Truck Trend Editor Mark Williams finally names the winner of our Death Valley 4x4 torture test.
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00:00 Well, here we are at the end of our time with these extreme four-wheel drive SUVs.
00:08 We've been able to take them hundreds of miles off-road.
00:11 We've been able to go through some of the most remote areas of Death Valley, hill climbs,
00:15 sand dunes, extreme rock climbing.
00:18 We've seen it all.
00:19 We've put these vehicles through some of the most extreme torture testing we've ever done
00:23 in the history of the magazine.
00:24 And now we have our finishing order.
00:27 Coming in fifth position, the Land Rover LR2, a very smart all-wheel drive system, but didn't
00:32 have a lot of ground clearance and actually had street tires, so was not one of our main
00:37 competitors.
00:38 In fourth place, the Hummer H3.
00:40 Plenty of ground clearance, has the biggest tires of the group, but also is the most expensive
00:45 and severely limited visibility.
00:47 In third place, the FJ Cruiser.
00:50 Very good powertrain, got a lot of compliments from our testers, but also has bad visibility
00:55 from behind the steering wheel and the four-wheel drive system just was not good enough in all
00:59 the conditions we threw at it.
01:01 And that brings us to our final two, the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon and the Nissan Xterra off-road
01:06 package.
01:07 There was a lot of debate between the judges on this one.
01:10 Both vehicles did exceptionally well in all the competitions we threw at it, in the hill
01:14 climbs and in the extreme trail driving and even on-road performance, which was a small
01:19 part of our category as well, too.
01:21 In terms of the Jeep Rubicon, huge fun-to-drive factor, the only convertible of our group,
01:26 but did have very noisy mud tires.
01:29 Steering got a couple of complaints from our editors, not too precise, but old-school live
01:34 axles, mechanical locking differentials, very cool for trail driving.
01:38 But in the end, it's the Nissan Xterra that wins our competition with a wonderful combination
01:43 of incredible off-road prowess and on-road comfort, as well as a great price point.
01:49 This will be a vehicle that anybody serious about off-roading should take a look at.
01:52 [MUSIC PLAYING]