Nowadays the products and their names are not meaning the same thing! Their functionality and their name suppose to fit with each other. If they were named as boots, you suppose to wear them when you have to wear boots! Also a four wheel drive SUV is suppose to be driven in places where you need four wheel drive! But the marketing tactics and evolved demands of customers changed everything. Nothing is doing what it suppose to do. I know you will be saying, this fashion and it is dynamic, it is changing all the time. That's the nature of fashion. I do not disagree with this and I like the way how the fashion is changing over the years. Unless everything will be boring and nobody would like to buy anything! Also our incentives for buying will be blinded.
It is very usual to see unusual things in fashion and people are buying those unusual things as they knew those are unusual. Sorry, it sounds very complicated! In short term, nobody cares what its functionality, they just want to buy it :) You can easily see this by Versace's new high heeled boots! Yes, these are boots and they suppose to be used during cold winter or while snowing. However, wearing these boots during winter, especially during snowing is a bit crazy! They are not designed to be worn during winter and nobody is expecting this. Boots is just a word to define these shoes. And I am sure that nobody is going to wear them during winter!
Automotive business behaves like fashion business. Every year a new car is introduced and the other models looks like pre-historic. Fifteen years ago, everything was very simple. Family sedan was a family and four wheel drive was a four wheel drive. Now family sedans are capable of doing more than 300 km/h and four wheel drive vehicles especially SUVs’ off road ability is limited to climbing pavements. They are like the fashion boots, name and functionality do not match with each other. Nobody will ever try to climb a mountain with a BMW X5, because it is not going to climb! It does not have that ability. It is like wearing these Versace boots in winter, your feet will be frozen. However their names are promising to be worn during winter and reaching top of the mountains.
Actually, nobody is expecting to walk with Versace high heeled boots in winter and they do not wish to do it. These boots are not for that purpose, they have totally different purpose of usage. If Versace was offering boots for winter, it would sound weird. Boots just a name to differentiate the product from other shoes. And it is the same for SUVs. Nobody is willing to do off road with BMW X5 and if they try, you can see what happens in YouTube. If BMW was offering something for serious off road, they would be weird! Like the high heeled boots, SUV is just a name to differentiate the vehicles from others.
Pictures are taken from;
BMW and Net-A-Porter Websites