Rexton

After a week with the Kyron, we changed over to the Rexton in a key-for-key swap and climbing aboard it became immediately obvious that for another £2,000 you get an awful lot more vehicle.

It’s bigger for starters – although not hugely so – but the general impression is of more weight, better build quality and infinitely superior road manners.

The seats are bigger and more comfortable and don’t feel as though you are sitting on a bar stool as with the Kyron.

Payload is more (740kg as opposed to 530kg in the Kyron) but curiously enough, loadspace is slightly less, although it’s such a small difference that you’d hardly notice in everyday situations.

On the road, the extra power output (165bhp) makes this vehicle fairly fly along, despite its massive weight.

However, you pay the price in fuel economy.

The official figure is 37.7mpg, but we didn’t manage anywhere near that during our test week.

Another curious point about the Rexton is that the driver can’t select four-wheel drive – the vehicle decides what mode it needs to be in under any given circumstance and does it automatically.

Personally, I like to make decisions like that myself but hey, that’s technology for you.

The Land Rover Freelander 2 Commercial we had on test the other month was the same, so presumably we’ll eventually see an end to those second gearlevers.

On the plus side, the steering felt much more precise and the wallowing that the Kyron suffers from was noticeably missing, thank goodness.

All in all this vehicle felt much better screwed together and much more sorted in the ride and handling department.

Verdict

For fleet seeking cheap and cheerful off-road capabilities, the Kyron will do the job and more.

But unless you really can’t afford any extra cash, we’d definitely recommend the Rexton instead.