The auto industry's creative pumps are sucking wind in the realm of descriptive nomenclature. The machines you see arrayed on these pages are neither station wagons nor sport-utilities, although they do have a broad-shouldered, bull-nosed, square-backed, high-steppin' SUV look that has seduced so many Americans in the past 20 years.
Unit bodies, with frame rails integrated into the body shell, are not quite as rugged as bodies on frames when it comes to pounding across trackless wastes, but they're lighter and stiffer and better suited to fearless expeditions to the mall and supermarket. The neither-nors also offer the option of traction at all four corners—every vehicle in this comparison was so equipped—but they're derived from front-drivers, and most operate primarily in front drive before transferring power to the rear wheels at the onset of wheelspin.
Towing capacity is yet another difference, with traditional sport-utilities delivering higher ratings than vehicles based on front-drive platforms. Our test group seemed pretty cohesive to us, with all having that SUV-wannabe look and providing cargo- and passenger-carrying flexibility in varying degrees.
The route we took from Ann Arbor to Boyne Mountain, then through Harbor Springs, Petoskey, and Charlevoix, included backwoods excursions to see how our fleet behaved on dirt roads covered with a few inches of snow. As the miles passed, it became clear that for all their general similarities, each of our neither-nors had a distinct personality.
In the end, we focused on all-around usefulness, not that this made the ranking any easier.
The Buick Rendezvous's performance was significantly hampered by its overmatched engine and transmission combination, which led to it being the slowest in every acceleration category. This highlights the importance of proper vehicle matching for optimal performance.
