http://www.caranddriver.com/article....&page_number=1



The Toyota with the weird name moves forcefully to dominate the segment with no name.


What is a RAV4 anyway? The name has been stumbling off tongues since Toyota’s wee sport-ute first hit in 1996. RAV4 sounds like Army code, or the season finale of the International Federation of Competitive Eating. As in: See our ravenous contestants suck down entire bowls of mayonnaise—at RAV4!

Toyota says it’s short for “Recreational Active Vehicle with 4-wheel drive.” Oh.

Pardon us if we can’t get misty over that ostentatious acronym, and while you’re at it, pardon us for failing to coin a universally accepted description of the RAV4’s genus. Is it a crossover, a sport wagon, a cute ute, or a soft-roader? Write your congressional representative—not us—if you have strong feelings either way. Future epigraphists, at least, will be watching to see how it all shakes out.

Continued: http://www.caranddriver.com/article....&page_number=1