Two good SUVs versus the fashionable junk: €40,000 and €64,000

The SUV that survives the bonfire: €40,000 for an E-segment car

There is a very simple way to tell whether a car is good: look at how many are still on the road after ten or fifteen years. Everything else is fashion, and the majority buys fashion without asking questions. On that basis, a debate kicks off that starts by defending two specific SUVs — the 240 hp diesel Range Rover Velar, around €64,000, and the 180 hp Ford Edge, around €40,000 — and ends up as a settling of scores over why the market is full of expensive lemons.

The initial premise is clear: most affordable SUVs are wannabe cars, with engines that can't move the weight and poor dynamic behavior. These two would be the exceptions. The Velar is praised for having the dimensions and driving style of a sedan, with air suspension that raises ground clearance to 25 centimeters, 4x4 all-wheel drive and near off-road capability. The Edge, for its part, is E-segment, weighs 1,900 kilos, moves in the category of a Cayenne or an X5 and costs half as much.

How much a good SUV costs and why you overpay

The comparison hanging over the whole debate is that of the typical buyer: someone who finances a Tiguan and ends up paying €40,000 with interest for a car that isn't in the Edge's league. That is the central argument of the Ford defender: for the same money, or less, you get a vehicle from a higher class, better finished and with no imitations. Fuel consumption, given that the engine is a bit small for the weight, is defended as reasonable.

The majority response doesn't buy the framing. A good number of comments reject both models as expensive, and for the maintenance and repair costs they carry. Others simply deny the category altogether: there is no such thing as a good SUV, because the SUV is the product of collective ignorance about what a car should offer depending on its use. And some point out that a €64,000 Range Rover is not a bargain — it's four or five times what an average family can spend on a new car.

The counterattack: real interior space and dirt roads

Against the outright rejection, a more pragmatic current emerges. Today's SUVs, the argument goes, match or exceed the interior space of upper-segment sedans and have replaced the minivan as the family car. With a Qashqai, a Kuga or a Kodiaq you don't need to go for a 4.8-meter sedan to have room. Maintenance, it is claimed, is no more expensive than that of the equivalent sedan.

The other argument is real-world use: for weekend getaways, dirt roads, reservoirs or country houses, a regular car won't cut it. You don't need to run the Dakar; it's enough not to get stuck at the gate. Those who defend this admit the limitations — not as safe on the road as a sedan, not as capable off-road as a Defender — and precisely for that reason consider it versatile. Ride height is also championed for the ease of access it gives older people or those with reduced mobility.

The Kodiaq, the S-Cross and the Subaru XV: the alternatives that come to light

As the conversation pogre, specific models appear. The Skoda Kodiaq, a D-segment car on the MQB platform, is described as terribly spacious inside and as part of a shift in philosophy: since 2016, SUVs have pursued the interior space of the minivan with SUV styling on the outside. Some ask about faults, and others answer from three months of ownership experience. The Karoq, a C-segment model, and the Peugeot 5008 are also mentioned.

At the bargain-hunting end of the spectrum come the Suzuki S-Cross 4x4 and, above all, the Subaru XV: naturally aspirated petrol engine, manual gearbox, low-range transfer case, permanent 4x4 all-wheel drive and under €23,000. The boxer engine lowers the center of gravity and partly offsets the typical instability. It is conceded that it's a slowcoach on the road, but it is credited with genuine off-road ability. A Suzuki Vitara 1.6 with a 120 hp naturally aspirated engine closes at €15,500, throwing in a 1998 Polo, five years of warranty, three years of maintenance and a timing chain instead of a belt.

Maintenance, all-wheel drive and the detail almost nobody notices

The technical part of the exchange focuses on all-wheel drive. Haldex systems are described as pseudo 4x4, barely adequate for putting down power in a heavy car; the Torsen differential is presented as the ideal solution, but incompatible with the commercial strategy of low fuel consumption, because it requires permanent all-wheel drive. Anyone asking for a Kodiaq with a Torsen gets an ironic reply: the group is never going to build that.

Tires also come up: SUVs wear low-profile tires like any other car, so getting close to the curb scrapes the rim, and the rubber costs more than that of a compact. And then the domestic detail appears: curbs have been gradually lowered for accessibility, which makes life easier for shopping carts but also explains why a tall car has become so convenient in the city.

---

The rundown of the world's best-selling models in 2017 leaves an uncomfortable picture: RAV4 with 807,401 units, CR-V with 748,048, Tiguan with 703,143, Tucson with 620,678 and Qashqai with 498,853. If most of them are, as part of the debate insists, mediocre lemons, the market has decided otherwise. And there the disagreement stands.