-By Steve Miller

Amidst the hand wringing over gas prices and environmental correctness, a new label in auto marketing has finally reached acceptability: crossover.

The crossover has replaced the long-dead "station wagon," the undesirable "minivan" and, most recently, the hot potato "SUV."

Witness the new Ford Flex broadcast spot, in which it is described in the first seven seconds as a crossover. "No [marketer] was really using the word 'crossover' until recently," said Jack Nerad executive editorial director at Kelley Blue Book's kbb.com. "When SUVs were still popular, even crossovers were called SUVs for marketing purposes."

The term refers to a vehicle with a heavier body mounted on a car frame, while SUVs use a truck frame. Crossovers, ideally, give a car-like ride and better gas mileage with the space of an SUV.

For 18 months, marketing honchos at Ford discussed whether or not to portray their hottest crossovers (the Flex, Edge and Escape) as SUVs because, up until recently, the term was more marketable.

"From a consumer standpoint, it is now more favorable to be a crossover, they understand the term whereas they didn't before," said Usha Raghavachari, Ford's crossover marketing communications manager.

Even before it was determined in boardrooms that the term 'crossover', or CUV, was ready for prime time, the segment was a hit.

Through May, CUV sales were up 0.3%, as the rest of the industry was down 8.4%, per Autodata, Woodcliff Lake. N.J. Last year's sales hit 2.8 million.

Like Ford, Dodge went through some discussions before positioning the Journey as "the crossover for every stage in life."

"The PT Cruiser was a crossover, but we didn't call it that," said Mike Accavitti, director of Dodge brand marketing. "Then we had the Pacifica and came up with calling it a Sports Tour, but that name never really took off. And now, with the Journey, there is enough momentum in the marketplace to use 'crossover.' We don't have to tell people what that means any more."

One holdout is Volkswagen, which touts its new Tiguan—a CUV built on a car frame—as "the small SUV that's big in stature."

"It's raised up, like an SUV, it has car qualities but also SUV capabilities," said VW rep Tom Wegehaupt. "That's what people are looking for: SUV qualities."

So Volkswagen is, as touted in its current campaign, giving the people what they want.