SUV shoot-out: the verdict

Six of the most rugged and capable ladder-frame SUVs set out on a thrilling expedition across the Cape and through the challenging terrain of the Karoo. Car Magazine provides its assessment of each vehicle.

- 

Assembled at the viewpoint atop the demanding Ouberg Pass, reflecting on the journey from a now-distant landmark on the horizon to this spectacular vantage point, it became clear that this trip couldn't take on a traditional shoot-out format.

From the Mahindra on a corrugated section of the route mimicking a mongoose frantically wrangling a snake, before calmly resuming normal duties as the road surface smoothed out, to the GWM crushing loose terrain in stealth mode, and the 'been there, done that' Isuzu never looking ruffled, each of these products impressed while comfortably fulfilling the mandate of this segment: adventure.

PERFORMANCES AND IMPRESSIONS

Layers of deep-set dust rinsed from our persons and the vehicles, a team recap of our time spent on this journey revealed the Mitsubishi to be the product most felt would welcome a reset in terms of feeling its relative age against the competition.