SUV:How do you pronounce it?

Factual Questions
1

I was reading the Wall Street Journal the other day (over the shoulder of the pax in front of me on a cramped Frontier flight). There was an article about “An SUV”.
I thought about the An…I’ve been pronouncing it “Sooo-Veee” since they came out, never “Es-You-Vee”.
We had an annoying commercial about how someone “loves his SUV” pronounced suv.
I just want a tally on how it’s said elsewhere.

I mis-wasted my youth.

2

S.U.V.

Things are random only insofar as we don’t understand them.

3

I’ve never heard it any way other than S-U-V.

–It was recently discovered that research causes cancer in rats.

4

Es-You-Vee

5

(a k a: obscene, irresponsible, totally unjustified, yupmobile behemoth)

6

[flashback to the “How do you pronounce MPSIMS” threads]

Ess-You-Vee

[/flashback]

7

or as, ‘run over your eco mobile and I’ll survie the crash and you won’t.’

I pity the fool that brings a knife to a gun fight.

8

GeeIwishIhadasmallercarnowthatIpaytwodollarsagallonforgasmobile.

9

Glorified Stationwagons.

(well, that depends on the user. most users I see never take them off-road)

Es-You-Vee.

~200 posts. Time to change my username.

10

For “sport-ut” (ie SUV), I like “SPUTE”. (Mostly when people vocalize “SUV”, they say “sport-ute”, at least around here.)

11

Sport-futility vehicle.

At least mine has some honest mud on it. Unlike every other one I see in L.A. I’m still waiting to see a Mercedes Sport-Fute out in the bush.

“I must leave this planet, if only for an hour.” – Antoine de St. Exupéry

Are you a turtle?

12

I particularly liked the woman in a Lexus SUV in front of me the other day. It took her an eternity to make a left hand turn because there was a pothole in the road and she had to be verrrrrrry careful in getting past that obstacle.

13

My vote goes for “Es-you-vee”. I’ve never heard it pronounced “suhv”, either.

I’ve heard “sport-ute” a couple of times, but I can’t help thinking that it sounds like verbal shorthand for a syndrome or a disease.

14

From the SF Chronicle:

Maureen O’Rorke suggests a new moving violation for drivers who run red lights while talking on their cell phones or drive gas-guzzling SUVs: ``Driving under the affluence.’’

Applying computer technology is simply finding the right wrench to
pound in the correct screw.

15

How about:

SUV=Soccermom’s Use Vehicle?

My mother has one, but she owns a farm and would hall baby sheep in it more than my brother’s and I (of course we all drove at 14 :slight_smile: )

16

Daniel -

HEY! I thought I was the one who invented that! I just like the way it sounds…SPEWT.

(In these here parts, most folks call 'em S-U-Vs; I only recently heard the “sport-ute” form, which I changed to SPUTE almost immediately.)

My favorite was watching the SPUTE not only slow to 5mph to cross the (fairly level) RR tracks, but then almost run over another car as they changed lanes to avoid the TENNIS SHOE laying in the road!

(OK, I just managed to refrain from joining the recent SPUTE-bashing thread, because I’m currently forced to drive a Jeep Cherokee and couldn’t reconcile the two actions. But the temptation was too strong to resist again. I miss my Metro!)

17

Actually, I like my Cherokee. You ever try to get four people in a Porsche? Now I can carry four friends with me, and it’s great for carrying my camping gear, film gear, etc.

Two things I hate about it: It only gets about 19mpg in L.A. traffic, and I didn’t get it with a manual transmission.

I liked my Chevy Sprint and Chevy Sprint Metro. Fifty mpg, and surprisingly quick and agile… as long as there wasn’t a long grade. I could swear they had more room on the inside than on the outside. I was even able to haul my A-7E ejection seat in one with the hatch closed.

“I must leave this planet, if only for an hour.” – Antoine de St. Exupéry

Are you a turtle?

18

I call 'em minivans. As in: Get that road-hogging, soccer-player-toting, never-left-the-pavement, won’t-drive-in-the-snow, eight-mile-per-gallon minivan out of my way! :slight_smile:

I figure that many people invent a “need” for SUV’s as family vehicles so they don’t have to buy a Dodge Caravan or a Toyota Previa, so calling them minivans has a delicious accuracy.

But to answer the OP: Ess Yoo Vee, never heard it any other way 'til I read this thread.

19

Even though Ess-yoo-vee still seems more popular than Sport-Ute, the latter has the novelty of letting you call the smaller ones (like our dear Subaru Forester, or the RAV-4) Sport-Cutes.

I lead a boring life of relative unimportance. Really.

20

[url=http://boards.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000995.html]Here’s what we all had to say about these monsters a while back.