There’s no doubt whatsoever that the small SUV segment is the hottest battle ground in Australia right now – certainly in terms of the market volume that is rushing to it in large numbers.

Some manufacturers are so enamoured with the concept, they even have two entrants in the segment – think Audi Q2 and Q3 for example, which effectively sit in very similar parts of the market even though the marketing blurb will claim otherwise.

Vehicles that effectively amount to high-riding city hatchbacks with obligatory black plastic cladding added to toughen them up, are now so unashamedly city-focused, manufacturers increasingly offer them in 2WD guise only. Regular CarAdvice readers will know how I feel about anything that purports to be an ‘SUV’ but is in fact 2WD. Thankfully, there’s no such malarkey here, then.

Lined up and staged for this small SUV tussle, we’ve selected the Mazda CX-3 sTouring and Subaru XV 2.0i – both AWD, and both petrol. Firm crowd favourite and relative newcomer in the shape of the Mazda; all-new but with decades of SUV heritage in the case of the Subaru – this could be tougher than it might first appear.
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Read full post here:
https://www.caradvice.com.au/567827/2017-subaru-xv-2-0i-v-mazda-cx-3-stouring-awd-comparison/