The best SUVs - tested, rated and ranked

Best for: value

It will surprise very few to find Dacia, the Renault Group’s Romanian budget brand, featuring here.

The Duster was the car with which Dacia relaunched in the UK market back in 2013, and this latest iteration remains a cornerstone of its business and one of the very best reasons for customers to get to know the brand.

The Duster has just entered its third generation, and it now sits on a new platform and features a wildly more modern and assertive look than the previous model.

Engine-wise, there's a 1.2-litre mild-hybrid petrol, a 1.6-litre hybrid and a 1.0-litre LPG bi-fuel option. The 1.2 feels most at home here, as it's simple and no-nonsense to drive, as well as pretty economical. You can also order it with four-wheel drive.

Duster prices aren’t quite as low as they once were, but you can still pick one up for a little under £19,000 - which is considerably less than most brands ask for a supermini shopping car.

For that you get a roomy four-seat cabin, a good-sized boot, good driving and cruising manners and a pretty healthy equipment specification, even in entry-level form.

Best for: opulence

The Range Rover Sport earns a place on this list by being almost as comfortable and as good off-road as the full-fat Range Rover while also being cheaper and better on the road.

Both cars sit on the same platform now, but the Sport’s ability to control its mass helps distinguish it. Its damping is taut and sophisticated, yet the steering is tactile and communicative for something this size. Diesels, V8 petrols and plug-in hybrids are on the cards too.

The standard of material quality is virtually the same as in the Range Rover and there are near endless possibilities in terms of fit and finish.

JLR’s excellent Pivo Pro infotainment system is easy to use, is lag-free and has one the most responsive touchscreens in the business.

Best for: design appeal

Big, square cars have a lot of car-park presence. That’s why people notice and are attracted to SUVs in the first place – and you’ll certainly notice the Kia EV9.

Roughly the size of a Range Rover Sport or Mercedes-Benz GLE, the EV9 takes Kia into the full-sized premium SUV segment for the first time - and with some impact. Chunky, square-cornered, sharply drawn and sternly detailed, it’s got a boldness about its appearance of the kind that inspired the smaller EV6, and that makes passers-by double-take and say things like: “That’s a Kia? Really? Wow!”

Available with both six- and seven-seat cabin layouts, it’s also as spacious as any other three-row SUV on the market, even if its interior perhaps lacks some of the material appeal you might expect for a £70k asking price. The car’s 99.8kWh drive battery endows a real-world electric range of between 260 and 320 miles depending on how and where you’re driving. Performance is strong from the twin-motor version, and ride and handling a little soft, but contained.

Best for: off-road ability

For most SUV owners, off-road capability is a ‘just in case’ type of quality, a reassurance in bad weather, or a card to play on the handful of occasions when you really need it. Nonetheless, brands like Land Rover realise that it’s a key part of the mystique of the ‘4x4’; and the success of the Land Rover Defender is proof that, while few of us may need a go-anywhere type of family car, there are plenty who like the idea of owning one.

The genius of the Defender is to cater to those buyers with just enough capability and accessibility. Despite its size and its off-road potential, this is an easy SUV to drive wherever you happen to point it. Height-adjustable air suspension and some suitably tough axle and drivetrain hardware are partnered with very effective off-road drive modes with sophisticated electronic traction controls - while a fine driving position and some clever camera technology shows you right where you are, where the wheels are pointing, and how much room you’ve got at all times.

There are tougher and more durable off-roaders than the Defender, and there are much smaller and nimbler ones. But nothing else makes dealing with mud, ruts, wet grass and sand so absurdly easy.

Best for: real-world efficiency

You probably wouldn’t expect to find an SUV with a six-cylinder diesel combustion engine being praised for outstanding real-world efficiency; and yet, while many manufacturers have already given up on diesel altogether and plenty will soon rule out combustion engines of any kind, Mazda continues to innovate with its diesel tech - and to great effect.

