More about the whole subject of "Crossovers."

The auto industry is making a valiant attempt to insert the term "Crossover" into the vernacular, referring to car-based SUVs, as opposed to truck-based (body-on-frame) SUVs. Everything from the Toyota RAV4 to the Cadillac SRX is being called a "Crossover," and you can expect more to come.

I did a quick Google search for "Crossovers," just to see what turned up. It seems that there are a bunch of different uses of the word, from many different corners -- over 4 million hits, in fact.

I knew about crossovers for speakers. I had forgotten about basketball crossovers -- which could be one of the reasons that I find driving the lane so challenging. There's also a fictional crossover, where a character from one work shows in another, and crossover episodes, like when the Brady Bunch showed up on Barnaby Jones, or something like that.

I'm not sure that running away from the term "SUV" is going to prop up sagging sales in the face of higher gas prices. The SUV backlash is on, and will soon impact the sales floor. People know what these vehicles are when they see them, and names won't fool them for long.

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