Drive Car of the Year 2024 – Best Small SUV Under $50K contenders

Find out what cars are eligible for the Drive Car of the Year 2024 – Best Small SUV Under $50K category

Family Cars

Drive Team

15:0014 November 2023

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Over the next few weeks, we'll be explaining all the categories and contenders for Drive Car of the Year 2024. Testing is currently underway, with the final winners to be announced early next year.

Drive Car of the Year 2024

Now in its 18th year, the annual Drive Car of the Year awards program continues to be the Australian new car buyer’s most trusted advisor.

At Drive, we test drive more than 200 new cars every year, evaluating each against its innate promise to sort the best from the rest. We divide the 400-plus new passenger cars, SUVs, 4WDs and utes into 19 price-banded categories focused on the end-user, then analyse the strengths and weaknesses of every car to find the cream of the automotive crop.

Drive Car of the Year 2024 is a go!

Drive Car of the Year Overview

Drive Car of the Year 2023 winners

Drive Car of the Year 2024 – Best Small SUV Under $50K

If you thought Australia’s appetite for SUVs had peaked, think again. Medium SUVs continue their bitumen domination, accounting for one in five new car sales in 2023, but their Small SUV little brother is determined to grow just as fast.

Almost 150,000 brand new small SUVs have found new homes in the first 10 months of the year, which is up almost 25 per cent in 2022 - which in turn was up considerably on the year before.

It’s not the established brands enjoying the surge in popularity. In fact, if anything, previously unknowns are not only taking a piece of the sales pie, they’re stealing the food from the mouths of familiar marques like Honda, Hyundai, Mazda, Mitsubishi and Suzuki.

Because this is a Drive Car of the Year category which has been contested in previous years, not all Small SUVs are eligible to fight for the title. Last year’s winner was the Nissan Qashqai, so it gets an automatic inclusion because it is the benchmark.

The Nissan Qashqai won last year because it offered the best combination of flexibility and practicality for the value-oriented buyer.

The cars it beat last year have not changed since then and, therefore, will not front the judges this year - the Honda HR-V, Toyota Corolla Cross and Skoda Kamiq. All three of these small SUVs are impressive, but they couldn’t beat the Qashqai last year, so why would they do any better this year when they haven’t changed?

But the very impressive Nissan Qashqai is far from a certainty to go back-to-back because the field arrayed against it is formidable.

2023 has seen a rebranded and refreshed Subaru XV, which is now called Crosstrek, an all-new Hyundai Kona that pushes benchmarks with styling and standard inclusions, a totally new entrant from Alfa Romeo in the Tonale, updated versions of the Kia Seltos and Hyundai Venue, and sharp-dressed Chery Omoda 5 that lures buyers in with its razzle and dazzle.

Which cars are eligible for this category?

Drive’s rules require that, for a car to be eligible, it must:

Be all-new or significantly updated,
Be on sale by December 31, 2023, and
Retail examples be made available for Drive to road test before that cut-off date.

Sadly, Toyota’s forthcoming C-HR update did not make our cutoff, but it will get its chance next year.

Here is the list of eligible cars, drawn primarily from the FCAI’s Small SUV car class with a retail price under $50,000. Please note that in some cases, the vehicle’s price range extends beyond this ceiling. In these cases, only the models priced within the range are eligible.

Eligible	Ineligible
- Cars that are all-new or significantly updated since they last contested Drive Car of the Year. - New categories are open to all cars that fit category requirements. - Last year’s winner is an automatic inclusion.	- These cars meet category requirements but have not changed since they previously contested Drive Car of the Year and are not a carry-over winner.
Alfa Romeo Tonale Chery Omoda 5 Hyundai Kona Hyundai Venue Kia Seltos Nissan Qashqai Subaru Crosstrek Suzuki S-Cross	Unchanged: Audi Q2 Citroen C4 GWM Haval Jolion Honda HR-V Jeep Compass Kia Niro Lexus UX Mazda CX-30 Mazda MX-30 MG ZS MG ZS EV MG ZST Mini Countryman Mitsubishi ASX Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross Peugeot 2008 Renault Arkana Skoda Kamiq Suzuki Vitara Toyota Corolla Cross Volkswagen T-Roc

What are the next steps?

The winner of the 2024 Drive Car of the Year – Best Small SUV Under $50K will be announced in February 2024.

Before then, we will announce the finalists, all of which deliver on the buyer’s expectations for cost-effective urban motoring. One thing is certain: this category promises to be one of the toughest confronting our 11 experienced judges.