FIFTY GRAND is not what it used to be. Once upon a time, it bought you a top-of-the-line sports car. Even earlier than that, it’s probably what your parents spent on their house. Their four-bedroom one, we mean. In inner Sydney.
These days, it gets you an SUV for hauling around spouse and spawn, and not even a top-spec one.
Of course, while the best salary your parents could ever aspire to would be considered unliveable in 2023, cars have come a long way. The standard equipment list of a car from yesteryear would be lucky to fill a page of A4, whereas today’s run-of-the-mill SUVs pack more equipment and technology than the most advanced vehicles of a generation ago. And we know which one we’d rather have a crash in.
To demonstrate our point, we’ve assembled the best of the sub-$50K bunch if you’re in the market for a new SUV. And while that sum won’t afford you a three-bedder in an Australian city anytime soon, it’ll get you quite a lot of car.
The new Honda CR-V is the latest release of our trio – and it looks it. At 4.7 metres long, it makes the original 1997 CR-V look almost toy-like, and blurs the line between mid-size and
