2020 carsales Best Family SUV

Aussie family SUV buyers are spoiled for choice. In 2020, there are literally dozens of five- and seven-seat SUVs available in a wide variety of sizes. Many offer all-wheel drive and come with a solid safety rating.

But in between there are shades of grey – especially when it comes to the ownership experience. That’s why the team at carsales.com.au decided to create an annual award recognising the best of the best of family-sized SUVs.

This award doesn’t step on the toes of our carsales COTY – it’s very likely that a future COTY winner could also take out this gong. But it does focus on the wants and needs of Family SUV buyers.

As such, we’re looking at family-sized SUVs priced under $70,000. To be eligible contenders must have a five-star ANCAP safety rating, autonomous emergency braking, automatic (or equivalent) transmission and at least seven seats.

We’ve also taken the perhaps controversial step of excluding derivatives of body-on-frame light commercial utilities. We have another category for these models with comparison testing having been conducted previously.

The nine Family SUVs selected were assessed against a range of criteria important to family buyers. These included cabin and cargo space; child safety and accommodation; connectivity, infotainment and technology; driveability and performance; style; and cost of ownership factors.

Our scoring reflects the needs and expectations of family buyers in 2020 and is backed with expert ownership data from redbook.com.au. Judging was carried out by carsales.com.au’s senior road test team members and one invited expert.

The vehicles selected for participation in the 2020 carsales Best Family SUV Award were the strongest-selling variants in their respective model range. The final line-up was:

Holden Acadia LT AWD
Hyundai Santa Fe Highlander AWD
Kia Sorento GT-Line AWD
Mazda CX-8 Asaki AWD
Mazda CX-9 Azami AWD
Nissan Pathfinder ST-L AWD
Skoda Kodiaq Sportline 132TSI 4x4
Toyota Kluger Black Edition AWD
Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace Highline 162TSI 4MOTION

Please note: we also included the Peugeot 5008 in our shortlist and invited Peugeot to participate in this award, but it did not respond to our request.

Click on the links below to discover which seven-seat Family SUV takes the win in each section of our test: