we just don’t know what we’re going to get our hands on year to year. Like the winning Evoque. Evolution, as it turns out, is a beautiful thing.

Jonny Lieberman on October 25 2011 7:50 AM
Categories: Everyday I Am Driving, Land Rover


Read more: ht tp://blogs.motortrend.com/oh-the-variety-why-our-suv-of-the-year-test-is-so-interesting-18581.html#ixzz1bt68D2Yz

The way I see a majority of SUV's is that theyre for the soccer moms and dads that refuse to drive mini vans. Theyre becoming more and more like station wagons now too, which is funny. But anybody who says that having two solid axles is out of date doesnt go offroading. This article just shows another reason why I read Crawl, JP Magazine and Petersons 4 wheel & offroad over Motor Trend and Car and Driver. I'll look to them if Im looking for a nice family vehicle that will never leave the pavement, and thats it. :doh:

The Landy looks like a nice vehicle, but "SUV of the year" is a vague distinction. Is the Jeep more capable off-road? SUre is. is the Jeep able to go topless and doorless? Yes. Is the Landy better on road, more comfortable and sports a beutiful interior? No doubt. "SUV" is a broad band of the available automotive options, ranging approximately from the Nissan Cube to the F650 or International CXT. So I'm not sure how you would compare these rather distinct vehicles side by side........you would know before the test which aspects the Jeep would win and which the Landy would win -- even before the first turn of the steering wheel. :wink: Whatever sells magazines.....

Personally, I like the Range Rover. I have owned two in the last 4 years and they are awesome, comfortable, fast, capable vehicles. However, all of my jeeps (CJ5, CJ7, J20) have always been more special to me than any other vehicle I have owned throughout the years. When going somewhere, its the first set of keys I always grab for amongst other choices I have. Hell, I don't even consider a jeep and SUV, to me its a jeep. It is in its own category, alway has been and hopefully always will been in its own category. Although its a category sometimes filled with flaws and dated technology, but that is part of the coolness factor! The problem I see is with Chrysler/Fiat allowing (possibly wanting) the Wrangler in the same field as the higher end SUV's, causing it to lose the solid axles and other quirky things that make it so great offroad, so that it continues to become a very soft vehicle. Oh well :dontknow2:

Ok guys, I just got a long rope.... Who lives near this motor trend writer? Also who knows of a really tall tree, we can all meet there. I'll bring the rope!

I don't disagree with the sentiment of what you are saying, but in practice, the JK is much more capable than the vehicles that came before it. It's more comfortable, sure, but I wouldn't say softer. I do agree that if Jeep made the next gen Wrangler less capable of an off-roader, enthusiasm would fall off drastically.

Land Rover is the least reliable brand of any manufacturer...this isn't conjecture or opinion..it is fact.

I have no problems with their assessment. I think my Jeep is all those things... and I love it all the more because of that. Heck, mine is even more comically old school as it doesn't have the Pentastar. I mean really, pushrods? Who does that nowadays?

But like so many things we love in life, it's more than just an objective value, measurable, or quantifiable item. I love owning a Jeep, all that it represents, that it takes me places I would otherwise not see, and for me most of all, it makes going slow and taking it all in awesome.

They don't get it... sucks for them.

As the definition of an "SUV" changes, so does the vehicle.

I do not have my JKU yet, still on order, but I am glad that it is not being received as an "SUV".

I think what is bringing me to the the JKU is how it stands alone, is not part of a category of vehicle.

It is a category of vehicle that only it fits into. Top off, doors off, what else can you do that with and then take it off roads.

Let the writers turn their noses at the JKU, that is fine, it does not compare to any other vehicle out there, and that is why I am here.

Philosopo beat me to it, glad my i am not alone on my thoughts (really did not think I would be)