The CUV/SUV market is insane now. With notable exceptions (if you’re reading this, it may be you), it’s all that everyone wants. People like the elevated sitting position, the ease of ingress and egress, the presumed and bogus ability to safely travel in foul weather, and the overall safety.
Ah, that legendary all-weather ability of an SUV. Every automotive advertisement from November to March shows the latest AWD box unstoppably (is that a word?) plowing through a foot of fresh snow. And unstoppable it is, what with its “eco” all-season low-profile long-life super-quiet tires. It’s not stopping or turning any better, but it can start moving forward better than a two-wheel-drive vehicle.
The above video shows 0-100 km/h (62 MPH) acceleration of the Range Rover Sport SVR on various surfaces: gravel, sand, snow, mud, asphalt, etc. And  it brings up an interesting point.


The above video is an ad for the new 550-hp Range Rover Sport SVR. The 0-100 km/h times vary from 4.7 seconds on the tarmac to 11.3 seconds snow. Land Rover makes a point that the vehicle uses the same Michelin 275/45 R21 All-Season tires in all instances. They further say that these rather consistent times are possible due to Land Rover’s Terrain Response^® 2 system and the system’s ability to send power to different gears and automatically lock all the differentials. We have used this system many time and it works shockingly well, even with the all-season tires – part 1, part 2, part 3.
Talking internally, we realized that providing these times for all SUVs on the market would be a great benefit to the customers. It would immediately separate the capable vehicles from the posers. It would also force automakers to install tires that get some traction. Stopping distances on these various surfaces would be equally interesting.
The only true difference of all these surfaces is snow, where dedicated snow tires make an amazing difference, whether mounted to a Range Rover or a RAV4.  You my recall review of the Toyota 4Runner Trail where I got stuck in five-inches of snow in an otherwise capable rig.