Top 10 Best family SUVs in the world

1. Audi Q5
2. Land Rover Discovery Sport
3. BMW X3
4. Jaguar F-Pace
5. Skoda Kodiaq
6. Mercedes-Benz GLC
7. Alfa Romeo Stelvio
8. Volvo XC60
9. Seat Tarraco
10. Kia Sorento

10 Best family SUVs

It’s hard to pinpoint flaws with such a stylish and consummate all-rounder as the Audi Q5, however rather anodyne handling is what will prevent it from genuinely appealing to keener drivers. This limitation hasn’t prevented the Q5 from duplicating the sales success of its predecessor, though, which was a car that became the best-seller in its segment in practically every country in which it was marketed.

Although an expensive alternative with a big options list, the Q5 is quiet, practical and appealing, with superb driving refinement and material finish. And if you prefer your SUVs with a bit more style and less practicality, there’s now a swoopy-roofed Sportback version as well.

The Q5 underwent a very wide-reaching revamp for 2020, with efficiency-boosted mild-hybrid engines going in under the bonnet, some new digital technologies going into the cabin and bigger a trapezoidal grille going onto the front end. The big-selling 40 TDI diesel version got a 14bhp power boost as part of that modification, and it remains a smooth, comfortable, assertive-performing and easy-driving family car.

The 50 TFSIe plug-in hybrid is a particularly smooth operator, with its electric motor and 2.0-litre turbo petrol four-pot combining to produce just shy of 300bhp, while the 55 TFSIe ups that to quite close to 400. Electric-only range and CO2 emissions have dropped down for both variants of the car, making them more competitive offerings on benefit-in-kind tax than they used to be.

The Discovery Sport may be the entry-level Land Rover in the dealership range, but it isn’t short on characteristic Land Rover capability, comfort or charm.

Facelifted for 2019, the Discovery Sport now sits on the same PTA platform as the Range Rover Evoque but hasn’t missed out on any of the features that we enjoyed about the original. It’s still higher-riding than many of its opponents, allows better visibility and 4×4 capabilities than many, and feels more like a regular SUV to drive than some while still handling in an astonishingly neat fashion.

It boasts a practical cabin – a big selling point in this sector being the available of seven seats for those who require them – that has now been given a much needed lift in premium appeal and also furnished with Land Rover’s latest Pivi infotainment set-up.

Its petrol and diesel engines are now complemented by 48V mild-hybrid architecture in a bid to increase fuel economy, but the very sleek P300e plug-in hybrid version is the stand-out variant, with its fairly long electric-only range.

If you want a family SUV with more adaptability and off-road ruggedness than the class average, the Discovery Sport delivers that with very few associated drawbacks.

What’s this: a decent-handling mid-range SUV? Before BMW started about manufacturing SUVs, the idea would have been practically ludicrous, but the X3 has handling appeal down.

The X3 offers powertrains with plenty of power and performance. The smaller diesel offering can be a touch unrefined, but the multi-cylinder M40d and M40i are both quick and smooth.

And while X3 xDrive30e PHEV may not have shone quite as bright as its conventional siblings because it couldn’t be ordered with the all-important adaptive M suspension (which carries with it mass-checking adaptive dampers), since the 2021 facelift, that has changed. In all other aspects, petrol-electric X3 is slick and pleasing to drive, although it isn’t the most tax-efficient PHEV of its class, due to a somewhat modest electric-only range.

The X3 comes a close-run third behind the classier Q5 and more useful Discovery Sport, then.

Standard equipment is a touch cruel on some trim levels, but the car’s perceived quality is above that of practically all others, and its on-road manners are impossible to criticize.

Jaguar’s first SUV debuted to market with generally outstanding handling back in 2016, as well as with plenty of cabin space and looks that shot it to the top of Jaguar’s list as its best-selling model until it was eclipsed by the smaller E-Pace SUV.

There are one or two elements that distract a little from the overall driving experience, among them some undistinguished four-cylinder diesel engines, a slow automatic transmission and a slightly twitchy, noisy ride in certain configurations. But Jaguar did much for the appeal of the F-Pace as part of its major mid-life facelift in 2021, with a much richer interior and a vastly improved infotainment system being added; and an expanded range of engines that now includes a torquey six-cylinder mild-hybrid diesel and a six-pot plug-in hybrid petrol.

For balanced in-town and out-of-town driving, the D300 diesel would still be our preference, but the mild-hybridised four-pot diesels have better drivability than they used to.

