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The SUV is no longer a trend or a craze but a full-blown, ahem, epidemic.
With the sector growing by 20% every year, already more than a third of all new cars being sold right now are SUVs of one size or another. We’re living in a George Orwell novel. And we've just heard that SUV market share in Europe has hit an all time high: 41.3% in September 2020, with JATO reporting that the top selling Renault Captur shifted a cool 21,523 examples alone that month.
New car buyers are terrified of being rounded up by Thinkpol if they so much as leaf through a saloon or estate car brochure, so they obediently choose high-riding hatchbacks on PCPs instead.
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Seat Arona
Consider the Seat Arona. The tiny Spanish crossover is certainly very popular among buyers, and it's one of the best cars of its type. It’s refined for one so small and its cabin is spacious, all of which means the Arona is a terrific car in many ways, except that it’s entirely uninteresting to look at and even less interesting to drive. It’s also quite slow.
We have to believe there are far more imaginative ways to spend the £18,605 you’ll need to hand over to buy even the cheapest model in the range. In fact, here we offer 18 significantly more interesting cars for the same money or less – cars that are either thrilling to drive, dripping with character, great to look at or, in a small number of cases, just endearingly odd. We are living in Crossovia, but you needn’t be a citizen.
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Coupés
Audi TT Sport Quattro
What better way to address the prevailing criticism of the TT – that it wasn’t really a proper sports car – than to tear out its rear seats, drop in a chunky metal brace in their place and fit a pair of fixed-back bucket seats up front?
No more than 800 came to the UK so the Sport Quattro does have rarity on its side, but despite the weight-saving regime, those racy seats and 237bhp, the most athletic TT was still a bit flat on its feet. It’s unusual, though, and for around £7,000 you’ll pick up a minter.
We found: 2005 TT Sport Quattro, 70,000 miles, £8250
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Fiat Coupé Turbo
Designed by Chris Bangle during his Zorro phase, the Fiat Coupé is instantly recognisable with its distinctive wheel-arch slashes. The Coupé might never achieve classic status but, after so many were unforgivably wiped out by the scrappage scheme a decade ago, it has become quite rare. Accordingly, values are slowly on the up.
Most of the surviving cars are Turbo models and they start today at around £4000. Double that and you’ll find far tidier examples, although the very best Coupés now come with hefty five-figure asking prices. Not the sort of car you buy without doing your research first.
We found: 2000 Coupé Turbo, 57,000 miles, £7995
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BMW Z4M Coupé
The one you really want is the Z3M Coupé but, with values having long since risen beyond the £20,000 mark, you’ll have to put up with the newer Z4M Coupé instead. The later car didn’t get the Z3’s distinctive breadvan roof line, but its rear end is a brilliant piece of design in its own right.
Beneath the bonnet you’ll find the same glorious 3.2-litre straight six that powered the E46 M3 and, much like that car, values are only going one way. Spend £20,000 today and get your money back, with interest, two years from now.
We found: 2007 Z4M Coupé, 67,000miles, £20,990
So there we have a few coupés you might consider. But maybe coupés aren't your style, maybe you're after more of a blend of practicality and performance rather than solely the latter...
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Fast saloons
Bentley Turbo R
Buying a ’90s Bentley for £14k is such a bad idea, your friends and family will assume you’ve taken leave of your senses. But in among all the hideous bills and the endless breakdowns and the ruinous fuel costs, there might even be fleeting moments of something approaching enjoyment.
Because you’ll be swanning around in a Bentley that you own and only you and a small number of onlookers will know you paid no more than the price of an Arona to buy it. Then it’ll stop working again and you’ll wish you bought the Seat.
We found: 1997 Turbo R, 49,000miles, £19,950
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Jaguar XFR
When it was new over a decade ago, the XFR was like a promise from Jaguar to all of us. It foretold what a new, modern Jag was capable of and what its next generation of cars might be like. There had been fast Jaguar saloons before, but none that was as quick and agile one moment, then as effortless and refined the next.
Shoved a long by a supercharged V8 that developed more than 500bhp, it was seriously quick as well, while its ultra-modern cabin was about as far removed from the olde worlde Jaguar cockpits of yester year as it was possible to get.
We found: 2010 XFR, 52,000 miles, £16,700
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Maserati Quattroporte
There have been faster saloons and others still that were sportier to drive, but rarely has there been a saloon as stylish as the fifth-generation Quattroporte. While its German rivals were clinical and even a touch sombre, the Maserati was charming and characterful (mostly because it was powered by normally aspirated V8 with close to 400bhp).
It achieved the notable feat of being both exceptionally long and very cramped in the rear, while the ride was never quite as smooth as it should have been. But £12k doesn’t seem like much for a car as elegant as this.
We found: 2008 Quattroporte, 69,000 miles, £11,450
Some brilliant super-saloons there to fulfil your longing for a spacious yet beastly vehicle. But maybe, just maybe, neither coupés nor fast saloons float your boat; so how about going topless?
