I feel like it’s gotten to the point where every hatchback is becoming a crossover. 

Like at first, SUVs were these big, truck-like vehicles that really only existed to exploit the light truck loophole in CAFE standards, meaning they didn’t have to follow the same safety and emissions regulations as normal cars.

And there’s also crossovers like the RAV4 and CR-V which are built more like cars, but you can still tell they’re SUVs because they’re lifted off the ground much higher than a sedan or hatchback. 

But I’ve noticed that a lot of car manufacturers are now making crossovers that aren’t really lifted much higher than a normal hatchback but are still called SUVs/crossovers. For example, the Nissan Leaf went from being a hatchback to a subcompact crossover in 2025, even though its dimensions didn’t really change. It has basically the same ground clearance as the 2nd gen hatchback, but it’s considered a crossover.

So if ground clearance isn’t what makes a car a crossover anymore, then what is? Because yes, the new Leaf does look more SUV-ish, but how do you quantify that?

You could go based on how the front of the car is sloped—the hatchback Leaf had a much more gently-sloping front compared to the crossover’s flat front. But there’s exceptions to that too. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 is an SUV, but the Ioniq 3 (which the US isn’t getting sadly) is a hatchback, despite them both having similarly flat fronts.

And if you take this metric to its extreme, a tiny microcar with a very boxy front would be classified as an SUV, while a lifted Chevy Suburban with a duck-billed front like the new USPS truck would be classified as a normal car.

So do you think there’s any way to properly differentiate hatchbacks and crossovers anymore, and if so, is it ground clearance, the shape of the front of the car, or something else? Also which one is the Kia Soul because no one can seem to agree