10 Of The Best Off-Roaders In 2025

Whether you genuinely like to spend your weekends heading out to the back end of nowhere and spending a day doing some serious winching, or just like the idea of looking like you do, there’s plenty of appeal in a car that can handle itself off-road.

Obviously, lots of cars these days like to look like they’re capable off-roaders, but there aren’t that many that can properly handle themselves in the rough stuff. We’ve picked out 10 that can, though, for our roundup of the best off-roaders on sale right now.

Defender OCTA

Any version of the new Land Rover Defender is going to be very handy off-road, but none more so than the high-performance OCTA version. That’s in part due to its 626bhp BMW-sourced twin-turbo V8, partly down to the optional all-terrain tyres, but mostly thanks to its extremely fancy hydraulically cross-linked ‘6D Dynamics’ suspension that soaks up punishment like little else.

Starting at just over £148,000, it’s very expensive, and Land Rover isn’t building many per year, but for those with lots of cash to play with and preferably a big tract of private land to fling it around on, there isn’t much on sale like the OCTA.

Ineos Grenadier

Of course, if you’re one of the people who think the new Defender is an affront to the very name of the original, there is a car aimed at you. The Ineos Grenadier is unashamed in where it draws its inspiration from, and with a ladder chassis, beam axles and even tough recirculating ball steering, it’s one of the most resolutely old-school 4x4s still on sale.

Despite that, it does offer some modern creature comforts that the old Defender didn’t, and its powertrains – a choice of petrol or diesel BMW straight-sixes paired with ZF’s trusty eight-speed auto – mean it’s not quite as agricultural on the road as the car that inspired it either. Just don’t expect something that’s going to be a cushty motorway cruiser – that’s not really the point.

Toyota Land Cruiser

The latest Toyota Land Cruiser, which marks the hallowed nameplate’s return to Britain after a few years away, is business as usual in many areas. Body-on-frame construction? Check. Torquey diesel engine? Check. Legendary reliability? It’s too early in its life to say for sure, but there’s no reason to think it won’t deliver here too.

Where it differs from its predecessors is its charming retro styling, which has elevated the Land Cruiser from mere dependable workhorse to properly desirable object. Expect to see more of the new one cruising the chi-chi areas of London looking resolutely unmuddy as a result, but that shouldn’t detract from its ability.

Mercedes G-Class

Of course, if retro styling is your thing, why not go for a model that looks largely the same as it did in 1979, despite being completely redesigned in 2018? The latest Mercedes G-Class is as posh as the model’s ever been, but it’s still got an old-fashioned body-on-frame construction and locking diffs.

There’s now even a fully electric version that uses the millimetrically precise control of its four motors for hugely precise off-road torque delivery. Traditionalists can still get a range of petrol and diesel engines, too, although we wouldn’t recommend trying anything too hardcore in the AMG G63, with its massive wheels and low-profile tyres.

Jeep Wrangler

One of the other old guard off-roaders, the Jeep Wrangler name goes back to 1986, but its lineage runs back to when it was an actual piece of Second World War equipment. The latest generation, launched in 2017, only comes with a single powertrain, a relatively modern 2.0-litre petrol turbo four paired with an eight-speed auto.

That’s about the only modern thing about the Wrangler, which isn’t going to be the most refined thing on the road. Off it, though, there’s still not a lot on sale that can get close to the Wrangler’s ability. Bonus points for the ability to take the doors off, too.

Isuzu D-Max AT35

Icelandic company Arctic Trucks has been modifying SUVs and pickups to cope with some of the harshest conditions on earth for decades – they supplied the Toyota Hiluxes that took Top Gear to the North Pole.

Usually, you have to send a car its way to be modified, but the Isuzu D-Max AT35 is a bit different – you can simply walk into an Isuzu dealer and buy one, complete with flared arches and enormous 35-inch all-terrain tyres. Is this strictly necessary in, say, Leicestershire? No, but it’s not half cool.

Ariel Nomad 2

Find things like staying warm and dry to be wholly overrated? The Ariel Nomad came as a surprise to pretty much everyone when it arrived in 2015, having been built by a company best known for the skeletal Atom track car.

Essentially a road-legal dune buggy, the second-gen Nomad 2 features a 2.3-litre turbocharged Ford EcoBoost engine pushing up to 305bhp to the back wheels alone. Really, it’s more for hammering across fields or down a rally stage (should you have access to such a thing) than scrabbling through deep, muddy puddles, but we can’t really think of many ways of having more fun on four wheels – especially because its low weight and soft suspension also make it a surprisingly excellent sports car for Britain’s uniquely rubbish road surfaces.

Toyota Hilux GR Sport II

The Toyota Hilux carries a bit of a reputation for durability, so much so that Toyota will sell you a trim level called ‘Invincible’. That’s not the one we’d recommend for off-road (mis)adventures, though.

No, that honour goes to the GR Sport II. Supposedly inspired by the Hilux’s Dakar Rally exploits, it doesn’t exactly back that up with raw speed, thanks to its (now mild-hybrid) 201bhp turbodiesel engine. It does, however, get beefier bodywork, a wider track and higher ride height than other Hiluxes, plus fancy new monotube dampers. The GR Sport II isn't actually available in the UK as we write this, but we expect that to change before too long.

Dacia Duster 4x4

The new Dacia Duster isn’t like other cars on this list. It’s basically a small, affordable family crossover, and its platform is pretty closely related to that of the Renault Clio. However, Dacia was keen to make sure the 4x4 version still had genuine ability to match its chunky looks.

While it may not have kit like diff locks or a low-range box, it does have way better ground clearance than anything else in its class, various off-road drive modes, and weighs a whole lot less than everything else listed here. It won’t get you quite as far into the wilderness as some proper 4x4s, but as we found out, it’ll get you much further than the average small crossover.

Ford Ranger Raptor

The original Ford Ranger Raptor, with its meagre diesel engine, felt like a bit of a disappointing introduction to Ford’s performance off-road badge for us Europeans, when we knew Americans could buy the enormous V8 (later twin-turbo V6) F-150 Raptor.

The second-gen car fixes this with a twin-turbo V6, making 288bhp in European guise. It’s paired with beefy all-terrain tyres and Fox shocks, plus a ‘Baja’ drive mode for high-speed off-roading. That’s fairly moot in Britain, where we don’t have enormous deserts to barrel across, but it’s nice to know you can fling it down a green lane or up a grass verge without worry.

What about the rest?

If we’d have done this list a year or two ago, there’d have been a couple of small but mighty 4x4s in with a shot at making it – namely the Fiat Panda Cross and hugely likeable Suzuki Jimny. Both, though, have recently been discontinued in Britain.

There’s really not a whole lot of choice elsewhere. Both Land Rover and Jeep like to lean into their reputations by making sure all their cars have above-average off-road chops, to the extent that even a front-wheel drive Jeep Avenger is half decent in the rough. It’s hard to really recommend any of the rest of their ranges when the Defender and Wrangler exist, though.

Finally, as much as we wish we could, we can’t buy the new Ford Bronco in Britain, nor can we get any of the big American pickups in any meaningful numbers. The latter are a bit too big and beefy to work on our narrow lanes, anyway.