Kinsey Report: Crossovers, big and small

Now here's an interesting couple of categories. Crossovers have taken the world by storm, South Africa included. It seems the moment a family has a baby on the way the sensibly sized family hatch/saloon is thrown back at the dealer in exchange for an SUV in one size or another. If anyone can shed some light on why, we'd love to hear it. Anyway…

Included are:

• Ford Eco Sport
• Toyota Avanza
• Peugeot 2008
• Renault Duster
• Fiat 500L
• Nissan Juke
• Suzuki SX4

We'll be arriving at a Renault showroom should the miracle of childbirth rear its head in our lives, thanks to a proper 4×4 version lurking within the range; which we like for a weekend in the (proper) bush, or general pavement hopping. If you're more of a city slicker, the Peugeot 2008 is something a little different and comes with all sorts of fancy tricks.

From the Kinsey Report – Compact crossovers

The Ford Eco Sport 1.0T wins this category – another Indian-built vehicle – and this new high tech vehicle has a 3 cylinder 999cc turbocharged engine producing over 90Kw. From the point of view of this pricing study though, its main strength lies in reasonably-priced crash parts to move it into top spot. Second is an old favourite, the Toyota Avanza, almost at opposite ends of the technology field, which is able to remain competitive in the service parts costs and is comfortably ahead of the rest in the prices of its repair parts. Peugeot 2008 comes in third, also assisted by good crash parts prices.

The crossover category covers a vast array of what we term soft-roaders, all the way to some heavy duty 4×4 vehicles, and everything in between. Some even have 7 seats, so even more kiddies can ruin the back of your car.

Included are:

• Toyota Fortuner
• Kia Sportage
• Hyundai ix35
• Nissan X Trail
• Chevrolet Trailblazer
• Toyota RAV4
• Audi Q3
• Nissan Qashqai
• Mitsubishi ASX
• Jeep Compass
• Land Rover Discovery 4
• Chevrolet Captiva
• Honda CRV
• BMW X3
• Jeep Grand Cherokee

Now this one has started a war in the BizNews Motoring team; we may even be looking for a divorce lawyer. Safe to say we need to split this one out into some sub-sections before the start of WW3. In the lower end of the category we like the Mitsubishi ASX and Nissan X Trail. Reason being that they're exceptionally solid, proven vehicles that offer great value for money.

Then at the upper end is where the arguments broke out. We have some staunch LR fans among us, who of course feel the Disco 4 is untouchable. There's one lone voice for the Fortuner, but the rest of the team quickly dismissed the claim as foolish. While on the other side of the camp sit a handful of Jeep Grand Cherokee believers; who have tested the off-road capability and found it to be hugely impressive, while on solid tarmac little is left to be desired. 

We'll just leave it at that.

From the Kinsey Report – Crossovers 

This huge section probably accounts for a similar size slice of the market as the family favourites and is certainly one of the fastest growing segments of the market, as a trip to any shopping mall would confirm, fuel costs notwithstanding.

The Toyota Fortuner dominates this category with a massive overall lead of over R30,000 on second place, but one has to bear in mind that the Fortuner in the survey is an automatic and hence does not include clutch and flywheel prices. The second-placed Kia Sportage and 3^rd placed Hyundai IX 35 both have expensive flywheels – R10,000 and R14,000 a pop – which if they are taken out of the equation, tend to narrow the gap a bit. Very affordable crash parts prices however, still gives the Fortuner an unassailable advantage over its rivals.