With their light footprint, seating for one or more passengers and a usefully large load bay, side-by-side
utility vehicles have found a growing place on UK and Irish farms, around 4,500 units selling to professional
operators every year. Here we look at six UTVs to give you an appetiser to the tasty choices on offer
We had struggled to bring together exactly like-for-like ATVs in our group test last month, and we have done an even poorer job this time with these six UTVs. On price alone, the least expensive model starts at just under £9,000, the most-costly topping in excess of £20,000, albeit with a full cab, powerful heater and screen demister.
Although this may not help too much when trying to compare like-for-like models within a broadly similar price bracket, our aim here is to illustrate the broad range of UTV models on offer. Take a look at alternatives marketed by the same manufacturer, such as Kawasaki, and you will note that it has Mule models that start at an ATV-rivalling price of just over £6,000 for a 401cc petrol-engine Mule SX through to pretty much double that for a two-seater Mule Pro DX diesel.
This leads to the question of petrol versus diesel. It’s clear where diesel has advantages, to include fuelling costs and convenience, but, for many, going for an oil burner isn’t always the best option. Petrol UTV sales remain strong for reasons that run to a broad choice of models and more affordable entry prices.
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