SUV or Minivan?

Lee and I are in the market for a new (used) vehicle. His Explorer has close to 180k miles on it and is not likely to make it through another midwest winter. About a week ago, I saw someone selling a vehicle in DeMotte. I liked the looks of it, it appeared to be a small SUV, similar to what I have now in my Jeep Patriot. After driving by it for a week, I finally stopped and checked out the info on it. The price was good, the mileage was low. I liked it! So, I came home and wrote Lee about it.

He wrote back "Are you trying to tell me something? That's a mini-van."

I was crushed. I never ever ever wanted to drive a mini-van. I did some research and found that it is indeed considered a mini-van. Devastating. What threw me off is that it doesn't have the sliding side doors which I thought was a van requirement. It has SUV back doors.

Lee has started to refer to it as the Sport Utility Van. But, it got me thinking, what makes one vehicle a van, but another a SUV? They look pretty similar to me!!!







~ BMW X5 = SUV







~ Jeep Compass = SUV








~ Chrysler Pacifica = Mini-van?