Lowbird, there are two different reasons for a 4x4: one purpose is off road capability. (Landrover, Landcruiser, Merc.G)
An other purpose is better road holding. (Audi quattro and all the other cars that followed)
The elevated seat position is one main advantage of the SUV's. As a marketing tool SUV's implement some offroad capabilities (which they hardly have at all)
As a project manager I drove hard core 4x4's for half of my business live. Later on I continued with 4x4 cars because of the better seating position and the additional space available. An other bonus was the better handling in winter on snow (we have mountains and snow here in Austria). In a city a SUV is useless but there are lots of reasons to drive one at the country side.
(If you hate SUV's I wonder how you justify the usefullness of a polaris...)
