Top 10 SUVs off-road comparison: Which medium SUV is the best?

[Music] let's be honest with each other you bought a medium-sized SUV because you want more room to cart the kids and all their stuff around but in the back of your mind you think to yourself what if I want to go off-road what if I want to go sand driving as well well today we've assembled the top ten SUVs in this segment to see just how far you can go off-road before things go pear-shaped [Music] before we get cracking I want to run you through the tests that I have installed this through them now pretend your campsite is over here somewhere and you've got to drive through these ruts to get to it now this all looks pretty straightforward but this is what we call an offset mogul it's specially designed to have two tires in the air now it's a big problem for these medium SUVs because it will force the oil drive system to decide where it needs to send talk and how much traction control intervention is required for the spinning wheels that don't have any traction so this will be tough halfway through when the tires are in the air I've also got a flex test and what that means is when the chassis is in a position where it's slightly bent I'm gonna try and open and close a door if we hear any metal on metal it is bad news for these SUVs now once they're done with this fairly easy test I have something they're probably all going to fail at matlock more log mountain whatever you want to call it that's it behind us there and it's the last place you want to be driving in your medium SUV this will be the ultimate test for them because on standard road tires they're going to really struggle getting up those slippery logs of wood and all of the mud before it so it will be the ultimate test I will be surprised if actually make it all the way up but it'll be good nevertheless now we're going to do this video a little bit differently instead of watching all of the tests unfold if you only want to know how your favorite issue they does simply go to the time code that you can see on the screen now or grab a beer grab a coffee grab whatever you want sit down and we'll take you through each of these SUVs and see if any of them can actually conquer mount love more low bounce 'n whatever its called okay first cab off the rank is the all-new Toyota rav4 now this is different to the rest of the SUVs here because yes it's all-wheel drive but it doesn't have a drive line that runs down the center of the car so instead you have an internal combustion engine up the front you have an electric motor up the front but servicing the rear is an electric motor so when I put it into this trail mode here by pushing that button it engages the rear axle and then it uses the brakes to act as kind of a differential lock if you will so let's see how the all-new rav4 goes through our offset mogul line and up now let's drive through here so at this point here that we get to wheels off the ground we'll see what the chassis thinks about that doors opening and closing fine so Shazi is good keepin it thinner there it is there so this is a pass for the all-new Toyota rav4 on the Moghuls let's go give those Long's a shot okay next up is the logs this is going to be really tricky because they are wet and slippery so I'm going to take it just slightly with a bit of speed it's not going anywhere it's even just sliding back this is going to be really tricky I'll actually be surprised if any of them make it up here we're in the Holden Equinox now this is slightly unique in a sense because you can decouple the four-wheel drive system entirely so I've just manually hit all-wheel drive here so the car is going to remain in its four-wheel drive mode but there's no differential locks none of that sort of stuff it's literally all just traction control so let's see how far it gets I don't really have a lot of confidence in this getting too fast so here we go we are entering our offset mogul all right so far so good clearance is okay touching down there now two wheels off the ground check check that rigidity that's good I can hear it clicking a little bit so we have a bit of chassis flex okay it has passed this is actually done a really good job because it is breaking those wheels nicely and it's not letting them free slip like the rav4 does so really impress with this let's see what it does on the logs okay it's time for the logs this is becoming progressively worse as we go through here so I'll be surprised if it actually gets anywhere and that's the thing it's now stuck on that end log but it's actually holding there it's not sliding around like the others were so look it hasn't made it up but it's actually surprisingly good despite the factors missing all of this four-wheel drive equipment we get Quin ox is actually really impressing me here in terms of how far it's gonna go this is the Mazda cx-5 it's a bit of a staple in the medium SUV segment this one has the new two and a half litre turbocharged petrol engine that you find in the 6-9 so it's got plenty of grunt but no off-road modes so it is just a part-time four-wheel drive system there's nothing like an lock here it's just gonna use the brakes to act as a traction control it's fairly low to the ground as well so I'll be