Call the Purosangue What You Want, It’s Still a Ferrari

• The Purosangue is Ferrari’s first four-door, (more accurately a five-door hatch), four-passenger, all-wheel drive, front-engine V12 vehicle.

• You do sit higher, and there’s real-world ground clearance. But let’s be clear here—this is no Sport-Utility Vehicle.

• The fastback Purosangue is not exactly pretty, not in the way of the current Roma and 296 GTB, but you can see the Ferrari heritage.

Ever since it became known that Ferrari would join the ranks of other exotic manufacturers who had succumbed to market trends to produce an SUV, those fans of the marque have been anxiously awaiting the result that for some seemed like an oxymoron in the first place—a Ferrari SUV?

Not that we haven’t been here before. When Porsche introduced the Cayenne in 2002 this was also viewed as sacrilege by loyalists at the time.

Now 20 years later and with the addition of the Macan, Porsche easily sells more crossovers than sports cars, yet this has done nothing to dilute the brand’s reputation or the authenticity of its performance vehicles. If anything, Porsche has never been healthier, as well as satisfying all those suburbanites wanting the right fashion accessory with the name “Porsh.”

Which brings us back to Ferrari, and the Purosangue. It’s the brand’s first four-door, (more accurately a five-door hatch), four-passenger, all-wheel drive, front-engine V12 vehicle.

Ostensibly it replaces the GTC Lusso, but unlike that car it’s more upright, and presents a very different profile. And while the front and rear graphics are in the current Ferrari idiom, this is a very distinct and intriguing ca... ah, vehicle.

Probably the most everyday usable product from the Maranello factory, it really does fit four adults and has foldable rear seats to expand its already respectable cargo capacity. You do sit higher, and there’s real-world ground clearance.

For a Ferrari, there’s a high “utility” quotient here. And given the performance of a V12 and the trick suspension—plus years of Ferrari building some of the best handling cars on earth—it likely hits the “sports” aspect as well. But let’s be clear here—this is no Sport-Utility Vehicle.

There’s been a lot of confusion out there as to what qualifies as an SUV. At one point, only truck-based body-on-frame vehicles were considered true SUVs, with the emphasis on rugged utility, certainly not sports. Think of the full-size Chevrolet Tahoe, Jeep Wagoneer, and Ford Expedition.

Americans bought 1.4 million SUVs in 2022, but they bought 6.2 million vehicles that try to be like SUVs: Crossovers (or CUVs), which tend to be smaller and are body-integral designs, many sharing their platform with a sedan variant.