Roomy and comfortable, versatile yet affordable, maneuverable and increasingly fuel-efficient, compact crossover SUVs sell to hundreds of thousands of customers annually, filling needs as diverse as workaday family cars to useful premium vehicles to an amateur handyman's everyday commuter. They're not heavy-duty, but they offer the all-wheel-drive and elevated ground clearance that separate them from station wagons, and the usefully expansive interiors that help them stand apart from sedans.
Standards are high. Buyers increasingly resist tradeoffs – in addition to being tall and roomy, these crossovers are asked to ride and handle like cars. Oh, and by the way, please give them enough capability to plow through some mud or snow. And they should get 30 miles per gallon on the highway. And they should have luxury-grade interiors with all the latest gadgets. But still not too expensive.
Difficult as that seems to achieve, this comparison's nine crossovers offer great promise. Loaded up with all-wheel-drive, heated leather seats and big sunroofs, they still come in under $30,000 and are rated for between 27 and 32 miles per gallon on the highway. Many of the vehicles in this class look like winners. That said, the different models were each designed with particular tradeoffs that will fit some buyers better than others – style versus utility, ride versus handling, luxury versus value, and others. Some of these cars, too, have flaws that keep them clearly short of that high bar.
This comparison relies on test drives and analyses of price, safety and fuel economy of nine compact crossover SUVs at the heart of the market to pick winners and losers for different types of customers, and to rank them from top to bottom overall. The tested cars come nicely equipped but are powered by their base four-cylinder engines rather than a pricier and less fuel-efficient V6 or a turbo. Most have sticker prices around $30,000 and are projected to sell in the upper $20,000s after haggling and discounts.