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Roadsters
Lotus Elan
Tell a sports car enthusiast of a certain age you drive a Lotus Elan and he’ll go weak at the knees. He will quickly regain his composure when you clarify it’s an Elan M100, the front-wheel-drive version that was launched in 1989, and not the iconic 1962 original.
Still, the newer Elan was a piece of Lotus history in its own right and it still looks pretty today, thanks entirely to the incomparably skilled hand of designer Peter Stevens. In this instance, you would have to try quite hard to spend more than £15,000. The cheapest cars cost only £6000.
We found: 1992 Elan, 88,000 miles (restored), £9990
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Alfa Romeo Spider
Alfa’s dinky roadster was on sale for almost 30 years. It first appeared back in 1966 and it wasn’t until 1994 that production was wound up.
Across its four generations, you can actually see the evolution of European crash legislation because, while the 1960s original was disarmingly pretty and delicate, the newer versions look heavier and chunkier, like they ’re wearing armour. Inevitably, our budget will only stretch to a fourth-gen model, but even a very late Spider is a desirable thing.
It’s a drop-top Italian sports car with a cammy four-cylinder engine, after all.
We found: 2005 Spider, 24,000miles, £9000
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Honda S2000
Spiky handling and a driver’s seat that was set a couple of inches too high did detract somewhat from the S2000 experience, but the VTEC engine howled like a lunatic all the way to 9000rpm and the manual gearshift was just so.
Honda’s roadster was an imperfect car, but a seriously characterful one. In fact, it’s the perfect antidote to today’s tunelessly turbocharged sports cars with their effortless paddleshift transmissions. You will find S2000s listed for £6000 or so, but spend £10,000 and you’ll get a well-cared-for car that won’t shed any value.
We found: 2000 S2000, 70,000 miles, £7995
Convertibles not your thing? Not to worry - everyone loves a good hot hatch...
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Hot hatches
Honda Civic Type R (EK9)
Everything you need to know about the EK9 Civic Type R can be expressed in just one vital statistic: 118lb ft of torque at 7500rpm. That pretty much makes its 1.6-litre in line four a motorcycle engine. And then there’s its peak power output of 182bhp, which arrives at 8200rpm.
The original Civic Type R didn’t even pretend to be a daily usable hatchback, preferring instead to be as focused and as uncompromising as a purpose-built sports car. It even had a seam-welded body to improve structural integrity. The EK9 was never sold in the UK but plenty have been imported.
We found: 2004 Civic Type R, 99,000 miles, £4490
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Alfa Romeo 147 GTA
No roadster or coupé will ever be as usable as even a small crossover, but a high-performance hatchback will get close enough. The 147 GTA was never especially well regarded in its day, mostly because the chassis didn’t do an especially good job of putting its 247bhp down to the road.
But what an engine: a 3.2-litre V6 that actually looks as good as it sounds. The 147 GTA might well be one of the prettiest hot hatches of all time and prices are holding firm. You won’t find one now for much less than £10,000.
We found: 2004 147 GTA, 54,000 miles, £8299
Still not convinced? Fine, no worries. We've got a few oddballs coming your way...
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Oddities
VW Phaeton
A large executive saloon isn’t very odd at all, but the Phaeton’s backstory certainly is. It exists because the late Volkswagen chairman Ferdinand Piëch agreed with himself that it should. Very good things have transpired when Piëch has done something just because he wanted to, such as Porsche winning Le Mans for the first time.
One of the challenges he set for his engineers was that the Phaeton should be able to be driven at 186mph for eight hours in 50deg C heat, while keeping the cabin at room temperature. A firm like Volkswagen will probably never take a gamble like this again, so make the most of it.
We found: 2010 Phaeton V6 TDI, 50,000 miles, £9000
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Lancia Thema 8.32
There can’t be many more unusual cars than a boxy luxury saloon with a Ferrari V8 up front. Mounted transversely, no less, because it drives the front wheels. It’s as though Lancia built the 8.32 as a prank (‘8. 32’ is a reference to the engine’s eight cylinders and 32 valves).
Running costs today will be astronomical and you’ll be very lucky indeed to find an original UK car because, according to reports, only 10 were ever sold here. Prices are creeping up and you’ll need to spend at least £10,000. Another one to file under ‘never to be repeated’.
We found: 1989 Thema 8.32, 92,000km, £20,000 (located in Switzerland)
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Renault Avantime
The trouble with calling a car Avantime – which isn’t a word at all but basically translates to ‘ahead of its time’ – is that you’re declaring the car in question to be a groundbreaker, or a trendsetter. Back in 2001, Renault clearly believed the Avantime would initiate a shift across the market towards MPV-style cars with only four seats and three doors.
Remarkably, the concept didn’t catch on. But it’s impossible to dislike the Avantime, not least because it comes from a time when car makers would play and experiment, then bring those experiments to market. These days we get identikit crossovers.
