Editing SUV (section)

=== Chassis ===
{{multiple image
| direction = vertical
| width= 220
| image1 = ГАЗ М-72 Хабаровск День города.JPG
| caption1 = 1955–1958 [[GAZ-M20 Pobeda#Versions|GAZ M-72 Pobeda]]
| image2 = LADA NIVA 4x4 7832.jpg
| caption2 = 1977–1993 [[Lada Niva]]
}}

Many years after most passenger cars had transitioned to [[unibody]] construction, most SUVs continued to use a separate [[body-on-frame]] method, due to being based on the chassis from a [[light truck]], [[commercial vehicle]], [[pickup truck]], or [[off-road vehicle]].

The first mass-produced [[unibody]] four-wheel-drive passenger car was the Russian 1955 [[GAZ-M20 Pobeda#Versions|GAZ-M20 Pobeda M-72]],<ref>{{cite web|title=M-72 all-terrain vehicle|url= http://gaz20.spb.ru/modif_m72.htm|website=spb.ru |access-date=2019-04-13 |language=ru}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Thompson |first=Andy|title=Cars of the Soviet Union|publisher=Haynes Publishing|location=Somerset, U.K. |year=2008|page=57}}</ref> which could be considered the first crossover car. The 1977 [[Lada Niva]] was the first off-road vehicle to use both a unibody construction and a coil-sprung [[independent front suspension]]. The relatively compact Niva is considered a predecessor to the crossover SUV and combines a hatchback-like passenger car body with full-time four-wheel drive, low-range gearing, and lockable center differential.

Nonetheless, unibody SUVs remained rare until the 1984 Jeep Cherokee (XJ) was introduced and became a sales success. The introduction of the 1993 [[Jeep Grand Cherokee]] resulted in many of Jeep's SUV models using unibody construction,<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.edmunds.com/jeep/grand-cherokee/|title=Jeep Grand Cherokee Review |access-date=2011-04-10 |work=Edmunds}}</ref> with many other brands following suit since the mid-1990s. Today, most SUVs in production use a unibody construction and relatively few models continue to use body-on-frame construction.