Are Crossover SUVs pleasant to drive?

Pleasure is a matter of personal taste. But driving pleasure can be determined by three aspects:

1. Composure, being a car that's stable, handles well and holds the road.
2. Driver comfort,
3. Performance.

We spoke about SUV stability, handling and road holding in the previous post. There's been considerable improvements now many SUVs are built like cars, not trucks. ESP is standard on all SUVs for sale in the UK bar the Yeti. Why? The Yeti is unbelievable value. So please VW, add ESP and put up the price. It's going to have to happen in Europe by the end of 2011 anyway.

What's driver comfort? Again comfort is a matter of personal taste. It's also - in my experience - the biggest disappointing feature in motoring. If a car buyer has any complaint about their old car, it's comfort. So comfort is very important. So important I'm going to address is separately and make it the topic of my next post.

Next, performance. One thing most Crossover SUVs have is bags of grunt. New entrants like the Sportage, ix35, ASX and Yeti do have sub 2.0 engines but at the same time have engines that can deliver performance. There are Skoda Yetis that can equal BMW X3 acceleration.

Most Audi 4x4 Q5 and Q7 have tyre blistering performance. There are quick Kugas. An Infiniti EX is all about ultimate high performance and hi-spec. VW Tiguans are all quick and Touaregs are crazy.

Accepting Audi and BMW, as you can see in my VW Touareg review it sums up driving pleasure - secure, comfortable and high performance. OK, at a price.

Having said that, have you seen some of the new car insurance groups for high performing SUVs? With the new car insurance groups 1-50 some 4x4 cars have got their own 40-50 ranking in the new car insurance bands table.

Regards
Ralph