TOP 5 BARGAIN 4x4s

Genuine all-surface ability, great prices

1

DACIA DUSTER

Best-value 4x4 by a mile; quite possibly the best-value anything on the planet. You can get a 4x4 Duster from £18,595 (Comfort Blue dCi 115), or a basic front-driver for seven grand less. It’s not glamorous or exciting, but it works just fine in a no-frills, user-friendly, wellbuilt, fuss-free kind of way. And it’s pretty handy o -road.

2 FIAT PANDA

The Panda range includes various models that look like 4x4s but aren’t, and a couple that actually are. Pay a bit more for the Cross with extra butchness and more ground clearance, but the basic TwinAir 4x4, from £14,980, is made for cobblestoned village roads and that slippery trail down to the lake, or your local equivalent.

3

MINI COUNTRYMAN

Defies categorisation but works a treat on the road – and, to a refreshing extent, o it too. Merges elements of classic

Mini style and nimble handling with BMW X1 underpinnings. Fourwheel-drive versions start from £28,020 (Cooper All4 Classic); stretch to £32,980 and you can get a plug-in hybrid.

4 JEEP RENEGADE

Family-friendly practicality from £23k, and handy o -road in Trailhawk guise, although that’s a steep £32,225, or there’s a plug-in hybrid. Shares much of its hardware with the Fiat 500X, but in the UK we don’t get the Fiat with all-wheel drive.

5

SUZUKI IGNIS

We could have filled the whole Top 5 with decent allwheel-drive Suzukis. If you don’t do serious o -roading the sweet spot on the value/ size/capability nexus is probably the Allgrip version of the Ignis SZ5: for £16,749 you get four-wheel drive and a plucky mild-hybrid engine. Funny looking thing, to be sure, but ready for a minor apocalypse.