The 50 Greatest SUVs of All TIme

You’ll be forgiven if this looks like an economy car wearing a fiberglass backpack. That’s basically what it is. French contractor Matra took the pickup version of a little front-driver called the Simca 1100 and turned it into the Rancho. In production from 1977 to 1983, it was extraordinarily ahead of its time, a Range Rover for the masses. Matra made a bunch of different versions, including a “Grand Raid” with traction boards, a winch, and a limited-slip differential. There was also a fabric-sided “Discoverable,” which looks a lot like a certain Land Rover a few years to come. — Raphael Orlove

More than any other SUV, it was the 1990s Explorer that made the soft-roader SUV mainstream. It was comfortable and rounded and urbane, unlike any other major automaker’s production trucks. If anything, it was too successful at getting car drivers to switch over to what we’d now call a crossover. In a rollover scandal that rocked the industry, the “Exploder” taught the world (the hard way) that tall, tippy, body-on-frame SUVs couldn’t handle road driving like a low-slung car. — RO

Porsche’s most ardent fans weren’t exactly thrilled when Porsche started making SUVs. It didn’t help that its 1999 announcement started off by saying that the company was cancelling its top-level Le Mans program to divert staff over to developing the original Cayenne. A few decades on, however, and Porsche has proven that it can make an SUV in keeping with the marque. None is better than the baby of the bunch, the Macan, in its high-output turbo version. It’s basically an overgrown hot hatchback. Porsche fans never should have worried. — RO

In 2016, two years before Rolls-Royce, Bentley Motors set the bar for ultra-luxury SUVs with the Bentayga, responding to demand by its clientele and availing themselves of opportunities in an expanding global wealth market. Initially powered by Bentley’s 6.0-liter, twin-turbo W12 engine, the model became available with a 4.0-liter, twin-turbo V8 in 2018. A plug-in hybrid inline-6 was introduced in 2019, and rest-of-world customers could even get a Diesel-powered model. The original design received a facelift in 2020, but the inimitable Bentayga stance and profile remain undiminished. The 2026 Bentayga Speed is the highest-performance variant ever, with a 4.0-liter, twin-turbo V8 that makes 641 hp, more powerful than the W12, which was discontinued for the 2024 model year. — Robert Ross

If there was an automotive version of Icarus, it’d be the mid-2000s Volkswagen Touareg V10 TDI. The top trim ran about $80,000. You got a luxury car interior, impeccable quality, and every feature imaginable, from hideaway tailgate struts to air suspension to that 10-cylinder diesel powerful enough to tow a 747. But all those luxury car trimmings mean luxury car bills. Replacing the starter is an engine-out procedure, and something as simple as replacing the tailgate struts involves taking the back half of the truck apart. But if there’s an SUV equivalent to the Bugatti Veyron, this is it. — RO

Although the original Jimny never officially came to America, Suzuki’s little SUV has made a big impression in the global market. Since 1970 and still going strong, it has earned praise as an economical off-roader able to go places larger SUVs can’t handily navigate. Engines have ranged from air-cooled twins to the current 1.5-liter inline-4. Suzuki’s AllGrip Pro 4WD system is rugged and practical, making the Jimny an affordable off-road workhorse. Marketed as the Suzuki Samurai in North America in 1985, the model was a hit with serious off-road hobbyists, although the brand disappeared from the United States and Canada in 1995. Now in its fourth generation, nearly three million examples have been built. — RR

Maligned from the outset by the automotive press and the public alike, Pontiac’s poor Aztek was the butt of innumerable insults, in part for its ungainly appearance and probably because it was also ahead of its time. Made from 2001-2005 and marketed by GM’s now-defunct Pontiac division, the Aztek was among the first crossovers, and was marketed as a “sport recreational vehicle” to Gen-X buyers as “Quite possibly the most versatile vehicle on the planet.” Certainly, it was among the most derided. Edmunds.com awarded the Aztek winner of the “100 Worst Cars of All Time,” not just because of its hideous looks, but because it “destroyed an 84-year-old automaker.” Presciently, the last Pontiac rolled off the line in 2010. — RR

It’s easy to lionize the Land Cruiser or the many Land Rovers seen as off-road idols. But Nissan got in on the game, too, with the ultra-tough Patrol. The Patrol has done it all, from desert racing to serious military duty. Why it doesn’t have a better reputation is a mystery. Maybe it’s because Americans never got a chance to buy most of the generations, only getting the model rebadged and softened as the Armada in the Recession Era. Though the current version is built in Japan, it has gotten so big that Nissan doesn’t sell it in its home market. — RO

The first Lexus, the LS400, was a moonshot. Its development faced the highest standard and spared no expense in time or cost. It was a testament to Toyota’s ambition during Japan’s Bubble Era economic boom. The LX450, by contrast, was a reflection of the general height of quality already across Toyota. Debuting in 1995, the LX450 was fundamentally a retrimmed Land Cruiser, but a Land Cruiser was so well-made that nobody cared. These LX450s remain sought after today, with air suspension that hunkers down on the highway and shoots skyward for the final rutted miles to your country cabin. — RO

Isuzu had a successful run in the Paris-Dakar rallies of the ‘90s with its boxy Bighorn SUV (Americans got it as the Trooper). At the end of the decade, the company put all of that racing tech on sale. It dug out an early ‘90s concept car and put it into production as the Vehicross. It looked bizarre, but it had real racing pedigree. And those bulbous body panels were made using low-cost ceramic dies, perfect for producing low-volume vehicles. Isuzu only made 5,958 Vehicrosses. That’s how many stampings Isuzu got before those dies warped. — RO

To call the Toyota FJ40 a cult object is no understatement, so revered is Japan’s most highly esteemed SUV, one of the most accomplished off-road vehicles ever made. Built from 1960-1984 (and until 2001 in Brazil), Toyota’s box-on-wheels took the form of an SUV or pickup truck with two or four doors, so versatile was the platform. Its robust 4×4 drivetrain established the FJ40 as a staple sidekick on African safaris, Andean climbs, and treks to places ordinary vehicles wouldn’t dare to tread. Much was down to Toyota’s reliable F-Series inline-6 engine, which, like Aesop’s tortoise, never failed to soldier on. — RR

The original Delica wasn’t so different from any number of other delivery vans on sale in postwar Japan, but by the boom years of the 1980s, it transformed into something more interesting. Mitsubishi combined a practical unibody with the four-wheel drive technology it had been developing in the Pajero, and cracked the code for a go-anywhere super van. They’re tall, narrow, tippy, and slow, but with a bash bar and some off-road tires, these have become the default choice for bugging out way past where the pavement ends. — RO

At first glance, a time traveler from 2012 would assume that the Rivian R1S was a Tesla. The styling cues that made the Model S a breakthrough hit – non-aggressive design without reliance on gas-burning conventions – are present in this EV startup’s breakthrough SUV. But Tesla took a hard left with its first SUV and truck, the gullwing Model X and the refrigerator Cybertruck. Rivian stepped up with a wonderfully understated R1S, offering more range and performance than anyone might have expected. A triple-motor model will outpace a supercar to sixty and cruise well past 300 miles on a charge. — RO

It’d be wrong to call the Lincoln Navigator the first luxury SUV, though it did beat the Escalade to market. By the nature of their size and cost, SUVs had become luxury goods. In the ‘90s, even a Land Cruiser or a Montero was an aspirational purchase, though they were fairly basic inside. It was the Navigator that first built out an SUV purely for comfort, with its air suspension and full leather interior. Was it basically a Ford Expedition with a Lincoln grille? Maybe physically. In spirit, it kicked off a luxury SUV boom still in play today. — RO

The “Civilian Jeep” is just that: the diminutive go-anywhere WWII four-wheeler civilized enough to make its way off dealership lots. You could judge its importance by how many car companies have built one under license (or copied it outright), from Mitsubishi to Land Rover to Ssangjong to UAZ to Beijing-Jeep. The basic design is about as simple and as durable as a 4×4 can get. That Americans have turned them into the foundational recreational vehicle, for driving off-road just for fun, is one of our great social achievements. — RO

Citroën’s 2CV was the French equivalent of Volkswagen’s “Beetle,” with more than 5.1 million of all models (mostly sedans and vans) made from 1948-1990. The name “Deux Chevaux” translates to two horsepower, the original car’s taxable horsepower rating in France, though actually, the tiny 2-cylinder, air-cooled engine produced more than 33 hp at the end of its run. As rare as the 2CV was common is the Citroën 2CV 4×4 Sahara, with just 694 examples built from 1960-1967. Its price, twice that of a regular 2CV, was due to it having two engines—one in front and the other in back. Designed primarily for off-road desert terrain, it featured two fuel tanks, two ignitions, and other novel details that make it the most collectible 2CV of them all. — RR

In the mid-2000s, Audi’s 24 Hours of Le Mans program was racking up wins, and then it switched to diesel. It was completely unprecedented, but it worked! Just as the gas ones did, diesel Audis dominated Le Mans. The R8 sports car celebrated those early wins. What were the later wins celebrated by? In 2009, Audi’s Quattro division jammed a handful of Le Mans-grade V12 diesels into the hulking Q7. It made 500 hp and a colossal 738 pound-feet of torque. The price tag was around $185,000, a celebration of the power of diesel, though not its economy. — RO

The Toyota RAV4 on showroom floors today might look a little common – it is regularly the best-selling “car” in the U.S. year after year – but the original model was quirky, cute, and not far removed from the prototype version that debuted at the 1989 Tokyo Motor Show. Even a conservative company like Toyota saw money to be made from a patently fun car. They’re more capable than you might think off-road, and you could buy one as a two-door convertible brand new. You can stuff the turbo drivetrain from the contemporary Celica GT-Four rally car into them, too. — RO

Basically an Impreza wearing a hat, the original Subaru Forester was both more capable than other unibody soft-roaders of the time and more economical than contemporary body-on-frame SUVs. It was a perfectly practical Subaru solution to a problem, turning out a fantastically roomy and compact platform. The visibility and space of its high-roof cabin are still admirable today. Oh, and Subaru did make an STI version. Even though it never made it to the States, that hasn’t stopped generations of Subaru fans from importing JDM parts to turn these things into street terrors. — RO

What trucks like the Lightning did in relation to the street scene of the ‘80s and ‘90s, the F-150 Raptor did for the Southwest’s high-speed off-roading boom in the late ‘00s. It took a few years, but Ford eventually put that formula to use on an SUV with the Bronco Raptor. With some very trick Fox suspension front and rear, the Braptor will blast over the desert floor at 70 miles an hour, just as it will crawl up rock walls on the King of the Hammers. It’s as extreme as a supercar, just built for a totally different discipline. — RO

Named after the largest gem-quality diamond ever discovered, it is no surprise that the Cullinan SUV, launched in 2018, is every inch a Rolls-Royce. Whichever way one chooses to employ the Cullinan, whether as a high-riding luxury cruiser or pressed into service as an off-road warrior, this motor car reflects its Rolls-Royce pedigree through thick (mud) and thin. With its 6.75-liter twin-turbocharged V12 engine, the 6,000-pound-plus Cullinan remains as composed as the Phantom, but is always ready to change from business attire to a Superman outfit when duty calls. Like Mohammed Ali—butterfly or bee—the Cullinan is a real heavyweight knockout. — RR

If the Mercedes Unimog is an oddity, Austrian manufacturer Steyr-Puch’s Pinzgauer (or Pinz as it is known to British soldiers) looks to be positively from outer space—or maybe the product of a high-school auto shop. Named for an Austrian cattle breed, the Pinzgauer prefigured Lamborghini’s use of bovine nomenclature for its Urus SUV by more than four decades. Four- and six-wheel variants, each less aerodynamic than a Brinks truck, were built from 1971-2007, with almost all built expressly for the military, though some have been marketed to civilians for use as campers and tourist vans. Hardcore off-road enthusiasts generally agree that the Pinzgauer is one of the most capable all-terrain vehicles ever made. — RR

The Lada Niva first rolled off assembly lines in the Soviet Union back in 1977, but the design remains so capable that it has been in production ever since. Like the FJ70 Toyota Land Cruiser, you can still buy a Niva brand new. It highlights the paragons of a real go-anywhere offroader. It is simple, durable, and fixable even in the most remote corners of the frozen steppe, or wherever else you might find one still in regular use. — RO

Eight years before American Motors Corporation was acquired by Chrysler in 1988, the company posed a real “What if?” question with the AMC Eagle. The world’s first “crossover” vehicle was, at the time, the only four-wheel drive passenger car produced in the United States, and in retrospect, one of the most innovative cars in American automotive history. Throughout its eight-year run, it was offered as a coupe, a Gremlin-like hatchback, sedan, station wagon, and convertible. Each model was designed to offer a luxury ride with the added benefits of raised ground clearance, rough-road capability, and all-weather traction afforded by a compact, AWD platform. Performance from the inline-4 or inline-6 engine was hardly brisk, but sufficient to get the job done. — RR

Cars like the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, the Nissan Skyline GT-R, and the Lancia Delta Integrale have etched their names into the history books as road-legal production cars with racecar tech. But there was another 1990s homologation special that’s easily overlooked. With 2,500 examples built from 1997 to 1999, the Pajero Evolution snuck Mitsubishi into the Dakar Rally’s production-based T2 class. It didn’t just get new wheels and shocks; the entire suspension design was changed to race-grade. At Dakar, it dominated. On the road (or off it), there’s nothing like it. — RO

Basically a Nissan Hardbody with an enclosed cabin, the original Pathfinder was straightforward and brilliant. In Japan, they were a luxury. Here in America, they survived for decades as long-suffering workhorses, enduring the worst kinds of abuse at the hands of eager teens buying high-mileage models on the (very) used market. Interestingly, Nissan switched out the pickup’s solid rear axle for independent rear suspension, like you got in the contemporary Patrol, which was only sold in overseas markets. — RO

It’s easy to point to the Land Rover as the original luxury SUV. But that wouldn’t be fair to its contemporary, the Jeep Wagoneer. When it debuted in the early 1960s, Kaiser-Jeep pitched it as a working truck. By the late ‘70s and into the early ‘90s, though, you could spend Lincoln or Cadillac money on one, complete with faux wood panels and real leather interior. Years before yuppie America ever heard of a Land Rover, the Wagoneer (and supersized Grand Wagoneer) introduced the country to the aspirational off-roader. — RO

The “XJ” Jeep Cherokee is an outlier. It might be one of the most iconic American vehicles of the 20th century, it might be a Rubicon-conquering offroader, it might be a paragon of high-mileage driving, but it’s not a body-on-frame truck. Designed in partnership with Renault back in the waning days of AMC, the XJ was a product of the 1970s energy crises, when a major American company wasn’t afraid to make something forward-thinking, efficient, and unconventional. They’re smaller than you think. — RO

Known by its model code E53, the first-generation BMW X5 established a landmark, opening a floodgate of opportunity for the brand in a world market newly embracing the concept of a luxury SUV. Launched for the 2000 model year and built until 2006, the original X5 leveraged much Rover technology, a brand which had been recently acquired by BMW. The E53 was followed by three subsequent generations, none of which can claim classic status, as can the original. Some of the most accomplished designers of the era collaborated on the first X5, including Chris Bangle and Frank Stephenson. Final versions were powered by a 4.8-liter V8 that made 355 hp, giving BMW’s first AWD off-roader some performance chops into the bargain. — RR

When Toyota introduced the 70-series Land Cruiser in 1984, it was a conventional body-on-frame truck, well-built, with a series of unkillable four-cylinder engines. But even as Toyota introduced successors to the model, it never axed the FJ70. Toyota still makes the thing. Why get rid of it? The FJ70 is compact and efficient enough to work anywhere, yet tough enough to survive the roughest and most remote conditions. The next time you’re in Dubai, tell your taxi to route you around the outskirts of town. You’ll see tons of them, brand new, ready for excursions into the deep desert. — RO

The first Willys MB was built for the war effort in 1941: a mechanical mule that was the price of a good lawnmower and even less sophisticated. Following the war’s end, the Willys CJ-2A—a military MB model sans artillery and powered by a 60 hp, 2.2-liter inline-4 engine with a 3-speed manual transmission—became the first mass-produced civilian vehicle equipped with four-wheel drive. About 215,000 examples were built from 1945-1949. The CJ-3A followed through 1953, replaced by the CJ-3B until 1968. The CJ-5, with more than 600,000 built from 1954-1983, is the most common of the old-time Jeeps, along with its successor, the CJ-7. Much like penguins, it takes a seasoned Jeep-spotter to distinguish one model from the another. — RR

The GMC Typhoon of 1992 and 1993 was a silly car. GM grafted a turbocharger onto its smallest little SUV and made a perfect street machine. Long before all-wheel drive made cars like the Porsche Turbo or the Nissan Skyline GT-R manageable on challenging roads, the Typhoon just used it to go fast in a straight line. Its sister car, the Syclone truck was quicker (in one metric at least) than a contemporary Ferrari. — RO

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Though absent from North American roads, Fiat’s Panda has enjoyed a ubiquitous presence in Europe and other parts of the world ever since its introduction in 1980. The first generation of this modest city car, built through 2002, was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro and Aldo Mantovani of Italdesign. Masterfully minimalistic and brilliantly versatile, innumerable variants were offered, including the Panda 4×4, a capable four-wheel-drive version launched in 1983. Its 965-cc engine made just 48 bhp, sufficient to do the job of an economical and unstoppable, all-terrain runabout. About 4.5 million first-generation Pandas of all types were made. Today, the Panda is in its fourth generation. — RR

There are many SUVs on this list that are the products of years of careful design thought, endless technical and engineering studies, and yet more millions expended on refinement. The Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat did not come out of that mold. It’s a Dodge Durango with a colossal supercharged V8 chucked under its rather high hood, good for more than 700 horsepower. It burbles at idle and the supercharger whines when you floor it. There’s something effortless about it, something so easily over the top. — RO

Chevrolet’s first-generation K5 Blazer was introduced in 1969 as a larger-sized competitor of Ford’s Bronco, Jeep’s CJ-5, and International’s Scout. Essentially a shortened, half-ton Chevy pickup truck with two doors and only available in a 4×4 platform, it was offered with a removable hard top and rear seat. The K5 name lasted through 1988, and rear-wheel-drive models were introduced early on. The second-generation models, made from 1973 to 1991, were followed by the third generation, made from 1992 to 1994. GMC marketed the Blazer as the GMC Jimmy from 1970 to 1991. It was replaced in 1992 by the GMC Yukon. Common to all Blazer/Jimmy generations was an available 350 ci V8 engine, with manual or automatic transmissions. — RR

In 1965, long before the acronym SUV was even coined, Ford launched its Bronco, one of the first off-roaders that could play in the dirt as well as on the asphalt. Owners gladly traded any stitch of luxury for a capable box-on-wheels that offered maximum utility and the tenacity of a pack mule. But by 1996, the Bronco had lost its minimalist appeal, gotten big and flabby, and was trotted off to the glue factory. Today, the first-generation Broncos, made from 1966-1977, have a cult following, and Ford has shrewdly leveraged Bronco nostalgia, recently relaunching a new generation of the nameplate with much fanfare. — RR

By contrast with a Unimog, Mercedes’ original, mil-spec G-Wagen deposits its driver in the lap of luxury. Made since 1948, the Unimog has done duty in agricultural, military, and even recreational roles, so versatile is the design. Light-, Medium-, Heavy-, and Extreme-Series models have been adapted to a near-infinite variety of applications, both on- and off-road, where the Unimog has made numerous appearances in grueling events like the Dakar Rally. It’s unlikely to see a Unimog on North American roads, although some examples have been imported by enthusiasts over the years. They were officially imported by Freightliner truck dealers in the early 2000s, although a mere 184 examples were sold after five years before they pulled out of the market. — RR

If you ever wanted to distinguish “good” from “great,” you might just point to the original Cadillac Escalade. It wasn’t much more than a GMC Yukon with a wreath in the grille, but it didn’t need to be. Over the ensuing decades, it has become the most emblematic vehicle for the marque. It’s ostentatious but somehow stately, with a V8 rumble that is unquestionably classic. — RO

International Harvester was a household name among American farmers from 1902 until 1985, making trucks, agricultural machinery, and construction equipment. From 1960-1980 — long before the term SUV — they also made the Scout, an off-road vehicle whose only real competition was Jeep’s CJ. The Scout’s two-door truck platform had a detachable hard-top, and could be configured as a pickup truck, convertible, or station wagon. Essentially a slab-sided box on wheels, the Scout was a lovable lump and a highly capable four-wheel-drive precursor to the Ford Bronco, Chevy Blazer, and Jeep Cherokee. Two generations, with about 532,000 examples, were produced over two decades. — RR

Porsche threw its ardent supporters—owners of 356 and 911 models—a curveball in 2002 when they lobbed a sporty SUV into the lineup for the 2003 model year. Cries of heresy were not unwarranted, but the reality was that without a high-volume SUV, the storied brand would not have survived. Everyone eventually simmered down when it became apparent the Cayenne was not just a Porsche in spirit, but a sports car (of sorts) in its own right. Four generations later, the Cayenne is offered in a confusing array of models—gas, hybrid, electric, with sedan and four-door coupé versions of each—not knowing what it wants to be when it grows up. Which is why prior generations of the Turbo S, culminating with the 2018 model, could be counted as Cayenne classics. — RR

Look at an original Land Rover prototype, and you’ll see how deeply rooted it is in the design of the WWII Jeep, redrawn in aluminum and specialized for mucky, muddy British farm work. Its clever simplicity made it an enduring icon, covering just about every corner of the globe. The Series Land Rover was in production from the ‘40s to the ‘80s, when it developed into the Defender, the last of which rolled off the assembly line in 2016. This same basic vehicle germinated all kinds of twins, including inspiring the Ineos Grenadier in production today. — RO

The original Dodge Power Wagon was a WWII military vehicle based on Dodge’s ¾-ton WC series of trucks. Following the war, the rugged 4×4 was offered for civilian use, featuring locking front and rear differentials and an available winch. Early models were mostly set to work in farming, ranching and industrial applications, with the versatile platform configured as a 2- or 4-door pickup, flatbed, dump truck, or tow truck. The first series, made from 1945-1950, has the iconic look that softened a bit in the second series, made through 1956. A Power Wagon in name only is built today as a Dodge Ram model. — RR

Remarkably, Chevrolet’s Suburban nameplate goes back to 1934, making it the longest-lived car model in automotive history. It was a full-sized station-wagon-like thing through 1959, when the design morphed into what might be called the first full-sized SUV. Certainly, today, in its twelfth generation, it is the most popular, marketed as a Chevrolet and GMC model throughout much of its production. Today’s GMC Yukon and Cadillac Escalade ESV are Suburbans under their skin. So popular is the Suburban that it became the first vehicle to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2019 for its role, according to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, in more than 1,750 films and television series since 1952. — RR

Lamborghini’s LM002 was as prescient a concept as it was extreme, forecasting long in advance today’s many super-high-performance SUVs. And while it’s a formula that seems obvious today, it was Lamborghini who first stepped into the ring. Its Countach engine made the LM002 perform unlike any truck, while a luxurious leather interior, climate control, stereo, and other amenities elevated the SUV experience. At almost 16 feet long, 6½ feet wide, more than 6 feet tall, and weighing almost 6,800 pounds, the LM002 dwarfs most other SUVs. In the scheme of things, the LM002, initially priced at about $120,000, could be counted as a success, with 328 examples produced between 1986 and 1993. — RR

With time, even secret agents get a little corpulent and trade svelte Aston Martin GTs for something a bit more commodious. And so the boys from Gaydon built a Bond-worthy SUV called the DBX. The original DBX V8, launched in 2020, got performance upgrades in 2022 with the DBV707 that upped power from 542 to 697 hp. The latest DBX S makes 717 hp from a heavily modified 4.0-liter, twin-turbo V8 engine sourced from powertrain partner Mercedes-Benz. As SUVs blanket the automotive landscape, Aston’s DBX offers non-conformists an opportunity to stand apart from the crowd while slipping into the most comfortable pair of “driving shoes” Aston Martin has ever made. — RR

What sets the Purosangue apart from every other prancing horse in history is its two rear doors, making this the first four-door series-production Ferrari ever. On the market in Europe since 2023, the powerful SUV’s naturally aspirated V-12 engine makes 715 hp, sufficient to catapult the big F-Car from zero to 60 mph in 3.3 seconds. An all-wheel drive platform enables all-weather capability, while the sporting suspension delivers handling and performance worthy of the Ferrari name. The sculptured exterior surrounds one of the finest four-place interiors—a true dual-cockpit design—found in any sporting SUV. One whose MSRP, without making too much of a fuss, can easily crest the half-million-dollar mark. — RR

Lamborghini calls the Urus a Super Sport Utility Vehicle, introduced in 2012 as a concept car and as a production model in 2018 with a twin-turbo V8 engine, and available today in a hybrid-electric variant. A Lamborghini off-roader was not without precedent; the 1980s-era LM002 was a wicked beast made for grueling desert action and could even accommodate machine-gun armament. The Urus has a different calling. Meant to establish itself as the supercar of SUVs, its name derives from aurochs, a large, wild Eurasian ox that was the ancestor of domestic cattle. It was probably exterminated in Britain in the Bronze Age, and the last one was killed in Poland in 1627. (Now you know something most Urus owners never will.) — RR

About as big as an SUV gets, the civilian-issue Hummer was made from 1992-2006 and could rightfully be described as the answer to a question no sane person asked. Its design was based on the M998 Humvee, a military vehicle made since 1985 by American Motors Corporation’s subsidiary AM General. It was popularized by the Persian Gulf War, and subsequently by Arnold Schwarzenegger, who famously drove one around Santa Monica. Originally designed with the requirement to follow in the tracks of a military tank, the Hummer H1 is more than 7.2 feet in width. Weighing up to 8,100 pounds, the behemoth benefits from the grunt of a 6.2-liter General Motors Diesel V8 engine. — RR

Mercedes’ wildly popular G-Class is an uncompromising SUV; one made for serious off-road driving. Originally designed in the early 1970s for military duty, the Geländenwagen (German for off-road vehicle) was first offered to the civilian market in 1979. Like a bank vault on wheels, the sturdy G-Wagon could traverse most any terrain, undaunted by approach angles or inclement weather. It curiously morphed into a full-fledged luxury SUV, and like Philippe Starck’s gold-plated AK-47 table lamp, eventually became a hipster fashion accessory. Recent models include the AMG G63, a luxury SUV capable of tearing up the tarmac while delivering a surprisingly civilized ride. — RR