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Has British-English moved on from calling them "4x4"?
by smcl 4y ago
Has British-English moved on from calling them "4x4"?
- atchoo 4y agoWe'd still call a genuine off road vehicle a four by four. Americans have gone a bit nuts with the SUV label - we don't call things like a Model Y an SUV, it's just a hatchback. Some other models Americans call SUVs are Estates or People Carriers. We probably wouldn't call things like a Porsche Cayenne a 4x4 because it's never going off road. That will happily be called an SUV with all the selfish egotism implied. Other names for it would be more deliberately insulting e.g. Chelsea Tractor etc.
- soneil 4y agoIt's not so much that we've stopped calling them 4x4 - it's more than the 4WD market has diverged. A 4x4 is designed to get muddy. An SUV is designed to traverse speed bumps & children's bodies with dignity. To my mind 4x4 still very much calls to mind vehicles that are 4WD for a functional reason.