We found: 2002 Avantime 2.0, 125,000 miles, £3750
Still not interested? Maybe you're after something big and 4x4ish that somewhat resembles an SUV? Well, if that's the case, here are some options that might take your fancy:
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Anti-crossovers
Toyota Hilux
If you absolutely must get to a stranded flock of sheep in a flooded field at night, or deliver urgent medical supplies to a remote African village, or transport six insurgents and their AK-47s to a border post, you use a Toyota Hilux.
A conflict between Chad and Libya in the late 1980s has become known as the Toyota War because of the ubiquitous use, on both sides, of the Japanese marque’s off-roaders as ‘technicals’ – light improvised combat vehicles. Toyota’s pick-up has been in production since 1968, making Hilux one of the oldest ongoing nameplates of them all.
We found: 2011 Hilux, 35,000 miles, £11,000
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Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution
Even the untrained eye will recognise that the Pajero Evolution is no crossover. It has huge tack-on wheel arches and an enormous bonnet scoop and a funny metal plate at the front. Whereas the average crossover is designed primarily to transport young mothers across town, the Pajero Evolution was built to win the Dakar Rally. Which it did, on 12 occasions.
It’s powered by a 3.5-litre V6 that’s good for 276bhp and a lumpy 257lb ft of torque – and as if there were any lingering doubts as to the Pajero Evolution’s intended purpose, its seats are stamped ‘Recaro’.
We found: 2001 Pajero Evolution, 75,000 miles, £9000
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Subaru Forester STi
The Forester STi is a supremely practical vehicle with a large boot and room for the whole family. It’s tough, rugged and hard-wearing. With four-wheel drive, it will also find its way out of the muddy field or snowy back road that’s left most other cars stranded. Quite how it could be improved as a family wagon is hard to say.
It just happens to have a 260bhp boxer engine and a limited-slip differential in the rear axle. The Forester STi was never officially sold here but so many have been imported, you won’t struggle to find one.
We found: 2004 Forester STi, 56,000 miles, £8000
And there concludes the end of our list. We hope you've liked some of the alternatives we've thrown up. But the question everyone still on everyone's mind is...why? Why have SUVs become so popular?
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Why so popular?
Crossovers and SUVs have become as popular as they have for a number of very good reasons that are difficult to refute, but also one or two that are not so logical.
Perhaps the best reason of all for choosing a taller car over a comparable hatchback is the loftier seating position, which gives a far better view of the road ahead and really can make you feel safer.
These cars are easier to get into and out of, they're less of a strain to load heavy bags into and, as anybody who has ever worn a skirt and tried to elegantly extract themselves from a very low car will tell you, better for personal modesty as well.
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Street credit
It must be acknowledged, however, that a good number of crossover and SUV buyers choose such cars because they have a status attached to them. They look more like prestigious 4x4s than a city car ever will, even if they’re actually not much bigger or any more expensive.
These cars do have their drawbacks, though. In fact, in engineering terms, they’re fundamentally compromised. Their frontal areas are greater, which has a very real impact on fuel efficiency. They are heavier than conventional hatchbacks but offer little more, if any, space inside, and they have higher centres of gravity as well.
What’s more, studies have shown that tall cars pose more of a risk to pedestrians. But buyers are voting with their chequebooks and it’s clear that for a great number of people, those compromises are easily overlooked.
So now you know why they're loved and what we think you should buy instead. But if you're still not convinced, if you still think an SUV is the thing for you, then we better give you some guidance:
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But if you must have a new SUV...
Categorising all of the new crossovers and SUVs that seem to appear at a rate of one a week is no small task, not least because these cars are actually designed to fill niches within niches. We split the affordable end of the crossover and SUV market into four segments: compact crossovers, compact SUVs, crossover hatchbacks and family SUVs.
As has already been mentioned, our pick of the compact crossovers right now is the Seat Arona (pictured), despite its bland interior and unremarkable handling. But it scores highly for refinement and interior space. The Renault Captur and Mazda CX-3 are highly commendable.
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Seat Arona - interior
Compact SUVs are a little bigger and perhaps a touch more rugged as well, with some degree of off-road ability. Best of the lot is the new Range Rover Evoque, which recently knocked the Volvo XC40 off the top spot. They lead the class ahead of the Mazda CX-5 and Volkswagen Tiguan.
Of the crossover hatchbacks – bigger than compact crossovers but unlikely to venture off road – the Seat Ateca is our favourite. It does everything a buyer in this sector could want it to do, with plenty of cabin space, attractive styling, good economy and affordability all on its side. The Volkswagen T-Roc and Nissan Qashqai are the best of the rest.
Family SUVs are the do-it-all cars. As well as being very well suited to family life, they’re comfortable on longer journeys, they can be used for towing and they have some appetite for a muddy track as well. The Audi Q5 is the best, a classy all-rounder that scores well for comfort and refinement. It just about keeps its nose ahead of the BMW X3 and Jaguar F-Pace.
So, if you must buy an SUV, take our advice and consider the ones we've highlighted.
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