Don’t let anyone tell you luxury is unnecessary. Drive a beautiful, opulently trimmed car if you can – you’ve probably earned it – and arrive at the end of every journey refreshed.
Luxury SUVs give you the lounge-like feel of a flagship saloon but with a more commanding driving position, more space and even more road presence. In some cases, some off-road ability for muddy trips to the gymkhana, too.
The best luxury SUVs really are the creme de la creme of wheeled transport. We’ve listed 10 of them for your delectation below.
Best used luxury SUVs
BMW X5
Besides the block-of-flats-aping BMW X7, the BMW X5 is the big boy of the brand’s range and offers a luxurious experience. It’s all familiar BMW-ness inside, with lots of easy buttons and, importantly, lots of tech. The digital instrument cluster is very clear and full of info, and the main touchscreen puts you in control of everything in the entire world – that’s how it feels, anyway. The materials are first-grade and there’s a seven-seat option if you need to take the whole family along for the ride.
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Audi Q7
If there was a fan club for the Audi Q7, we’d be paid-up members. It combines luxo-barge plushness with the necessary practicality for family-car life, making your life easier and better if you have to take toddlers, teenagers and terriers with you. As a side note, there’s space for six kids as all the passenger seats have Isofix points, if you’ve drawn the short straw for the private school run. Luckily, the interior is fantastic – it boasts Audi’s top-drawer tech and materials. Which’ll bring you great joy when you have to hoover out crumbs from the soft leather for the third time this week.
Don’t need six Isofix points? Consider the Audi Q8 – or the electric equivalent, the Q8 e-tron.
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Range Rover Sport
Darling of celebrities, rappers, high-flying businessfolk and anyone who’s flashed a fancy credit card in a Dubai hotel, the Range Rover Sport is still one of the ultimate cars to ride in and to be seen in. The latest model boasts a cleaner design than before and a somehow even more opulent interior. It exudes absolute capability, and excels whether your commute includes leafy suburban streets or the Atlas mountains.
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Porsche Cayenne
What if your commute doesn’t involve the Atlas mountains, and includes Silverstone racetrack instead? You need the peppery goodness of the Porsche Cayenne. It obviously isn’t going to show a 911 a clean pair of heels but, for a family SUV with more leather than a shoe shop, it’s very impressive. If you don’t need to carry labradors or lots of luggage on a regular basis, consider the more rakish-looking Cayenne Coupe. And, whichever body style you pick, there are raucous petrol engines and surprisingly efficient plug-in hybrid engines to choose from. Well, efficient if you keep the battery topped up.
Range Rover Velar
It may not be directly comparable to the likes of the full-fat Range Rover and the Audi Q7, but the Velar is still a very luxurious and spacious SUV. A clever bit of design work means it looks sleek and rakish, even if it’s still as chunky and solid as you’d expect from the Range Rover badge. There are long-legged diesels, smooth petrols and a plug-in hybrid offering, giving buyers a nearly full spectrum of choice. With the amount of trim levels and optional extras to choose from, few Velars leave the factory identical.
Shop used Range Rover Velar cars or read our Range Rover Velar review
Volvo EX90
The Volvo EX90 is now the fanciest car the brand sells in the UK. This vast electric seven-seat SUV is essentially a battery-powered XC90, and that's no bad thing. You get all the practicality of that car, plus the hushed effortlessness of its strong electric powertrain. Ride quality is excellent too, with this heavy car making light work of road bumps and motorway undulations. It's also a few notches less brash than burly luxury SUVs from Germany, bringing some welcome Swedish sophistication to the segment.
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Mercedes G-Class
An uninformed eye might look at the Mercedes G-Class and wonder why the brand is still selling a boxy old military SUV from the '70s. The company even sells larger and more opulent models in the form of the GLE and GLS SUVs – the latter even offering an ultra-luxe Maybach option. But it's the G-Class that's become the darling of Hollywood elites and hip-hop stars thanks to its timeless looks – and the fact Mercedes has quietly improved the car a hundred times over without changing the all-important square-jawed looks.
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Lamborghini Urus
While some scoffed at the idea of a Lamborghini SUV, the Urus has been a runaway success for the brand and is its best-selling model. That's because it has the same show-stopping stealth-fighter looks as Lamborghini's supercars – but in a package that's much more useful everyday with actual passenger and cargo space. Its 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 is shared with other ultra-high-performance VW-Group cars but, in the Urus, it's never made less than 640hp. That kind of power makes the Urus one of the fastest SUVs ever made, as well as one of the most raucous.
BMW iX
Let’s call the looks… distinctive. We won’t say any more. But if you can get past that, the BMW iX is a seriously fantastic car, with BMW’s latest-generation electric powertrain and infotainment tech. The upshot is a maximum range of 382 miles between charges, and it can be replenished quickly, too – adding 62 miles of range takes just six minutes at a compatible charger.
Bentley Bentayga
Along with the Rolls-Royce Cullinan, the Bentley Bentayga is in the highest echelon of luxury SUVs. But even this bold behemoth offers the option of a plug-in hybrid engine for eco-conscious buyers – or, more likely, city folk who need the electric-only driving to dodge low-emission zones.
Top 10 most expensive SUVs
- Rolls-Royce Cullinan – from £335,000
- Ferrari Purosangue – from £313,000
- Aston Martin DBX – from £205,000
- Lamborghini Urus – from £190,000
- Mercedes G-Class – from £181,000
- Bentley Bentayga – from £169,000
- Mercedes EQS SUV – from £130,000 (Mercedes-Maybach from £201,000)
- BMW XM – from £111,000
- Mercedes GLS – from £108,000 (Mercedes-Maybach from £178,000)
- Range Rover – from £104,000
