4x4 reviews

“With enough room for a family of five, including a big boot with a flat floor and no lip to heave luggage over, the RAV4 is hard to criticise. It makes the average family hatchback feel tiny, and has lots of storage compartments and deep door pockets, too.

“For such a big vehicle the RAV4 controls its body quite well, but it lets you know about bigger lumps and bumps in the road thanks to its overly firm suspension. The hybrid model feels particularly firm at the back, where all of the batteries are located.

“All RAV4s come with seven airbags as standard, plus there’s an electronic stability control system to help you recover the car if it begins to skid.”

“The Toyota Land Cruiser is a large, rugged off-roader disguised as a road-going SUV. Its rivals are the Land Rover Discovery 4, Volkswagen Touareg and Mercedes GLE, but arguably none offer the Toyota’s durability.

“The new model got a new engine among other, less significant, updates. It’s smaller in capacity and less powerful than the one it replaces, but has improved running costs and more pulling power.

“For those living in the middle of nowhere, with no access to dealership facilities, who need a dependable, go-anywhere off-roader that’ll work more or less forever, a Land Cruiser is one of the few choices worth considering.”

“With the impending demise of the Land Rover Defender, Toyota's Land Cruiser is one of a dwindling number of safari-spec tough off-roaders from the old school. Authentic 4x4s that put go-anywhere duty ahead of niceties such as cornering on rails or high-street posing.

“We love its tough-as-nails ambience, go-anywhere pluck and vast practicality. This is a unique Africa-meets-Asia luxury SUV with pleasingly few pretensions. It’s an almost-classic, a worthy alternative to me-too German premium crossovers and exactly the kind of robust car we’d pick if we were preparing for the Apocalypse..”