Wardell
New member
So, Four Wheeler Magazine did their "2015 Four Wheeler of the Year" competition. Here's the link to the article:
http://www.fourwheeler.com/vehicle-reviews/1504-2015-four-wheeler-of-the-year/
Their eligibility criteria limited this to SUVs that were all-new or substantially revised, must have a two-speed transfer case (or equivalent), a minimum US production run of 1500 vehicles, and must be on sale by March 15, 2015. That ruled out a lot of vehicles that would have been much more worth the comparison, since that left them with the Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk, Jeep Renegade Trailhawk, and Toyota 4Runner TRD Pro.
From there, they had 7 staff members test drive and rate the vehicles in five categories: 30 percent Trail Performance, 25 percent Empirical (RTI, acceleration, braking, price, and so on), 20 percent On Pavement, 15 percent Interior, and 10 percent Exterior. The details on how they scored are all in the article so I won't go into all the details, but here are the final scores. The overall winner, and how it won, will probably surprise you:
Yup, even though it performed more poorly in the off road and empirical categories (like most of us would have expected), the Cherokee's on pavement and interior scores were enough to make it a win.
Oh, and did I mention that the Cherokee broke down?
Is it just me, or does this Four Wheel Magazine not have a clue what they are talking about? I don't know much about them or what kind of audience they write for, but just looking at how they limited the field to these three vehicles it's hard to take them seriously. Are they always like this? There's plenty of people already commenting on their facebook page that they're out to lunch. As far as I see it, if they were really rating these for what enthusiasts use them to do the 4Runner should have won, no contest.
What would have made a worthwhile contest is if they ran that Toyota 4Runner against a Jeep Wrangler, a Nissan Patrol, a Land Rover Defender, a Suzuki Jimny, or a Mitsubishi Pajero. Granted, most of those vehicles aren't available in North America, and only the 4Runner fit their "newish" criteria, but they are all the best off road vehicles that their manufacturers' produce in this class, and they could reasonably be cross shopped by those who have them available in their area.
http://www.fourwheeler.com/vehicle-reviews/1504-2015-four-wheeler-of-the-year/
Their eligibility criteria limited this to SUVs that were all-new or substantially revised, must have a two-speed transfer case (or equivalent), a minimum US production run of 1500 vehicles, and must be on sale by March 15, 2015. That ruled out a lot of vehicles that would have been much more worth the comparison, since that left them with the Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk, Jeep Renegade Trailhawk, and Toyota 4Runner TRD Pro.
From there, they had 7 staff members test drive and rate the vehicles in five categories: 30 percent Trail Performance, 25 percent Empirical (RTI, acceleration, braking, price, and so on), 20 percent On Pavement, 15 percent Interior, and 10 percent Exterior. The details on how they scored are all in the article so I won't go into all the details, but here are the final scores. The overall winner, and how it won, will probably surprise you:
Yup, even though it performed more poorly in the off road and empirical categories (like most of us would have expected), the Cherokee's on pavement and interior scores were enough to make it a win.
Oh, and did I mention that the Cherokee broke down?
Is it just me, or does this Four Wheel Magazine not have a clue what they are talking about? I don't know much about them or what kind of audience they write for, but just looking at how they limited the field to these three vehicles it's hard to take them seriously. Are they always like this? There's plenty of people already commenting on their facebook page that they're out to lunch. As far as I see it, if they were really rating these for what enthusiasts use them to do the 4Runner should have won, no contest.
What would have made a worthwhile contest is if they ran that Toyota 4Runner against a Jeep Wrangler, a Nissan Patrol, a Land Rover Defender, a Suzuki Jimny, or a Mitsubishi Pajero. Granted, most of those vehicles aren't available in North America, and only the 4Runner fit their "newish" criteria, but they are all the best off road vehicles that their manufacturers' produce in this class, and they could reasonably be cross shopped by those who have them available in their area.