The go-faster F-Pace SVR is an utter riot, too, and is a wonderful example of a brilliantly built performance SUV filled with V8 drama.

The Kodiaq is our top family SUV not to come from a premium manufacturer, and it undercuts even the cheapest of the plusher choices on this list by a not-insignificant figure.

So what are you sacrificing? A chunk of premium-feel materials for a start, however everything feels well bolted together. The top four SUVs on this list all have better-balanced handling and ride quality than the Kodiaq, but not all of them provide a third row of seats.

Aside from the slightly over-firm and remote way in which the Kodiaq drives, though, it’s an impressive car in most ways.

The second half of our top 10 is where the handling factor sorts the class-leaders from the also-rans.

The new GLC, with its well-appointed and luxurious-feeling cabin, merits its spot in the top 10, but its numb steering means it’s far from the first choice for keen drivers. It’s more car-like to drive than many of the full-blown SUVs on our list, but it also rides less serenely than a Mercedes-Benz should on ordinary steel coil suspension, making it harder to recommend in base spec.

On optional air suspension, though, it’s among the most laid-back, effectively comfort-oriented cars in the class, and it can be had in mechanical flavours as divergent as the GLC 300e petrol-electric PHEV, the GLC 300de diesel-electric PHEV and the GLC 63 S V8 hot-rod SUV. Worth considering.

Alfa Romeo used the base and engines that built the Giulia saloon, added extra ride height, a raised hip point and four-wheel-drive technology, creating a fine-handling SUV in the shape of the Stelvio.

Remarkable handling and classic Alfa Romeo film-star looks come as standard, with a robust if gruff diesel engine to boot. Unfortunately, Alfa’s focus on strong handling has resulted in a slightly restless ride on bad UK roads and parts of the cabin components feel basic and cheap – just as they do on the Giulia.

A makeover during 2020 improved matters ever so slightly in this respect and introduced a new infotainment system and improved driver aids, but it will still take a keen eye to detect the changes between this and the original.

It’s priced relatively competitively, though, if not quite to the level that it was upon its inception three years ago. It’s without question one for the keener driver but perhaps not one for the dynamically indifferent SUV fanatic.

The XC60 was the safest car ever tested by Euro NCAP upon its launch in 2017, and all this time later, it’s still one of the most attractive family SUVs now on sale.

The XC60 isn’t the last word in driver appeal, but as a fast, comfy, easy-to-use family wagon, there’s plenty to recommend here. Volvo has updated its engine line-up, too, so that all XC60 versions now offer some sort of electrification. The B -series petrol and diesel vehicles now have 48V mild-hybrid architecture for fractional reductions in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, but it’s the T6 and T8 Recharge PHEVs that provide the greatest potential for low-cost operating. They don’t have quite as much electric-only range as rivals, though.

The Tarraco is Seat’s first try at a full-sized SUV, and it’s a pretty good-looking one. Being a Volkswagen Group product, this Spanish SUV shares nearly everything with the Skoda Kodiaq, albeit, unlike its sibling, the Tarraco comes fitted with seven seats as standard across the range.

It seems a bit more incisive and agile than other SUVs of its size, although this sharper handling does appear to come at the sacrifice of rolling refinement and sheer comfort. In a car such as this, comfort and refinement should undoubtedly be of greater priority.

Still, the interior is finely built and the petrol and diesel motors are impressively tuned. It’s priced very competitively, too.

Well, the Sorento has certainly come a long way from the dull, boxy initial model that popped up in 2002, hasn’t it? On design appeal alone, this new fourth-generation model easily has what it takes to mix it with the actual luxury competitors in its class.

Thanks to its huge interior and seven-seat arrangement, it receives big points for being one of the most spacious, practical and versatile automobiles on this list. With an appealingly inexpensive price, it would seem on the surface that there’s very little that this attractive Korean SUV can’t achieve.

There is a but, though. Its conventional hybrid powertrain isn’t quite capable of delivering the advantages in fuel efficiency you might hope to see during regular everyday driving, and dynamically the car is rather mediocre. It’s smooth and comfortable enough at a steady cruise, but dig a little deeper and it begins to show itself up, particularly where body control, ride sophisitcation and steering feel are concerned.

Still, as a practical, well-made, well-equipped and moderately priced family SUV that’s pleasant to drive, it has a lot going for it.

The diesel variants give decent refinement and performance, too, and the PHEV is more assured and drivable than the normal hybrid likewise.

It would undoubtedly be more of a head-over-heart option than any other automobile on this list, but there’s nothing much wrong with that.