Small families were looking for an affordable, not-too-honkin'-big SUV-like vehicle for everyday use. For that, car-based sport-cutes such as the CR-V and RAV4 were perfect.
—G. Chambers Williams III, "Sport-cute flexes muscle," San Antonio Express-News, September 16, 2001
People who are into sport utility vehicles (SUVs) often refer to them as just
sport-utes, thus giving themselves more time for mountain climbing and other
off-road (1973) activities. (Assuming, of course, that the average owner of a modern SUV ever goes off-road, which is a doubtful proposition.) The more macho of these SUV types also believe that these vehicular Leviathans can never be too big, so they tend to look down upon teeny versions such as the Honda CR-V and the Toyota RAV4. They dismiss them as
sport-cutes (also:
cute-utes). so today's word has a derogatory tinge to it, which is also seen in a synonym:
soft-roader (a play on off-roader).
