Specialty SUVs offer high performance in family rides

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Audi offers a number of SUVs, including electric ones, but the brand isn't giving up on conventional power just yet.

If you want to put some real "sport" in "sport utility," their SQ7 might do the trick.

Three rows of seats inside, moved smartly about by a 4.0 liter twin-turbo V8 delivering 500 horsepower. It all gets to the ground via their Quattro all-wheel drive, and it can eat up that ground in short order.

It also handles impressively well for a rather large vehicle, and it's gotten some tweaks here and there for 2025 in terms of styling and technology.

It's not cheap, with a base MSRP of nearly $92,000, but you can think of it like a family car and a performance car all rolled into one.

2025 marks end of an era at Dodge

This year will be the swan song for the mighty Hellcat V8 engine in the Durango SUV.

It's already been pink-slipped from the previous-generation Challenger and Charger, but it's doing a final lap in Dodge's three-row family ride.

Tell the family to cinch up those seatbelts; this snarling supercharged beast puts out 710 horsepower and will throw everyone back in their seats. One last hurrah for an iconic muscle machine.

Also in this case, going fast is not inexpensive at $95,995 suggested base price. These are somewhat rare, so as the saying goes, "actual selling price may vary."

A look at the new Ford Explorer

For years now, SUVs have been the dominant style of vehicle that people buy.

Back when sedans ruled the road, every now and then, a manufacturer would take a rather ordinary 4-door and make it into something really special.

There's probably no better example than the Ford Taurus SHO, which came around in 1989, when the company took their high-volume four-door and gave it a high-revving V6 engine that turned the Taurus into a wolf in sheep's clothing, as the saying goes.

Fast forward three-and-a-half decades, and a bit of that spirit lives in the SUV world.

Ford's new Explorer is again available as an ST model, developed by the company's performance division.

This time, the V6 makes 400 horsepower thanks to twin-turbocharging. There's plenty of room for the family and a bit of a fun factor for whoever's toting them around.

It's also a relative bargain for the performance, with a base MSRP of $60,795.

So sure, practicality doesn't have to be boring by any stretch.

These muscular SUVs can haul people, haul cargo, and just "haul" as the saying goes.