Comparison Tests
Fair warning to Keith Bradsher: The following may cause fits of road rage and an urge to add this magazine to your list of offenders outlined in your recent polemic against sport-utility vehicles, High and Mighty — SUVs: The World's Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got That Way.
This disclaimer is offered because the ensuing test will (1) confirm why SUVs remain a powerful and growing segment of the passenger-car market and (2) explain how they are getting better in the areas of efficiency, versatility, and overall appeal to the driving public, including the demographically anointed elites who read Bradsher's periodic fulminations in the pages of the New York Times against sport-utes and the demimonde who drive them.
The mission statement herein was to evaluate all SUV entries in the so-called medium premium market, including a spanking-new Volkswagen Touareg, which was air-freighted from Wolfsburg, Germany, especially for this muddy, rain-swept soirée in the Hocking Hills of southern Ohio.
The qualifications were simple: five-door, well-equipped SUVs with sticker prices ranging from about $40,000 to $50,000. This grouping excluded such big sellers as the Ford Explorer, the Jeep Grand Cherokee, and the Mitsubishi Montero (too cheap) and such exotica as the Range Rover, the BMW X5 V-8s, and the Lexus LX470 (too pricey).
Joining that Touareg were three other newly minted models: the Volvo XC90 T6, the Lincoln Aviator, and the Lexus GX470. The defending champion Acura MDX returns packing 20 more horsepower, and the venerable Land Rover Discovery SE (which seems to have been with us since Monty chased the Desert Fox out of North Africa) now sports the 4.6-liter V-8 that powered the last-generation Range Rover. Rounding out the field was the familiar BMW X5 3.0i and a top-of-the-line GMC Envoy SLT. For reasons unknown, DaimlerChrysler was unable to come up with a Mercedes-Benz ML320, although an invitation was issued.
It's a diverse field with four carlike unit-body trucks (the MDX, the X5, the Touareg, and the XC90), five fully independent suspension setups (those four plus the Aviator), two traditional live-rear-axle utes, and the all-live-axle Discovery. Engines range from in-line sixes in twin-turbo (the XC90) and naturally aspirated guises (the X5 and the Envoy), to the MDX's V-6 and three V-8s. Automatic transmissions sport four, five, and six (the Touareg) speeds. Off-road equipment is similarly diverse: the Envoy, the Discovery, the GX470, and the Touareg boast low-range transfer cases, the latter two with lockable center differentials. Traction control with a downhill-assist function is provided on the X5, the Discovery, and the GX470. The MDX offers the functional equivalent of a center and rear differential lock to boost traction at low speeds. The GX470, the Touareg, and the rear of the Discovery can be elevated to clear tall obstacles.
Although only the smallest percentage of these outbackers are enlisted for off-road hill humping and bog jumping, we nonetheless felt it imperative to test our candidates in the demanding conditions for which they were theoretically intended, regardless of the reality that most would spend their lives navigating nothing more challenging than the serpentine lanes of pothole-free upscale suburbs. There's simply no way to assess all this diverse hardware other than to sling some mud.
We therefore headed off to do battle in Ohio. Pop a Prozac, Keith, old boy, and press on regardless.
