Best Off-Road SUV 2022: Comfort and convenience

Clearly defined competitors that are priced and specified closely used to be the typical scenario in the mainstream passenger car market.

But vehicles such as the 4x4 wagons in contention for carsales Best Off-Road SUV 2022 are now defined by differences.

While these are all off-road SUVs effectively designed to do the same job, there are some big omissions – and in some instances, surprising inclusions – in comfort and convenience features.

Notwithstanding that these are all effectively the entry-level versions within their respective model line-ups, it is surprising to see how low the baseline is for features that we would have expected to be in models that range in price from $43,990 to almost $100,000.

All have headlight level adjustment, air-conditioning, power windows, hill start assist and a full-size spare wheel.

From here on, however, there is at least one wagon that doesn’t tick the box for a particular feature.

For starters, all have dusk-sensing headlights except the Mitsubishi Pajero Sport GLX and Toyota Prado GX, while auto high beam is standard for all but the Land Rover Defender 110 P300, LDV D90 Executive, Mitsubishi Pajero Sport and Nissan Patrol Ti.

While all have headlight height adjustment, there are several that require manual adjustment rather than auto levelling. These are the Defender, Patrol, Prado, the new Toyota LandCruiser GX, the Ford Everest Ambiente and SsangYong Rexton ELX.

The new LandCruiser 300 at GX level also misses out on rain-sensing windscreen wipers, and in this regard is joined by the Toyota Fortuner GX as well as the Ford Everest.

Alloy wheels give a new SUV some sparkle and is usually expected on everything short of a commercial vehicle, but here both the LandCruiser 300 and the Land Rover Defender are the exception with their steel rims.

Rear privacy glass can be expected on higher-grade model variants than the entry 4x4 wagons we’ve lined up here, but at this level you’ll still find tinted glass for the rear windows on a couple of large off-roaders: Nissan Patrol and the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Night Eagle.

The product planners were evenly split on whether equipping these baseline models with side steps was a good idea or not; climbing in is easier with side steps fitted to the Everest, Pajero Sport, Patrol, Fortuner, the Isuzu MU-X LS-M and the LDV D90 Executive.

A power sunroof is an unexpected treat in the LDV; the remainder do not have an opening lid – unless you count the Wrangler’s removable hard-top.

Just under half the SUVs on test feature an auto-dipping rear-vision mirror, the Jeep Grand Cherokee Night Eagle among them. The Wrangler, Defender, Patrol and Rexton also stop the glare automatically; for the rest you have to flip the mirror yourself.

Every model here has air-conditioning fitted standard – as you’d expect – but the set-and-forget convenience of climate control is missing in the MU-X, Fortuner and Prado.

As for the rest with climate control, it isn’t an even playing field. Pajero Sport gets just a single zone, the LDV and Nissan boast three-zone control, while the rest have adjustment for two temperature zones.

Active cruise control is one of the most stress-saving modern driving conveniences, and you will see it in almost all models on test here. The exceptions are the Everest, Grand Cherokee and Rexton, which simply have standard cruise control.

Getting in and going without having to fumble for car keys is another great modern vehicle convenience. Yet the Fortuner misses out on this, with its more old-school ignition key with remote lock/unlock buttons.

The rest have keyless entry and start, except the MU-X and Defender which go halfway with lock/unlock via a key fob but include a start button.

The Everest and Wrangler are standouts, going one better with remote ignition start.

Exactly half of these SUVs offer the practicality and safety of power-folding, heated and auto-fold side mirrors: the Grand Cherokee, Defender, D90, Patrol, Rexton and Prado.

The Everest and Pajero Sport have power-fold/auto-fold but no heating; the MU-X has heated mirrors but manual folding; the rest have no mirror heating or power folding at all.

As for seating arrangements, just about everyone gets a seat at the table with the Patrol’s eight seats, while the MU-X, D90, Rexton and Fortuner offer seven seats across their three rows.

The Everest has a third-row, seven-seat extra-cost option over its standard five seats. The rest are five-seaters only at this trim level.

You would think that it would go without saying that all these vehicles have fully carpeted flooring – except they don’t. The Wrangler and LandCruiser 300 have rubber floor covering throughout.