A jeep/wagon built on a frame is called an SUV and a wagon generally small like rav4 honda pilot, highlander etc., are considered as crossover (something that bridges the gap between SUV and a car): Montero is an suv but it has all 4 independent suspension. Toyota suv's made after 2000 are all wheel drive (4runner surf, Sequoia, Landcruiser, Prado etc) with a lockable center diff to make it a true 4WD when needed.
I believe that, nowadays SUV's also do not have gear levers for 4WD shift . mostly button or nobs are using for such events. You can check yourself with Land cruiser(VXR,VXR Limited GXR etc ), , Nissan Petrol.Nissan Petrol( Platinum) Range Rover etc....If I am wrong please do correct me .
Good attempt to start with though not an easy topic. To my knowledge RAV stands for "Recreational Utility Vehicle". When you talk about "Body-on-frame "....most of the old cars in Sri Lanka have separate chassis on which car body is mounted eg Volkswagen, Morris Minor etc. and those cars had good ground clearance as well. According to Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossover_(automobile)....1984 Jeep Cherokee is manufactured as an Uni-body vehicle. My comments are only to encourage car enthusiasts to do own research to widen their knowledge.
His explanations are wrong for modern vehicles .. eg Nissan petrol Y62 , Toyota prado 150, Landcruiser 200, all comes with AWD now .. so it is still SUV , independent suspension but those are not cross over vehicle. They are still SUV
I don't think they called as AWD. Atleast for Toyota we call as fulltime 4wd. On the gear selector we have H4F, H4L, L4L. H4F = 4wd high range with center diff free, This is what most people think its AWD but work similar to AWD. When its on H4L it works exactly as a part time 4wd where the center diff is locked.