interested to see exactly how far it goes okay here we go first test this is our offset mogul surprisingly good so now that we've got that in the air to try opening close no dramas at all so it is structurally integral and it got through here with no issues whatsoever so that is really impressive without a proper four-wheel drive system let's give the logs our shot long time in the cx-5 let's see how it goes it did pretty well there with the offset mobile Oh still most made it up there I kind of want to it is so close so close this is the furthest so far we've been able to get up here in an SUV so Wow hats off to Mercer you guys have developed a pretty good all-wheel drive system here but still not good enough to make it up our slippery logs get ready to be confused we're now in the French Renault Cali us that's built in Korea and shares a platform with the Japanese Nissan x-trail talk to you confused so that means it also shares the same driveline and that is of course a CVT transmission naturally aspirated petrol engine and has a two wheel drive mode a four-wheel drive auto mode that activates the rear axle when there is slip at the front but it also has a four-wheel drive a lock mode which is the mode I have it in now I'm expecting this to basically do the same thing as the x-trail so let's line up our offset modal here we go okay so there's our wheel in the air so let me just see now this guy's the beeps in the world as well door is opening and closing and has it sort of made it through but it did struggle a bit so we had wheels spinning in the air and it was kinda just a little uneasy there so yes tick it's a pass for the structural rigidity test and the mobile but let's see how we go with our logs marginal pass on the offset mogul and let's see how we go here with the logs why McCully us up going nowhere fast there we're Wellman's really beached it kind of didn't even get to where it was confidently either it's it's just kind of yeah okay so it's just average here the Renault Koleos passes the Mogul and the chassis tests but don't quite make it up the logs [Music] Subaru Forester when you think of that name you think of adventure and people who spend a lot more time outside on the weekend than you and I but does the Supra for us to still live up to its name as the adventure choice in the medium SUV segment well it is still symmetrical all-wheel drive it's a permanent all-wheel drive system there's now ex mode here as well which is a little more advanced in terms of what it can do let's see how it goes I've just engaged it we are entering our offset mogul let's see what the Subaru does so far so Pasic this is well and truly the best here let's just check that structure we got two wheels off the ground yeah no dramas so structural integrity is fantastic offset mogul that's fantastic we've got a wheel up in the air and it was no dramas getting here let's see how it fares on the logs I've got high hopes for this thing these logs lined up I got high hopes here for Forester let's see how it goes Wow all right so far so good the Forester has well and truly made it the highest up but we got stuck in the end there so I'll tell you what this thing is damn impressive and this is feeling to me probably like the best off-roader here if you can use that term for a medium SUV the Hyundai Tucson is one of those popular SUVs on sale in Australia and rightfully so it's cheap its affordable long warranty all that kind of thing now this one here the top spec Highlander comes with a 1.6 liter turbo engine but it hasn't dual clutch gearbox which is not going to love this stop start stuff with traction control intervening it does have a part-time four-wheel drive system but I've locked it into four-wheel drive mode so that's 50% of talked to the front 50% of torque to the rear let's see how it copes with our offset mogul here we go ok I see it gets here already stuck we're not even at the heartbeat around he's struggling no nothing there it also fit in clothes but it's not getting through our offset moguls so that is a fail for the Tucson let's try the logs and see how we go so fail for the opposite mogul let's see how it goes with our logs gearbox is just hating life the gearbox doesn't perform all that well on road either so yeah I think the gearbox is the real limitation to this current or we came to see how the Kia goes giving it shares now the platform with this car except with a normal gearbox Kia Sportage shares a platform with the Tucson the big differences are though that this has a naturally aspirated petrol engine in this spec here and it also has a torque converter automatic gearbox so it is just a normal gearbox it's a part-time four-wheel-drive but you can lock it with a center differential lock which means we get 50% of talked at the front 50% of torque at the rear and it should mean I think that this actually makes it through a lot of these tests so let's see how we go here in the offset mogul we will tuck it in switch that off because that's annoying like it was a little bit of a struggle there but it made it through I've got two tires in the air let's see how rigid this chassis is no drama zero at all so pass and pass for the Kia Sportage it's longer clock okay it's long time for the