 |
When the team at Auto123.com decided to evaluate 4x4 vehicles currently offered on the Canadian market, we had a tough question to answer: where is the line between ordinary four-wheel drive SUVs and serious off-road machines? Should we include all-wheel drive vehicles offering a decent all-terrain capability or stick with the proven, more traditional 4x4s?
 |
We chose to focus on the latter. The models to be compared should therefore feature a true permanent 4WD system (not a part-time AWD system) and offer a realistic price range, namely under $60,000.
Yet, the choice proved to be extremely difficult. About a dozen vehicles were targeted. Unfortunately, we were unable to find the Ford Explorer, Hummer H3, Jeep Liberty, Jeep Grand Cherokee and Nissan Xterra in time for our comparative test. We even looked in vain for an International MXT.
Not to be denied, our six professional testers from Auto123.com put the other selected models to the test. Most of them are classic 4x4s: Jeep's Wrangler Sahara Unlimited, Land Rover's LR2, Nissan's Pathfinder, Toyota's FJ Cruiser, Volkswagen's Touareg V6 and finally Suzuki's courageous Grand Vitara.
The program consisted of 150 kilometers of road testing and a full day's worth of off-road testing on the gruelling courses of Circuit Mécaglisse, in Notre-Dame-de-la-Merci, Quebec. This is where teams train for the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles. The sandy slopes and muddy swamps of Mécaglisse would definitely allow us to assess the vehicles and to crown a winner.
Without further ado, here are the results of our comparative test, which obviously took into account the respective off-road capabilities of each vehicle but also the personal rankings of each tester.