Best 4x4 Cars for 2024
These are the best 4x4 cars, SUVs, and trucks based on iSeeCars’ analysis of each vehicle’s reliability, resale value and safety.
Best 4x4 Cars by Vehicle Type
Buying a capable off-road vehicle is easier than it���s ever been. The widespread popularity of SUVs and trucks means dozens of vehicles are now offered with four-wheel drive, a low-speed transfer case, a locking rear differential, elevated ground clearance, skid plates, and all-terrain tires.
Those are the common upgrades you’ll see on off-road vehicles like the Chevy Colorado, Dodge Durango, Jeep Gladiator, and Nissan Frontier. Premium models like the Land Rover Defender and Range Rover, and the Mercedes-Benz G-Class, step things up, literally, with advanced technology, including an air suspension that can add multiple inches of ground clearance when rock crawling while lowering the SUV for better stability and aerodynamics when traveling on pavement.
Additional upgrades seen on more serious off-road vehicles include multiple locking differentials, which the Mercedes’ G-Wagen, Lexus LX, and Toyota Land Cruiser all offer, allowing those SUVs to lock the front and rear axles together. There are also factory configurations with dedicated off-road suspension components, such as Fox adaptive off-road shocks, which come standard on the Ford Bronco and F-150 Raptor pickup truck.
It should be noted that a 4x4 drivetrain (four-by-four, also known as four-wheel drive/4WD) is not the same as all-wheel drive (AWD). While 4x4 vehicles are almost exclusively rear-wheel-drive based SUVs or trucks, all-wheel drive is available on multiple body styles, including crossover (car-based) SUVs, wagons, four-door sedans, and sports cars. These vehicles feature an automated all-wheel-drive system that reads wheel speed and detects which wheel(s) have lost traction before redirecting power to the wheel(s) that still have traction. This all happens in fractions of a second to keep a vehicle from spinning its tires when accelerating on slippery surfaces.
All-wheel drive vehicles can have varying degrees of off-road capability, but, generally speaking, they are not as capable as 4x4 models because they don’t include a two-speed/low-range transfer case, and they typically don’t offer as much ground clearance. The transfer case is particularly important, as it allows the driver to change the vehicle’s gearing to provide more pulling power when climbing steep grades or scaling rocks.
AWD vehicles are perfect for added confidence on wet or snow-packed pavement, and some can certainly handle low-to-medium off-road adventures. But they are not on the same level as dedicated off-road SUVs and trucks meant for crossing the Rubicon Trail.
iSeeCars has identified the best 4x4 vehicles in every major category and listed them below. The vehicles are ranked by their iSeeCars quality score, which takes reliability, resale value, and safety into consideration. Additional information for each model includes powertrain specifications, with 4x4 SUVs and trucks leveraging four-cylinder, twin-turbo engines and almost exclusively automatic transmissions in recent model years. You will also find new and used vehicle pricing, fuel economy ratings, and cargo space measurements for SUVs, or horsepower ratings for trucks.
Best 4x4 SUVs
Best 4x4 Trucks
Best 4x4 Hybrids
How We Rank These Cars
The best 4x4 cars rank vehicles by iSeeCars Score which is based on our proprietary assessment of a vehicle’s reliability, resale value and safety (based on ratings from IIHS and NHTSA).
The iSeeCars Score is an analysis of three factors: reliability, resale value and safety. It is calculated based on the latest research and analysis by our data science team. The data analysis comes from over 12 million new and used vehicles in our Longest-Lasting Cars and 5-Year Depreciation Studies, combined with NHTSA and IIHS Safety Ratings.
Vehicles are scored in three categories:
Reliability
The reliability score represents an analysis of iSeeCars' proprietary research on the longest-lasting vehicles.
Value Retention
The value retention score is based on our data science team's statistical analysis and prediction of 5-year depreciation from MSRP to determine which cars hold their value best, using US Bureau of Labor Statistics data to adjust for inflation.
Safety
The safety score is calculated based on the last five years of crash test ratings from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and incorporates the latest Top Safety Pick information from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).