The CX-60 is a mid-sized SUV about the size and price of a BMW X3, but it can be had with a 3.3-litre turbo diesel engine that, in entry-level form, earns the car a 56.5mpg WLTP combined efficiency rating. In practice, the lean-burn, low-combustion-temperature technology on the engine allows it to return more like 60mpg when cruising – and this, remember, from a big family holdall that also has 332lb ft of torque.

If you want to cut down on the number of times you visit a petrol pump, this may well be the family SUV you should investigate. If, on the other hand, you can accommodate an electrified SUV as an efficiency measure, consider the Honda CR-V e:PHEV and the Hyundai Tucson Hybrid.

Best for: luxury appeal

The ranks of electric SUVs that target outstanding refinement and luxury appeal are growing - and many are really beginning to deliver on their aims. There are still combustion-engined luxury SUVs to rival them, of course.

The Range Rover Sport is a recommendable for its all-round refinement and interior richness. But if you want cocooning luxury appeal in a big SUV, it’s becoming increasingly plain that electric power is the way to get it.

And, for now, nothing has more of it than Mercedes’ biggest EV: the EQS SUV. Although Mercedes’ current approach to cabin design (over-deliver on touchscreen tech, but undershoot slightly on old-fashioned tactile material allure) won’t please luxury car traditionalists, this car really does feel like a bubble of isolation. It rides supremely quietly and comfortably, soaking up and massaging away ride inputs as if they weren’t there, and keeping road and wind noise at bay like little else.

UK buyers get a choice between 450- and -580-badged versions, both with more than 100kWh of drive battery, both good for a real-world range of around 300 miles and both with prices starting well above £100,000.

Best for: driver appeal

If any SUV is going to earn grudging respect from the dyed-in-the-wool sports car fan, then it's the Porsche Macan. Despite nearing its 10th birthday (and essentially being based on the original Audi Q5, which made its debut in 2008), Porsche’s entry-level off-roader continues to set the bar in this closely fought class, with a blend of pace, space and dynamic grace that makes even the greatest naysayers nod in approval.

With a new, electric Porsche Macan coming soon, Porsche both spruced up and pared back the current Macan line-up with an end-of-life facelift in 2023. The flagship Turbo has gone - but the GTS that effectively replaces it packs the same 434bhp turbocharged 2.9-litre V6, so there’s no loss in performance (you’ll be at 62mph from a standstill in just 4.5 sec while the top speed is a biscuit under 170mph).

Crucially, its subtly lowered and uprated suspension delivers the sort of involving and agile driving experience that has you convinced you’re in something smaller and more hot hatch-shaped. Its physics-defying antics beggar belief. The steering also has a similar weighting and response to the brand’s low-slung road-burners, while the expensively tuned dampers are cast iron in control but cushioned in operation.

Yet with its standard air suspension and cosseting, lavishly appointed interior, the Macan is as relaxed and easygoing as an executive saloon when you just want to cruise. It’s not quite as roomy as some of the younger entries here, but there’s enough space that you’ll get few complaints. If you only ever drive one SUV, make it this one.

Best for: everyday versatility

When buying an SUV, plenty of people just want a more practical, versatile and convenient family car for their money – and, now that SUVs come in so many different shapes and sizes, they needn’t pay a premium for it either.

The Skoda Karoq shows as much. Since its introduction in 2017, it’s been one of the compact SUV class’s better-kept secrets, offering a level of cabin configurability and simple passenger functionality thar its rivals stop well short of.

Did you know, for example, that you can get removable rear seats in this car, turning it from a decently roomy five-seat passenger car into something with the carrying capacity of a medium-sized van? Did you know that items such as back-seat picnic tables are standard fit, along with so many other Skoda-typical practicality touches? 

The car’s engine range isn’t as broad as it used to be, but four-wheel-drive models and diesels remain within it, as does the economical and refined 1.0-litre TSI petrol, which would be our pick.