Category: Small 4x4s 
Price Range: £17,815 to £25,455
Good value for money, large and reasonably roomy, well-equipped; doesn't pretend to be a proper off-roader.
Bouncy, wallowy ride; less-than-sharp handling; gutless petrol engine.
Cheap and cheerful, but has no unique selling point, nor any reason to choose it over its similarly cut-price Korean rivals. Feels dated already.
Despite its all-American badge, the Chevrolet Captiva has been mainly developed in South Korea by GM Daewoo, with a view to global sales: it has sister models including the US-market Saturn Vue and the Vauxhall/Opel Antara. In Chevy-badged form, it comes with 2.4-litre (133bhp) petrol and 2.0-litre (150bhp) diesel engines, with the options of a seven-seat layout and a five-speed automatic gearbox.
General Motors has virtually abandoned the pretence that the Captiva is an off-roader; the 2.4 petrol model comes with front-wheel-drive only, and the diesels have just a road-biased torque-on-demand automatic four-wheel-drive system, with no locking differentials, low-ratio gears or any other off-roading aids bar electronic hill descent control. Think of this as a high-riding family estate car, not a 4x4. But how many SUV buyers actually need four-wheel-drive, anyway?
