1. Ford Kuga
Dead and buried is the quirky Kuga of old. It was highly rated by us but it proved popular on too few continents, and catered for too narrow a spread of tastes, to be worthy of a place among the Mulally model generation.
Its replacement has in effect moved up a class. Measuring over 4.5m long, it’s now a closer match for a Hyundai Santa Fe than a Nissan Qashqai, and with a sharp looking facelift due imminently the appeal of Ford's middle of the range SUV is only set to grow. Read More ...
2. Volkswagen Tiguan
Two of Volkswagen’s current models are sold in greater numbers to the UK car-buying public than the Tiguan compact SUV: the Golf and the Polo.
VW currently sells 11 different cars in this country (more if you count estates and cabriolets as separate lines), so for the Tiguan to outsell so many of them – considering that it’s only now entering a second model generation – tells you that it has become quite popular in a short space of time.
The other thing that’s interesting about the Tiguan’s brisk success story is that it is just a compact SUV: not really a premium SUV, nor a trendy crossover-bodied one, nor a notably quirky or sporty-looking one. Read More ...
3. BMW X1
As outstanding as some of its saloons, estates and SUVs have been over the decades, there’s no greater proof of the enduring power of the BMW brand than the success of the previous X1 crossover hatchback.
Over a lifecycle of almost exactly six years, built in factories in India, China and Russia as well as in Germany, the X1 clocked up 730,000 worldwide sales. And yet the X1 was awkward-looking, cumbersome-handling, badly packaged, plainly finished and equally plainly rough and unrefined. Munich’s blue-and-white propeller may never have been risked on such a poor car. Read More ...
4. Range Rover Evoque
The formula for the Range Rover Evoque seems so obvious now: make a car that has all the desirability of a Range Rover, with a beautiful interior and the styling turned up to 11, yet at a more affordable price.
It wasn’t so clear-cut at the start, given that the concept version that preceded the Evoque was called Land Rover LRX. But when it arrived it all made sense.
The Evoque – offered as a five-door, a striking three-door whose looks befit its coupé tag or as a convertible – is an SUV right at the premium end of the compact 4x4 market. Read More ...
5. Honda CR-V
The CR-V was no more the first ‘soft-road’ recreational 4x4 than was Blair the first Labour PM. But like Blair, it introduced a degree of apparent user-friendliness never seen before among its kin.
Perversely, and just like the man who kicked the Tories out of power, the appeal of the Honda stemmed from compromising the very things it was meant to do best.
The result was a more populist product, more than happy to alienate the traditional hardcore if it meant appealing more broadly to those of a more middle-of-the-road persuasion. Read More ...
Source by autocar.co.uk
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