The best-selling sports utility vehicle (SUV) is a relative newcomer, the Hyundai Santa Fe (1,164), which almost doubled its unit sales during the year. A long way back from them, and in the segment below, Toyota's RAV 4 (821) and the Land Rover Freelander (797) have been battling for the runner-up placing.
Reflecting their position as more "lifestyle" than true mud-diggers, none has the lower-ratio capability of the real dirty offroader, which doesn't matter much as more than 90 per cent of even full 4x4 SUVs never go far enough off-road to muddy their hubcaps. Suzuki's Grand Vitara (606) , a real offroader, and the Honda C-RV (471) "softroader" are also holding their markets.
Coming up fast in the lifestyle SUV stakes is the Nissan X-Trail (260), winning awards and buyers for its sensible looks and excellent drivability. And in the "real" wilderness, the late-arrived Jeep new Cherokee (31) is likely to do well in a full year. At the higher end of the market, Land Rover's Discovery (332) has increased its penetration substantially, while the Nissan Patrol (82) has fallen behind on the incline.
Toyota's Land Cruiser (103) has dropped sales slightly in advance of the new one coming on sale next year. True luxury in offroaders has been the province of Range Rover (145) for several decades, but the Mercedes-Benz M-Class (103) was top of the heap in sales both last year and this year. The completely new R/R has already boosted its own sales during 2002, and is well ahead of the other big-budget players, the BMW X5 (119), Lexus RS 300 (82), and the Jeep Grand Cherokee (68). The upcoming Volvo XC90 is, on pre-orders alone, already set to change the configuration of this group.
- Brian Byrne