Survey Finds Top Ten 4x4's

• But check carefully: most popular does not always mean most cost effective to insure says the A&A Group Ltd

Mayor Ken Livingstone may be against ‘Chelsea Taxis’ in the city and there may be plans to levy a £900 pa car tax on them, or even ban them altogether from London’s roads as has been done in Paris, but a recent survey shows the British continue to love their 4x4s.

The survey by leading independent insurance intermediary the A&A Group, based on the number of requests for quotes by 4x4 owners over a nine-month period to May this year, indicates that men are by far the keenest to get behind the wheel.

Nearly 75% of those requesting a 4x4 quote were men, although this will have something to do with the overall split of man and women on the road. The 4x4 men most wanted to insure was the Mitsubishi Pajero, which accounted for 27% of the total. Second was another Mitsubishi favourite, the Shogun (16%) and third the Land Rover Discovery (11%). Other 4x4s popular with men included the Toyota Cruiser, Land Rover Freelander and Range Rover, and the Suzuki Vitara.

The Mitsubishi Pajero and Shogun were also favourites with women drivers, accounting for 21.6% and 15% of requests for quotes respectively. But for women, the Suzuki Vitara was a clear 3rd.

In descending order the top ten most popular 4x4s with men and women in the A&A Group survey were:

It is a bit of a surprise to find the allegedly popular Toyota RAV 4 and Honda CR-V are not further up the list, or that Nissan X-TRAIL failed to make the top 10.

The big 4x4s are clearly the most popular with A&A Group customers according to the survey of nearly 1400 4x4 owners, and 4x4s overall have seen sales boom in the past 12 months: one report said sales were up over 17% nationwide.

But just a word of caution says the A&A Group: the most popular models are not always the cheapest to insure. So get a broker to find out which insurers offer the best deals on 4x4s and which are the cheapest to insure. The difference can be several hundred pounds a year and it might just influence your decision as to which of these popular vehicles to buy.