In the red corner - the Japanese city boys: the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4. In the blue corner - the rugged, unweildly, off-road loving Freelander. It's a battle as old as the English hills, where we pitted the soft-roaders against each other.

Though styled for the highway, all three of these suburban cruisers hold hard to their mud-pledging heritage. And you'd expect no less from such seasoned off-road manufacturers.