Not Your Father’s UTV: Off-Road Vehicles in the Age of Technology
It was not long ago that UTVs were no-frills machines focused on getting the job done. The point of the UTV was to do whatever job you needed to be done. If you had the vehicle for working on a farm, it needed to be capable of farmwork. If you had one for hunting, it needed to get you and your gear in and out. If you simply had one as a recreational vehicle, it needed to be able to get you to wherever you needed to go.
That was it.
All you needed was a vehicle capable of navigating the terrain and carrying passengers and other miscellaneous items. Now, though, people want these vehicles to do it all in comfort and style.
UTVs Are Following in the Tire Tracks of Other Vehicles
It should not come as a surprise to anyone that this is the direction that UTVs and other offroad vehicles are headed. After all, it is much the same path that everyday road vehicles took already. Once upon a time, passenger cars and pickup trucks were all about utility and not much else. Passenger vehicles were the first to take luxury into account and start to add other features while focusing on comfort. Trucks weren’t too far behind.
Ensuring that vehicles had comfortable seats and climate-controlled environments became essential and were often even valued ahead of safety features. There are a couple of reasons why vehicles always switch from simply functional to luxurious. For one, it is often an easy way to briefly stand out. Car enthusiasts will look under the hood and marvel at the mechanics of a quality machine, but your average user will not.
They might brag a little to their friends about what the manual says the vehicle is capable of doing. However, few people are going to test out those capabilities. What people can easily see and show off are the extras. Video screens in the backs of headrests, heated seats, and hands-free navigation systems are both the bells and whistles that people will use and that they can show off to their friends.
The other reason for adding these items is that they are generally the cheapest, easiest, and the most desired way to upgrade a vehicle. Aside from fuel efficiency, not breaking down, and safety ratings, people who are buying a mid-level sedan are not concerned with the performance of their vehicle. Only car people buying higher-end vehicles really care about things like turning radius and horsepower.
Manufacturers have already met and exceeded the top level of performance that most people will ever need from their vehicle. So, in order to put out the next improved model, the focus is often upon the extras.
It Began With the Radio
One of the first luxury items added to vehicles was the car radio. They began installing AM radios in cars in the early ’30s. By the end of the decade, they had become a standard feature. The only real luxury item to precede the car radio was the cigarette lighter. Unlike cigarette lighters in cars, which remained virtually unchanged over their entire run before eventually dying out around the millennium, car radios were constantly evolving.
FM radios were introduced in the ’50s. Later there were tape decks, followed by cd players with cd changers. Now satellite radio and BlueTooth options are standard in most new vehicles. UTVs may have taken a bit longer to follow along with the luxury trend, but they are right with them now. There is plenty of top-of-the-line side by side audio for UTVs available these days, along with other luxury features.
The Pampered Rugged Life
Of course, just as some people rebelled against luxury pickup trucks, there will be those who rebel against luxury UTVs as well. Your dad or grandpa might even view an old-school UTV as luxurious, feeling that if you are going to go out into nature, you need to hike in and hike out.
However, when they are out with you at six in the morning, sitting in the UTV with the seat warmer soothing their bodies that ache after a night of sleeping on the hard ground, you won’t very likely to hear them complain.
