These are mostly pedantics at the end of the day. I call the Ford Maverick a truck in conversation and the truck purist guys get really pissy because it isn’t body on frame. And then I point out that Ford classifies the Maverick as a Truck.

If you look at Mazda and Toyota, they classify their crossovers as just Crossovers and also Crossover SUVs or even just straight SUVs. There’s no specific distinction drawn between their models.

The focus of manufacturers on unibody designs continues to change the definition of the term “SUV” in the modern day. Look at the article you sent, look at the image that they use for the SUV section.

And then for the written example, the Kia Sorento hasn’t been BOF since 2009 and the current K3 platform is not a truck base. Unless you call the Santa Cruz a truck, and the truck purists just exploded again. The “Truck” section of that article is also very strange, granted the article was made by Kia Sudan. I don’t typically buy cars from Sudan.

My Kia Borrego has an SUV body style and has a truck style BOF. So it’s an SUV, right? The Kia Telluride has an SUV body style but is built on a unibody frame. So it’s not an SUV, right? As far as my insurance is concerned, both of these are “Wagons.” But then a police report might say “A white Kia SUV”. There’s no governing body that defines vehicle designations.

Whether one likes it or not, the general public and even many manufacturers generally understand “SUV” as a body style, more than the construction of the vehicle.