5 used performance SUVs from £5,000 to £35,000

With their lofty driving positions, year-round usability, and impressively stout performance, it’s easy to see why hot SUVs are all the rage. But such flexibility doesn’t come cheap… or does it?

Need a vehicle that’s fast, practical, safe and, above all else, versatile? Then you buy a fast SUV, of course. But with many of the latest spicy flagship 4X4s now commanding six-figure price tags, owning one is but a dream to many.

Unless you look toward the classifieds, of course. Thanks to the wonders of depreciation — if you’re prepared to keep a rainy-day fund for some routine maintenance and repairs — it’s now possible to own a proper sports off-roader for less than the price of a high-end mountain bike.

With vast alloys and hefty kerbweights, their tyres will need to be carefully considered, though. Luckily, Kumho’s ultra-high performance ECSTA PS71 SUV range offers a similarly alluring blend of performance and value — in a wide range of sizes. 

So, without further ado, get ready to gawp at how much performance and practicality you can get for so little cash. Here’s our five favourite fast SUVs for £35,000 or less.

£5,000 – Porsche Cayenne S 4.8 (2007)

Sure, it’s not the fire-breathing turbo model — although particularly well-loved examples of those can be picked up for £5,000 — but this 4.8-litre version of Porsche’s inaugural Cayenne still offers just shy of 400 bhp. And that’s not all, it was also one of the first SUVs to feel properly sporty to drive. With steering and braking performance that could trouble far more focused performance cars, the Cayenne really did what it said on the tin.

Granted, the styling of early models wasn’t (and still isn’t) to all tastes, but at this price point we wouldn’t quibble. And, of course, upkeep and repair costs are a significant consideration with any 18-year-old machine. However, you can soften that slightly scary proposition by fitting Kumho’s affordable PS71 SUV tyres, without compromising on performance. Designed with a reinforced sidewall to improve handling performance and durability, the PS71 SUV should have little trouble taming the Cayenne’s considerable power and mass.

£10,000 – Volvo XC60 T6 Polestar Edition (2013)

For around twice the price of the Cayenne, you could have something far rarer. In fact, as high-performance SUVs go, Volvo’s XC60 T6 Polestar Edition is about as obscure as they come.

Hailing from an era where Polestar was a niche tuning arm of Volvo (rather than the fully-fledged EV brand it is today) this tuned up crossover sat on the top-rung of the XC60 range. Polestar’s treatment included uprating the already potent T6 3.0-litre turbocharged engine so that it now produced around 325 bhp, as well as coating the XC60 in that signature shade of blue.

We don’t just like it because it’s unusual, either. Being an XC60 at heart, the Polestar Edition was a practical and usable family SUV first, and a high-performance machine second. That means it’s great in inclement conditions and on rough roads, which is why it makes sense to kit it out with ECSTA PS71 SUV tyres. With a modified tread compound improving wet grip, Kumho’s dedicated SUV tyre should help to bolster the XC60’s all-rounder credentials. 

£15,000  –  Audi SQ5 (2014)

As the only diesel-powered option on this list, you might think Audi’s SQ5 is the boring, sensible pick. You’d be wrong. While a 3.0-litre turbo diesel engine in a humdrum Q5 might not sound like a recipe for smiles per gallon, the SQ5’s 479 lb-ft of torque means it feels even peppier to drive than its 5.1-second 0-60 mph time would suggest. Moreover, the S department furnished the Q5 with sharper handling courtesy of a 30mm reduction in ride height, plus beefier brakes to rein in the added grunt.
 
Meanwhile, where other fast petrol-powered SUVs were returning around 25 mpg in the real world, the SQ5 would happily break 40 mpg. So it’s as frugal as it is thrilling to drive. And, if you want to make the most of that stellar economy, Kumho’s ECSTA PS71 SUV tyre boasts a High Dispersion 'Micro Silica' tread compound engineered to maximise fuel efficiency and minimise tyre wear. Win, win.

£20,000 – BMW X5 M (2011)

Moving up to £20,000, we’ve really turned the boost gauge up to 11. Meet BMW’s scorching, X5 M. As the first X5 to get the full-bore M treatment, the X5 M sported the same 4.4-litre, 560-bhp, twin-turbo V8 as the contemporary M5. Oh, and don’t forget, the SUV married this formidable output to an all-wheel-drive system, so it could deploy that power with remarkable efficiency. The end result was a 2,400 kg family bus that could rocket to 60 mph in 4.4 seconds or, in other words, faster than anything in its class.

What’s more, for £20,000 you can now buy the very nicest, lowest mileage examples of the first-gen X5M. Just don’t forget about the tyres which, at an enormous 315/30/22 on the rear, are both costly and integral to keeping the X5 M’s power and ability in check. Thankfully, Kumho’s ECSTA PS71 SUV offers superb value whilst providing the sort of confidence-inspiring traction a car of this nature needs.

£35,000  – Range Rover Sport SVR (2018)

As you might expect, we’ve saved the best ‘till last: the venerable Range Rover Sport SVR. Believe it or not, Land Rover’s physics-defying Sport can now be had for as little as £28,000. The model we’re most interested today (the facelift) does command closer to £35,000, though.

So what makes the SVR so special? Fast SUVs had been done before, right? That’s true, but it was the SVR’s sense of drama and theatre which elevated it above similar machines. From the deep carbon fibre bonnet nostrils, to the raucous exhaust note and distinctive bucket seats, there’s no mistaking this 575-bhp supercharged brute for a lesser model. 

It could handle, too. Thanks to adaptive suspension and anti-roll bars, the SVR corners flat and level with more agility than you’d think possible for such a vast machine — if you fit suitably grippy tyres, of course. Just like the X5 M, a car of this caliber demands a sizeable contact patch to make the most of a thoroughly developed chassis. That’s why Kumho’s ECSTA PS71 SUV makes such a fine pairing. As well as the aforementioned 'Micro Silica' tread compound to optimise traction and wear, PS71 SUV’s four main wide grooves direct water drainage to ensure the SVR stays on the straight on narrow, regardless of the conditions at play.

So there we have it, five used performance SUVs for any budget. But which tickled your fancy? And were there any depreciated hot 4x4s that we missed?
 

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