4x4 of the Year IS BACK in 2025!

The 4×4 of the Year award is the longest running and most acclaimed accolade for new off-road vehicles in the country, spanning more than three decades of the best off-road vehicles to come to the market.

Over that time the award has gone to the biggest marques in the industry including Land Rover, Mitsubishi, Toyota, Nissan, Jeep and Ford, with judging from some of the most respected and well-travelled writers in the industry.

4×4 of the Year is back in 2025 and, as we have done in the past, we whittled down the field of eligible new vehicles based on our testing and reviewing all the possible contenders over the past few years.

This allows us to select just six finalist vehicles to take part in a week of testing and evaluation, where we score each vehicle against the established criteria to find a winner.

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4×4 of the Year criteria

Value for money

Judged according to a vehicle’s equipment level, safety features and price relative to its direct competitors. Just because a vehicle has a high price doesn’t mean it’s not good value in the same way a cheap car doesn’t always represent good bang for your buck.

Breaking new ground

Refers to advancements in technology and design. How a vehicle has raised the bar in the class it fits in and taken 4x4s to a higher level. If a vehicle has the latest safety features, worthy engine technology or an advanced driveline, it will score well here.

Built tough

This refers to how strong a vehicle is and how well it will cope with the rigours of tough off-road driving environments. Will it be up to the task of carrying loads and outback travel, or fall apart at the first hurdle?

Bushability

This is how well a vehicle is equipped for off-road travel. Suitability of the standard tyres for rough roads, touring range, available accessories and underbody protection are just some of the factors considered here. Is this a vehicle you would choose to drive around Australia the rough way, or is it best left to the suburbs?

Doing the job

Judged according to a vehicle’s design brief. Does a luxury vehicle have all the latest in comfort and convenience features and do they work in the real world? How well a ute carries a load, or a seven-seater accommodates a family, will all come into play here.

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How it works?

We’ve split the six wagon finalists down the middle based on awarding best vehicle costing less than $80,000 and best costing more than $80,000.

Over the decades, the 4X4OTY award had been split over various price brackets as the prices of new vehicles continued to get higher, and also between 4×4 wagons and utes as the technology and features of each varied over time.

For its 2025 return, we’ve also split the field between wagons and utes, with the former making up this first test and the workhorses to be judged later in the year.

At the end of a week of testing both on and off road, our team of testers – Matt Raudonikis, Dave Morley, Ron Moon and Dex Fulton – score each of the vehicles against each of the five criteria to give each car a score out of 50. The car with the highest combined score wins, nothing else comes into the outcome.

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The contenders

Ford Everest Sport

The second generation (for Australia) Ford Everest has been with us for three years now but wasn’t released the last time we did a 4X4OTY test. In those years the Everest has become the best-selling medium-size 4×4 wagon in Australia outselling the previously unchallenged Toyota Prado which, in its defence, was between models as the 150 Series ran out and the 250 Series came on line.

But the Everest rides high on its merits delivering a solid and spacious family wagon with a choice of five- or seven-seat configurations, four-cylinder and V6 diesel engines, a capable chassis and drivetrain, and an easy to live with interior. We chose the Everest Sport as our finalist for that sweet V6 engine and high level of comfort and features while not breaking the bank on purchase price.

An interesting side note; when 4×4 Australia gave the 4X4OTY award to the first-generation of Everest back in 2015, it was the first time that a Ford vehicle had ever taken the title.

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GWM Tank 300

This is the first time we’ve had a vehicle from Great Wall Motors in 4X4OTY and with the Tank 300 it’s a well-deserved inclusion. The Tank 300 is a small wagon similar in size to the Jeep Cherokee so it fills a void in the market for buyers who don’t want or need a bigger 4×4, but for whom a Suzuki Jimny wouldn’t cut it.

As a smaller vehicle it’s priced accordingly but doesn’t miss out on features, while its front and rear lockers and relatively light weight make it an impressive rig in rough terrain. Our request for a Tank test vehicle came as GWM was introducing its new diesel-fuelled model of the 300, and it’s this vehicle that we have on test here in Ultra specification.

