2005 Ford SAV Concept

So Why Isn't This Car Coming Here?

This has got to be the coolest family-oriented concept I have seen coming from a major carmaker since the Lexus LF-X crossover

Ford claimed that the SAV was principally the "future Ford of Europe design direction." (Photo: Ford Motor Company of Canada)

concept from a couple of years back. Of course, all the rhetoric coming from Ford about this one is that it is strictly Euro-flash. Upon its presentation last March, Ford claimed that the SAV was principally the "future Ford of Europe design direction." This has since been reaffirmed with similar stylistic treatments for the European Focus and Fiesta.

The Ford SAV concept was displayed at the Geneva Auto Salon back in March. If you're wondering about the delay in my response time, well, you can just keep wondering. OK, maybe the next bit of information will give my real reason away. Last week, Ford confirmed that the SAV is heading for production to fill a niche between the Taurus-sized Mondeo sedan/wagon and the Galaxy minivan. Good enough reason to take a closer look? Thought so...

So is this SAV a bloated wagon? A shrunken minivan? A bulbous SUV? And didn't BMW coin that acronym to describe their X5,

So is this SAV a bloated wagon? A shrunken minivan? A bulbous SUV? (Photo: Ford Motor Company of Canada)

and now their new X3? Yes. It stands for Sport Activity Vehicle in Bavaria.

Despite being one of the hot market segments in Europe, North America has few examples of car-based crossovers that attempt to emulate minivans rather than minivans trying to be SUVs. Many automakers market intriguing vehicles in Europe that are a weight class below full-size minivans (I apologize for the oxymoron) with similar capabilities for five and sometimes six passengers. Mazda is actually bringing one of these across the pond, dubbed Mazda5, arriving in dealerships across the nation right now. Other than this little mini-MPV, most often in North America we get small SUVs with 4WD that we use three times per year when we're too lazy to shovel the driveway.