Well, these are two pretty similar cars we have here! It's only details that could potentially make the difference. Considering they both belong to the suv segment and utilize the same 3-door suv body style and the 4 x 4 wheel drive system, it all comes up to the specific petrol engine choice they offer. The first one has a Rover-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 6-cylinder, 24-valves 177hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 128hp engine designed by Suzuki.

The fact that the Suzuki got tested by the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP), while the other contender didn't, isn't really an advantage, taken the poor 3-star rating it received. Still, apart from the official crash test results there are other things we need to be aware of. Both vehicles belong to the suv segment, which is generally a very good thing safety-wise, but that fact doesn't break the tie between the two cars. Furthermore, if we'd like to consider vehicle mass in this context too, which we definitely should, the British car offers a considerable difference of 27% more metal.

Manufacturers have been building their reliability reputation for decades now and, generally speaking, it appears that Suzuki presents an order of magnitude better choice, at least on all of the models level. That's the official data, while our visitors describe reliability of Land Rover with an average rating of 3.8, and models under the Suzuki badge with 4.6 out of 5. Some independent research have also placed Freelander as average reliability-wise, and Grand Vitara is more or less at the same level.Above it all, drivers of cars with the same engine as the British car rank it on average as 5.0 out of 5, exactly the same as the other one.

There's not enough data for me to elaborate on the subject, I'm affraid.

Suzuki is apparently more reliable, not too much, but just enough. The most important thing when deciding between any two vehicles should always be safety, both passive and active. In this case though, it seems that both cars show similar levels of passenger protection all together, so that won't break a tie. When it comes to performance, both vehicles provide similar experience, so I wouldn't point any of them out. Fuel consumption is more or less the same. No mistake, whatever you decide here, but I'd still go for the Suzuki. In any case that's my personal view, built upon all the data available to me. What should decide here though is the way you feel about the two vehicles, and I hope you'll find my guidelines useful in the process. Also, you could use the oportunity to find out which car, everything taken into account, would be the perfect choice for you in the eyes of the virtual adviser™, among thousands of similar, yet so different vehicles.