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INEOS Grenadier Trialmaster

It’s not often that an all-new brand comes into the specialised 4×4 market, let alone one built on a traditional ladder frame chassis with live axles and coil springs front and rear, and genuine off road credentials. This made the Ineos Grenadier one of the most talked about new vehicles of 2024 and one that was on the shopping lists of many buyers.

Available in three model grades with the choice of petrol or diesel engines, we’ve gone with the Grenadier Trialmaster diesel as it is the best equipped model for off-road touring in Australia.

An as-tested price of $124,356 makes the Ineos the most expensive vehicle among our finalists; will the Grenadier have the firepower to live up to its price tag and high expectations?

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Nissan Patrol Warrior

The Nissan Patrol Y62 might be one of the oldest vehicles on our test but it’s the one that consistently puts ear-to ear smiles on the faces of our drivers. So why is it here? The Nissan Patrol Warrior is a new variant of the Y62 co-developed by private engineering firm Premcar to improve its overall off-road performance; and the results are a huge success.

With more ground clearance, improved suspension, taller all-terrain tyres, a host of styling and comfort upgrades, and a bi-modal exhaust system bellowing the sound of that sweet V8 engine out the side, the biggest wagon in our field was a favourite.

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Toyota Prado Altitude

From the oldest vehicle in the field to the newest, the 250 Series Toyota Prado has been one of the most highly anticipated new models of the last couple of years, only arriving late in 2024. The 250 Series is almost all-new with the engine being the only major component carried over from the old model, and even that has changed with a 48-volt mild hybrid assistance system.

In the five model 250 Series Prado range, the Altitude is the variant targeted the most at off-road touring with all-terrain tyres on 18-inch wheels, a rear locking differential and a disconnecting front sway bar all adding to its capabilities in the rough. Also important is that the Altitude only has five seats so the rear cargo area is left without the hugely compromised third-row seats taking up valuable space.

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Toyota LandCruiser 76

While we’re talking about the age of vehicles, the 70 Series Toyota LandCruiser is certainly the elder statesman of the new-car fleet, marking 40 years in production last year. The model’s ongoing evolution and improvements have kept the 70 Series current and it is one of the most rugged and off-road focused vehicles money can buy today.

A new driveline was fitted to the 70 Series range in 2024 with Toyota’s venerable 1GD 2.8-litre turbo-diesel slotted into the engine bay and backed by an automatic transmission for the first time in decades.
We’ve got the GDJ76 GXL LandCruiser here on test; it’s simple, basic and capable but has it got what it takes to be our 4X4 Of The Year?

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What’s missing?

With only six positions available among our wagon finalists, there had to be some worthy exclusions.

The toughest one to leave out was the Lexus GX550 Overtrail as it impressed us immensely when we drove it back in 2024. But with two other Toyota products already in the mix and one of them being the more popular Prado that is based on the same platform as the GX550, the Lexus narrowly misses out.

It’s a similar story with the LandCruiser 300 Series which won the best wagon accolade the last time we did 4X4OTY. But when we compared the LC300 GR Sport with the Patrol Warrior in 2024 the Nissan came up trumps and so earned its place over the Cruiser.

GWM’s Tank 500 is a midsize 4×4 wagon with a touch of luxe that you could say competes with the Lexus GX but at a lower price. It was on our reserve list but we felt the more rugged Tank 300 would better represent the GWM brand amongst the other 4X4OTY contenders.

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The previous generation of Jeep’s Grand Cherokee won 4X4OTY a few years back and a new generation of the model was launched since we last conducted the test. But the new Grand Cherokee has lost all the things that made the previous model so appealing and one of Jeep’s best ever selling vehicles in Australia, so sadly ruled itself out this time around.

Like the LandCruiser 70 Series, the Jeep Wrangler got a new turbocharged four-cylinder engine in 2024 but it wasn’t enough to get the iconic model into this year’s list of finalists.

Land Rover vehicles have been well represented among our 4X4OTY winners in the past and in recent years LR has made changes and refinements to its engines across the range but there’s been nothing significant since the new Defender arrived on the scene; we wait in earnest. Models like the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport, as great as they are, have become too luxurious and high priced to be serious 4X4OTY contenders.