Malaysian car consumers’ growing love affair with “crossover” vehicles that combine the functionality and cachet of sport utility vehicles with the comfort and performance of a car shows no signs of abating with some 6 new SUV’s being launched in the last 12 months.
The first was the Kia Sportage and Renault Koleos followed by the Mercedes GLA range. Then came the Hyundai Tucson 1.6 Turbo and 2.0L diesel. Then the mid-segment hot favorite, all new Honda CR-V arrived closely followed by the all new Mazda CX-5 and Subaru XV which just started selling.
Then, just before the year ended, Subaru unveiled their latest XV and Malaysians are still waiting for Toyota to take on the segment with its highly talked about C-HR crossover. In the luxury segment, nest year will start with Volvo launching theie all new XC60 and BMW might launch its latest X3.
The SUV and Crossovers’ advantages include their prestige imagery, the functionality of the interior and the ability of drivers to sit above the traffic and have a commanding view of the road. However, with the high-sales numbers, nearly every other vehicle in traffic will be a SUV and so the advantage of sitting high on the road above the rest might be soon lost.
