Say what you will about SUVs, but people love them, and there’s a plenty good chance your next car will be one if you’ve got a few kids. So, if you’re in the market and you want to find something capable, then you need to check out SUV Battle on YouTube.
This channel is great—a real gem of automotive YouTube, especially considering the popularity of SUVs these days. Many of the other videos compare SUVs of the same model year, but this one compares vehicles from 2008 to 2019, which not only gives you a make and model comparison but a comparison across the years.
SUV Battle takes these cars out onto a snow-covered off-road area to put them through the test. There aren’t any crazy obstacles, but there are some hills and dips, some water crossings—pretty light but standard fare. But it does give you a really great idea of what these vehicles are capable of.
Here are the nine SUVs in question, from weakest engine to most powerful:
- 2019 Hyundai Santa Fe
- 2014 Chevrolet Captiva
- 2019 Kia Sorento V6
- 2008 Honda Pilot
- 2008 Subaru Tribeca
- 2014 Toyota Highlander V6
- 2019 Mitsubishi Outlander V6
- 2018 Skoda Kodiaq
- 2013 Ford Explorer
You can watch the full video below:
Clocking in at 30 minutes, this videos is a longer one, but it’s worth taking the time to watch. I especially enjoyed watching the evolution of SUV technology going on through this video. In the past decade or so, SUVs have gone from being predominately a form of large family transportation to a vehicle that can kind of do it all. Automakers are designing their SUVs to take on bigger obstacles, tow more weight, and just overall do more things. They’ve always been capable, but now they’re heading further into off-road territory.