Despite the best attempts of the ‘green’ lobby, tax-grabbing politicians and greedy fuel companies, UK
customers for SUVs and 4x4s have basically put two fingers in the air and still continued buying such vehicles
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during 2007.
Official figures from the SMMT show that sales of SUV, 4x4 and dual-purpose vehicles actually increased last year
to 176,290 registrations, an increase of 485 units. This makes it the fourth largest sales sector in the UK’s new car
market.
The continued demand was due in part to the increased number of models and the diversity in size of vehicles
introduced to the market in 2007. The overall new car market in the UK for 2007 was up by 2.5 per cent to
2,404,007 registrations with fuel-efficient diesel models increasing their share of the market to 40.2 per cent.
Private sales also increased by 1.2 per cent to gain a 43.5 per cent share of the new car market.
The car industry has managed to lower the average new car CO2 figure by 1.4 per cent to 164.9g/km but is still
currently quite happy to feed the demand by customers to buy the vehicle of their choice and to date customers,
for the time being at least, have proved they still want to buy more and more SUVs.
SUVs, 4x4, call them what you will, come in a huge range of sizes and prices, from the big and expensive Range
Rovers, Mercedes-Benz GL, Audi Q7, BMW X5, Jeeps, through to medium sized Land Rover Freelanders, the Honda
CR4, Nissan X-Trail, more Jeeps, the emerging Korean Kia and Hyundai brands which include Sportage, Santa Fe
and Tuscon models, the new Peugeot 4007, Citroen C-Crosser and Mitsubishi Outlander stablemates and the
Toyota RAV4.
We also have the small SUVs such as the Jimny and of course working 4x4 Double Cabs such as the Nissan
Navara and Mitsubishi L200 ranges plus of course the farmer’s friend the Land Rover County workhorses. On top of
that there are now numerous cars and estates with all-wheel-drive.
Toyota has started 2008 by introducing high value, high specification additional models to their RAV4 range of
compact or mid-sized SUV range. These newcomers are expected to become the most popular variants in Europe’s
best selling SUV range.
Available with the choice of 2.0-litre petrol or 2.2-litre turbodiesel engine options the additional XT-R models as
they are known are priced from £19,995 to £21,245.
The added value for the customer in terms of specification is around £1,565 and these versions come with
Bluetooth phone connectivity, cruise control, rear parking sensors, 17-inch alloy wheels and rear privacy glass.
Only the desirable options such as leather upholstery and satellite navigation are missing.
The RAV4 range with 2.0-litre petrol and 2.2-litre diesel engine options for 2008 starts at £19,095 and rises
through to £27,045 for the T180 2.2 D-4D 177bhp flagship model.
European sales of the RAV4 for 2007 increased by 23 per cent to 125,000 vehicles and in the UK sales maintained
their levels at just over 11,000 units. Retail customers in the UK account for 6,300 RAV4 purchases with the
remainder going to company, fleet and business user-chooser customers. Around 75 per cent of all RAV4s sold in
the UK are diesel models with the D-4D 140 (134bhp) engine being the most popular.
In the UK’s compact SUV sector the top selling range is the Honda CR-V with 26 per cent of the market. Next comes
the Freelander with 23 per cent, the RAV4 with 13 per cent and the Nissan X-Trail with 8 per cent.