Best Off-Road SUV 2022: Ownership costs

How well a vehicle is supported after it rolls away from the dealership is a strong selling point.

Buyers value the peace of mind that comes with knowing they have a well-rounded warranty and transparent, affordable service costs.

Most of the models on test for Best Off-Road SUV 2022 include various aftersales incentives such as capped-price servicing – some also with pre-paid service plans – as well as long warranty periods and free roadside assistance for either part or all of the warranty period.

Depreciation is often the biggest cost when buying a new vehicle. Knowing what amount you are likely to lose when it’s time to sell can make a difference. And it is much simpler than ever to gauge what you’re left with in resale value thanks to RedBook valuations.

New-car warranties have improved markedly in recent years, which is reflected by half the field here being covered for five years (with unlimited kilometres). Those vehicles are the Ford Everest, Land Rover Defender, Nissan Patrol, Toyota Fortuner, Toyota Prado and Toyota LandCruiser.

Of those remaining, the Jeep Wrangler, Jeep Grand Cherokee and Mitsubishi Pajero Sport have five years’ warranty – but cap the distance of cover at 100,000km. The LDV D90 also gets five years, but with a 130,000km cap.

The Isuzu MU-X has a slightly longer warranty at six years but caps distance at 150,000km, while the SsangYong Rexton has the longest warranty among our 12 contenders – seven years, with no cap on kilometres travelled.

Mitsubishi offers an extended warranty, which goes out to 10 years/200,000km – but only if you have your Pajero Sport serviced at an authorised Mitsubishi dealer for the duration.

Toyota will extend its cover on powertrain components in the Fortuner, Prado and LandCruiser for a further two years once the five-year vehicle warranty has expired – so long as evidence of continued maintenance as per the Toyota service schedule can be shown.

Free breakdown cover is becoming common on the new-vehicle market, but the fine print is different for many marques.

Most of the off-road SUVs on test have free breakdown cover – except the three Toyota models. Toyota gives you a free breakdown tow to the nearest dealer during warranty, plus a free loan car – but only if it turns out the breakdown was due to a manufacturing fault.

The Wrangler, Grand Cherokee, Defender, D90, Patrol and Rexton have free roadside assist for their full warranty period.

Everest and Pajero Sport come with 12 months’ free roadside assist, and the MU-X gets 13 months, with the assistance continuing annually when you service at an authorised dealer.

For most of the vehicles lined up here, service intervals are the typical one-year/15,000km, although the Defender is longer at 20,000km.

Other exceptions are the Wrangler and Grand Cherokee, which have the distance shorter at 12,000km, while the Patrol and the three Toyota models are even shorter at 10,000km.

The Toyotas are also short on maximum time between scheduled services, at six months. Patrol was also a six-month interval requirement until January 2022, when it was upped to 12 months (but still 10,000km).

Capped-price servicing (CPS) is offered with most brands except LDV, which leaves it up to the dealer to work out what they will charge, and Land Rover, which only offers five years’ pre-paid servicing. Nissan has either a pre-paid service plan or CPS on Patrol.

Toyota only offers three years of CPS with the Fortuner and Prado, but offers 10 services over five years with the new LandCruiser 300.

As a result, we’ve taken the three-year average CPS costs for all except the Defender, where we averaged the pre-paid five-year bundle to arrive at an annual figure.

While that could have been a disadvantage for the Land Rover as often we see an expensive service due for vehicles at four years, the Defender is actually one of the cheaper vehicles to service on an averaged, annual basis.

The cheapest of all was the Everest at $299 per year, while the most expensive was the LandCruiser at $750. While the LC300 services are capped at $375 each, it requires two of them in a year.

The largest expense of owning a new car is depreciation, and there are big differences in this group in terms of how much they will be worth once they’ve hit the road (see our table below).

We have included projected depreciation percentages for 2021 models, based on resale figures obtained from RedBook.

As the MU-X and LandCruiser 300 are all-new models and too recent to establish resale values, previous models of each were used as the basis for their values.

The increase in demand for new cars and limited supply due to the global COVID-19 pandemic has meant that some vehicles can actually be worth more used than when new – up to 10 per cent more in the case of the Defender.

