IRS vs. live axle

No, I'm not talking about tax season. I'm talking about REAL 4-wheel-drive versus pretend 4-wheel-drive.

"What the hell does it matter?" you ask. Okay, here's the oversimplified version. Independent rear suspension lets both rear wheels wiggle around independently of one another. One goes up, the other can still go down. With me so far? IRS (as it's called) makes the ride and handling better. It's also heavy and expensive. Like most new cars. HA!

The most important thing about IRS, and why I even brought it up in the first place, is that it's poopy off-road. Wikipedia puts it best when they say, so charmingly, "A further advantage of a live/beam axle in off-road use is that ground clearance under the axle remains constant, even if one wheel rises over a bump and the other doesn't." In short, you drag the undercarriage of your new $50,000 Toyota Sequoia across whatever obstacle you are trying to get over. This could be a bummer. And you will destroy stuff, as an IRS rear end is fairly delicate. You will break it if you go crashing around off-road, or if your vehicle has oodles of power. It's simply going to happen.

So, this is why I will be, and have been, annoyed with the new SUV's marketed as "trucks" but given car suspension. It's quite obvious that these vehicles are not intended to be used for truck-like activities. If you want to use your vehicle like a truck, get a truck.