Mayor Ken Livingstone may be against ‘Chelsea Taxis’ in the city and there may be plans to levy a £900 per year car tax on them, or even ban them altogether from London’s roads as has been done in Paris, but a recent survey shows the British continue to love their 4x4s.

The survey by independent insurance intermediary the A&A Group, based on the number of requests for quotes by 4x4 owners over a nine-month period to May this year, indicates that men are by far the keenest to get behind the wheel.

Nearly 75% of those requesting a 4x4 quote were men, although this will have something to do with the overall split of man and women on the road.

The 4x4 men most wanted to insure was the Mitsubishi Pajero, which accounted for 27% of the total. Second was another Mitsubishi, the Shogun (16%) and third the Land Rover Discovery (11%). Other 4x4s popular with men included the Toyota Cruiser, Land Rover Freelander and Range Rover, and the Suzuki Vitara.

The Mitsubishi Pajero and Shogun were also favourites with women drivers, accounting for 21.6% and 15% of requests for quotes respectively. But for women, the Suzuki Vitara was a clear third.

In descending order the top 10 most popular 4x4s with men and women in the A&A Group survey were:

Men		Women
1. Mitsubishi Pajero		Mitsubishi Pajero
2. Mitsubishi Shogun		Mitsubishi Shogun
3. Land Rover Discovery		Suzuki Vitara
4. Toyota Cruiser		Land Rover Freelander
5. Land Rover Range Rover		Toyota Rav 4
6. Land Rover Freelander		Land Rover Discovery
7. Suzuki Vitara		Toyota Cruiser
8. Vauxhall Frontera		Isuzu Trooper
9. Honda CRX		Vauxhall Frontera
10. Isuzu Trooper		Honda CRX

The big 4x4s are clearly the most popular with A&A Group customers according to the survey of nearly 1,400 4x4 owners, and 4x4s overall have seen sales boom in the past 12 months: one report said sales were up over 17% nationwide.