Sportage let's see how it goes everything in our modes just not getting over that but all heard of it every time we try that's okay we gave it a shot and it is about average for this type of thing the Volkswagen Tiguan is the most expensive car we have here out of this group almost $60,000 with options it uses an on-demand four-wheel drive system but it's it's quite clever in the way that it works we've got drive modes as well so I'm going to flick this across to off-road mode what this does is it allows the ABS to be a little more liberal it'll allow the wheel to lock to build up some gravel in front of the tire when you're stopping and it'll give us a bit more control over talk to those wheels so let's see how we go as we line up the offset mogul the end they didn't love the whole dual clutch thing here this uses a dual clutch gearbox as well so let's see how we go to switch off the only really well there it is so we have two wheels off the air parking sensors off again I've got an issue here it's past the Mogul test but I can clear that latch hitting on the body and I'm not able to close the door properly so while the dual clutch gearbox didn't inhibit this making it through the offset Mogul we did have some issues there with the chassis not being quite rigid enough to allow that door to close properly so interesting stuff let's see how it goes on the logs ok log time in the Tigran and let's see how it goes as we approach our logs here yeah the gearbox is doing the whole dual clutch thing where it's kind of stopping us from going anywhere so a little bit frustrating it does have hill descent control in Reverse though which is now active really handy feature if you do ever find yourself on a muddy hill like this where the car is just sliding on its own so that is one benefit of the off-road mode Honda CRV our other Japanese contender this one here uses a turbocharged petrol engine a CVT gearbox and an on-demand four-wheel drive system so I don't have the highest hopes in the world for this but you know I might be surprised to let tip the CRV into our offset mogul and see how it goes so far so good it's coming through nicely Roscoe okay it struggled a little bit there but we've got two wheels in the air let's see how rigid this chassis is yeah that's good so I pass it a pass let's see if you can manage anything on the logs these logs are proving to be a real pain for these SUVs so let's give it a shot here in the CRV it is not liking this just sitting there wheels are slipping not doing a whole lot but it's not very dramatic everything is just happening really naturally here the way it dealt with the offset mogul too was pretty good so despite the way it appears this see how he's actually not too bad for very minor off-road stuff along with the Subaru Forester the x-trail is the other one that is synonymous with adventure and being out on weekends and all that type of things so I'm expecting big things from this car this one has a on-demand four-wheel drive system but you can also put it in two-wheel drive to save fuel so it'll do couple the rear now but you can also lock it in four-wheel drive mode which is what we have now it's not the real modes to choose from aside from a hill descent control so line up our offset mogul let's see how an is an ex trial fears okay so two wheels off the ground let's see what this chassis is like yep no drummers there so pass and pass let's see if it can conquer the logs we're in Adventure mode this annex trail will give us little logs ahead of us on our camping holiday let's see how we go we've lined them up there's a crack it's in struggle town in fact this has probably made it the least out of all of them that's such a shame I was expecting a bit of things here so it wasn't the most technical test in the world but it does go to show you that despite all the four-wheel-drive acronyms most of these SUVs can actually do some very very light off-roading if you do want some more serious stuff you're gonna have to step up to something like a dual cab you or one of the SUVs based on a dual cab ute but it does go to show that this gamut of SUVs does pretty much everything that says on the box Subaru Forester big stand out there Honda CRV as well little disappointed by the Hyundai Tucson and also the Volkswagen Tiguan can quite get that door to close plus the rav4 I was expecting better things from that thing too we've got any questions or comments about our test leave them in the comments section below you can read the full article at care advice calm and don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel [Music]

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Keywords: car, car review, caradvice.com.au, car comparisons, new car review, car reviews, australia, 2019 Toyota RAV4 Cruiser Hybrid, SUV Mega Test, Off Roading, 2019 Volkwagen Tiguan Highline, 2019 Subaru Forester 2.5i-S, 2019 Renault Koleos Intens 4x4, 2019 Renault Koleos Intens 4x4 2019 Medium SUV Mega Test Off Roading, 2019 Nissan X-Trail Ti, 2019 Mazda CX-5 Akera, 2019 Kia Sportage GT-Line, 2019 Hyundai Tucson Highlander, 2019 Honda CR-V VTi-LX, 2019 Holden Equinox LTZ, paul maric

Id: 8bXKnbhWgHY

Length: 19min 43sec (1183 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 23 2019