The D90 depreciates significantly more than the others, losing 21.7 per cent of its value in a year, but it’s worth mentioning that both the LDV and the SsangYong Rexton carry a national drive-away price, whereas all other models require on-road costs to be added.

Even if you subtract the on-road cost component for depreciation calculations, the D90’s depreciation is more than 10 per cent, with the Rexton not far behind. These are far higher than the more popular SUVs in this comparison.

Elsewhere in the cost of ownership equation, tyre replacement can become expensive depending on how a vehicle is driven, where it is driven (off-road, for example) and how well tyres are maintained (tyre pressures and regular alignment/rotation).

Where a vehicle is fitted with a popular tyre size, prices for their replacement can be much lower. Some vehicles have an unusual tyre size, which can make it harder to find them and also bump up replacement costs.

We have only given an estimate for highway-terrain tyre replacement, as for most vehicles on test there’s a huge choice for highway terrains, let alone off-road tyres.

The MU-X has the cheapest tyre replacement cost at around $200 each, while the Defender, Patrol and LandCruiser 300 cost around $350-$450 per corner. These latter three vehicles have a limited range of replacement tyre options compared to other vehicles here.

Ford Everest Ambiente 3.2D 4x4
Warranty years/km: 5 years/unlimited
Service intervals months/km: 12 months/15,000km
Average annual cost for first 3 years of servicing: $299
Dealer service network: 180
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: 1 year free/Yes

Isuzu MU-X LS-M 3.0D 4x4
Warranty years/km: 6 years/150,000km
Service intervals months/km: 12 months/15,000km
Average annual cost for first 3 years of servicing: $489
Dealer service network: 149
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: 13 months free/Yes

Jeep Grand Cherokee Night Eagle 3.6P
Warranty years/km: 5 years/100,000km
Service intervals months/km: 12 months/12,000km
Average annual cost for first 3 years of servicing: $399
Dealer service network: 66
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: 5 years free/Yes*
*Free roadside assist for five years then continued annually with Jeep authorised dealer servicing

Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Night Eagle 3.6P
Warranty years/km: 5 years/100,000km
Service intervals months/km: 12 months/12,000km
Average annual cost for first 3 years of servicing: $399
Dealer service network: 66
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: 5 years free/Yes*
*Free roadside assist for five years then continued annually with Jeep authorised dealer servicing

Land Rover Defender 110 P300 2.0P
Warranty years/km: 5 years/unlimited
Service intervals months/km: 12 months/20,000km
Average annual cost for first 5 years of servicing: $390*
Dealer service network: 42
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: 5 years free/No
*Only available with five-year pre-paid service plan

LDV D90 Executive 2.0P 4x4
Warranty years/km: 5 years/130,000km
Service intervals months/km: 12 months/15,000km
Average annual cost for first 3 years of servicing: N/A
Dealer service network: 92
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: 5 years free/No

Mitsubishi Pajero Sport GLX 2.4D 4x4
Warranty years/km: 5 years/100,000km
Service intervals months/km: 12 months/15,000km
Average annual cost for first 3 years of servicing: $432
Dealer service network: 200
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: 1 year free/Yes

Nissan Patrol Ti 5.6P
Warranty years/km: 5 years/unlimited
Service intervals months/km: 12 months/10,000km
Average annual cost for first 3 years of servicing: $506
Dealer service network: 189
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: 5 years free/No

SsangYong Rexton ELX 2.2D
Warranty years/km: 7 years/unlimited
Service intervals months/km: 12 months/15,000km
Average annual cost for first 3 years of servicing: $375
Dealer service network: 50
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: 7 years free/No

Toyota Fortuner GX 2.8D
Warranty years/km: 5 years/unlimited
Service intervals months/km: 6 months/10,000km
Average annual cost for first 3 years of servicing: $520
Dealer service network: 200
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: N/A

Toyota LandCruiser GX 3.3D
Warranty years/km: 5 years/unlimited
Service intervals months/km: 6 months/10,000km
Average annual cost for first 3 years of servicing: $750
Dealer service network: 200
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: N/A

Toyota Prado GX 2.8D
Warranty years/km: 5 years/unlimited
Service intervals months/km: 6 months/10,000km
Average annual cost for first 3 years of servicing: $520
Dealer service network: 200
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: N/A

Best Off-Road SUV 2022 RedBook resale value table: