Seventeen SUVs and a Spreadsheet

I'm probably not buying an SUV this month. I'm also definitely still looking at SUVs this month: configurators, What Car? lists, forum threads about whether going hybrid means losing half your boot. Partly because I'm genuinely shortlisting, partly because I just like looking at cars and imagining the one I'll end up with one day.

I've been driving a 2017 Kia ProCeed for years and it's been brilliant, but the long doors absolutely kill me in tight car park spaces, and the diesel is hopeless on the short journeys I do most of the time. I'm at that stage where you start thinking properly about what comes next, and you want to future-proof the purchase rather than repeat the same compromises for another eight years.

There's a line somewhere about the pursuit being better than the thing itself. I think that's true for car shopping, especially when you're about to spend a stupid amount of money and you want to get it right.

As a developer, I like getting messy data into something I can actually use, and manufacturer sites bury the awkward bits: PHEV boot shrink, which trim gets the 360 camera, whether the app wants £10 a month after year three. I wanted all of that in one place, ordered the way I think about the decision, so I built it.

Why these rows, in this order

When Carwow asked women what they prioritise (March 2026), I was curious how my own list would stack up against theirs. Boot space and price were way ahead of everything else, with driver aids not far behind. Stylish design was still there at 34%, which surprised me a bit, so there's a row for that too.

I'm like a lot of women in my position, I think: not dashing to the forecourt, but trying to future-proof the next car properly. The survey just gave me a sensible starting order for the table, instead of leading with whatever the brochure wants you to see first.

Why only seventeen cars

I wanted to include everything. I didn't, because each model meant digging through trim sheets, boot litres by engine, driver-aid lists, and the small print on connected services. That takes ages if you want it to be specific.

So it's a subset: the ten from What Car?'s best family SUVs 2026, Sportage at one, Bigster at ten, plus seven others I wanted to pit against them. If your shortlist isn't here, sorry. I ran out of evenings.

What's in the table

• Boot space by engine (including where PHEV batteries eat your litres)
• Price and running costs (list price and WLTP MPG, side by side)
• Driver aids by trim (cameras, parking assist, lane keeping)
• Driving position (how high you sit, how easy it is to see out)
• Safety and rear-seat space (Euro NCAP, ISOFIX, door angles, legroom)
• Day-to-day practicality (hands-free boot, wipe-clean seats, sunblinds)
• Subscription traps (the app fees that don't always come up on the forecourt)

Carwow's order, for reference:

1. Boot space (58%)
2. Price & discounts (57%)
3. Driver aids (55%)
4. High driving position (54%)
5. Top safety rating (52%)
6. Fuel economy / MPG (49%)
7. Stylish design (34%)
8. Space for child seats (20%)

How the scoring works

This is the bit that makes the comparator different from a normal spec sheet. Each row in the table maps to one of those survey priorities, in that order. When you compare two or three cars, the tool picks a winner in each section — most boot litres, lowest starting price, most driver aids on your trim, and so on.

Winning a section earns that section's survey percentage as points. Beat your rival on boot space? That's 58 points. Win on stylish design? 34. The overall winner is whichever car collects the most points across the sections it wins, so beating someone on boot space counts for more than beating them on child-seat space, because more women in the survey said boot space matters.

If two cars tie in a section (identical boot size, same price), nobody gets points for it. The green highlights in the table show section winners; "The honest bits" at the bottom totals those weighted points. It's a way of comparing your shortlist using what women actually said they care about, not just counting how many rows each car wins.

On the data (the boring bit, but important)

I typed most of this up by hand from specs, reviews, and a few test drives. Prices move, trims get renamed mid-year, and I will have got something wrong somewhere. Use it to narrow your shortlist, then check the official spec and talk to a dealer before you sign anything.

What Car?, Carwow, and the car makers haven't seen this. I borrowed their public rankings and survey because they were helpful. All the trademarks are theirs, not mine.

Same story as the World Cup sweepstake generator: I built it because I wanted it. If you're like lots of women in my position, trying to future-proof your next car purchase without losing an evening to a spreadsheet, I hope this helps.