Top 10 best small SUVs 2018

One in three cars bought in the UK in 2018 will be an SUV, with the market awash with high-riders that are spacious yet decent to drive when the occasion arises. Find out which make our top 10 list
3 May 2018

In 2018, around one in three registrations in the UK and Europe will be SUVs. It's a segment that has been growing steadily for years but has only now started to pick up real pace, prompting manufacturers to build entire ranges of high-riders.

These are just below average on the size chart but are the most popular, with the segment home to several brands' best-selling SUVs. Customers expect Tardis-like space on the inside and a commanding driving position, combined with the compactness of an average family hatchback to keep palms unsweaty in town and on narrow lanes.

Volvo’s first attempt at a compact SUV sibling for its established XC60 and XC90 models is a real success, and in the XC40 the Swedish marque has given us a car with the sort of instant kerbside appeal you’d expect of a class-leading act.

With a design sufficiently charismatic and alluring to bring younger family buyers into Volvo showrooms, the XC40 backs up its funky exterior with a cabin of laudable richness and quality. While this isn’t the most practical car in the compact SUV class, it certainly has plenty of luxury-car ambience, not to mention all the in-car technology you’d hope for.

The XC40’s ride and handling represents Volvo at its best and the small family 4x4 at its most relaxing. Rather than chasing other premium brands for driver appeal, the Volvo is happy to play the comfortable, refined, convenient and easy-to-use option – and it’s an effective one. If an SUV’s mission is to lift its driver above the hustle and bustle and filter out the pain from the daily grind, none does it better.

This is arguably the best-looking SUV on the market and objectively much more refined than its predecessor, with respectable fuel economy and an unusual level of handling verve for this class.

Our Verdict

Volvo XC40

Volvo XC40

Volvo’s XC40 arrives in the crowded premium compact SUV segment and hits the right note with design, practicality and driving style

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The CX-5's interior is both solid and quietly stylish and offers plenty of cabin and boot space. CO2 emissions are a little on the high side, while the engine pumping it out is torquey if you opt for the diesel, but no world-beater. Prices start a little higher than for some SUV rivals, but standard equipment is more generous.

The CX-5 offers a healthy mix of fun, frugality and family friendly space, and deserves serious consideration from buyers who want a car that does a little bit of everything.

The Tiguan is Volkswagen's third-best-selling model after the Golf and Polo hatchbacks. It's flexible, spacious, solidly built, comfortable and refined. With just a little more driver engagement, it would be a formidable package.

It's a pricey option and its interior isn't particularly interesting, but what it lacks in visual drama it more than makes up for in solidity. The car's driving experience is a little bit spec-sensitive: with the better, more powerful engines and adaptive suspension, the Tiguan performs and handles very well, and rides with all the sophistication you'll want - but the more basic versions are ordinary.

A premium offering? Perhaps not in every sense, but it's a cut above most cars in the growing compact SUV segment.

If the second-generation Q3 looks familiar, that’s because the design is heavily influenced by the aggression of Audi’s sloping-roof Q8 flagship. And along with a growth spurt for the wheelbase – freeing up much-needed space for rear-seat passengers – even the base 1.5-litre 35 TFSI Sport now comes generously equipped, with LED lights, MMI Navigation Plus, a 10.2in Virtual Cockpit and rear parking sensors as standard.

But for all its clean-cut sophistication, early impressions suggest this chassis doesn’t ride with quite the same suppleness as that of the class-leading Volvo XC40. Neither does its handling. Though unflappable and incisive enough, it doesn't match up to involvement you’ll enjoy in Mazda’s CX-5. 

Land Rover's 'baby Rangie' has been a sales phenomenon, but anything with that Range Rover badge can command a significant premium.

That's the case here: the Evoque is one of the more expensive cars in this class and isn't among the largest. However, it has got buckets of desirability, it handles well and it looks as good as it did the day it was revealed. You'll pay more in price, fuel and tax, though, because it's a little thirstier than its rivals. A slightly softer suspension set-up would make a notable difference in ride quality, which isn't as comfortable as you might expect.

The Evoque isn't a class leader, but it's a compelling choice and a car that proved how far design appeal can go in this segment for buyers who are clearly willing to overlook its shortcomings.

Jaguar's follow-up act for the successful F-Pace SUV will certainly catch your eye when you first see it. As you’ll likely guess from the look of its curvaceous bodywork, it’s not the most practical compact SUV in the segment, but the richness of its interior for the most part convinces you that it feels like the luxury prospect you took it for.

Some underwhelming four-cylinder diesel engines and a slow-shifting nine-speed automatic gearbox are foremost among the reasons why the car fails to deliver the sporting driving experience you expect of a Jaguar – although both perform smoothly, and more than adequately, most of the time.

The E-Pace’s handling, too, is less distinguished than it might be. Though top-of-the-line turbocharged petrol versions of the car are certainly athletic and exciting enough to drive, there’s less to praise mid-range versions of the car for – so much so that, if you covered up the emblem on the steering wheel, you’d be hard pushed to identify that you were driving a Jaguar at all with many of them.

The CR-V has been around longer than most others on this list, yet it remains something of a safe choice, thanks to its fantastic practicality, reliability, economy and ease of use.

It's not the most exciting compact SUV, but it has a flexible interior and is well-built and frugal. That said, the dashboard could benefit from being simplified, and automatic models are considerably thirstier than their manual counterparts.

The C-RV is a little long in the tooth compared with the rest of the segment, so when its replacement arrives late this year, it'll have some catching up to do. 

In the hotly contested SUV market, the 3008's sharp looks help it to stand out from the crowd - even if its engine refinement, handling and interior space don't. What it lacks in handling verve, though, it makes up for with generous standard equipment, and with a smattering of rich, high-quality materials inside.

It'll take many drivers some time to get used to the car's downsized steering wheel, which seems even more incongruous in an SUV than it does in smaller models, and while Peugeot's i-Cockpit layout is eye-catching, it's also more widely ergonomically flawed.

The 3008 is fairly competitively priced, but doesn't offer as much interior space as rivals.

Several of the cars in this class offer an intriguing leftfield take on downsized, high-rise motoring luxury, but none do it quite like the DS7 Crossback. This new SUV flagship has ornate (though derivative) exterior styling, is upholstered in lavishly upmarket materials and has the imaginative flourish of a car built to stand out.

To drive, the car stands out for as many of the wrong reasons as the right ones. Its digital instruments are unusual but hard to read, its perceived quality isn’t as high as it might be across the board, and while it rides softly and can be comfortable and refined at times, at other times it can be brittle-riding, remote-handling and imprecise to place.

With closer attention-to-detail to the finer points of the driving experience, the DS7 could have ranked up there with the XC40, which is a car of a similar type, but executed much more successfully. As it stands, it’s a car of untapped potential.

Ford's reputation for decent handling isn't sullied by the prospect of an SUV. The Kuga is one of the keen driver's go-to choices in this segment, although the rest of the package isn't quite so tempting. It's cheaper than key rivals such as the CX-5 and Tiguan, though it doesn't ride as comfortably as some and isn't as mechanically refined.

Likewise, the car's twin-clutch automatic gearbox isn't much cop, and you can get more room for your money elsewhere. Since its facelift, standard equipment has taken a boost, too - although exterior styling that's been made unusually fussy doesn't do much to promote the car above also-ran status.

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