A Festival — Of Mud: Retired Journo Puts SUVs to the Test

At this year’s Mudfest, a retired automotive journalist drives an absurd range of SUVs and one pickup truck to see which one he likes best. Find out which one wins and check out other shenanigans.

Every year, up in the state of Washington, the NorthWest Automotive Press Association (NWAPA) gets together to do a side-by-side-by-side test of some of the best SUVs (and occasionally pickup trucks) on the market. It’s technically called the Northwest Outdoor Activity Vehicle of the Year competition, but it’s more familiarly known as Mudfest.

At Mudfest, journalists drive the vehicles on-road and on a pretty gentle off-road course, that’s still more than most SUVs and trucks will ever see of mud. Generally speaking, the contest is for SUVs that are new in that year, because it would be literally impossible to drive every SUV on the market in 2026.

Even limited to new SUVs, it’s a wide field, so they carve it up into luxury, three-row, economy two-row, and pickups. Let’s get the pickup out of the way so I can stop talking about it — Ram brought their new 2026 Ram1500 Warlock truck to the event. It was great for hooning around in the mud and hills with a 5.7-liter Hemi engine and all the four-wheel drive stuff. It costs $62,230. No other automaker brought a truck, so that’s that.

To EV or not to EV

Here’s an interesting fact: none of the SUVs at this event cost less than $40,000. While that, in itself, is an eye-opening fact, what’s more interesting is that there are several EV-SUVs (SEVs?) in the economy “two-row family SUV” class. For example, we had the 2026 Hyundai Ioniq 5 XRT priced at $48,115 and the Subaru Trailseeker Limited at $45,840 and the larger Subaru Uncharted at $46,215.

These EVs were directly classed with the Kia Sportage X-Pro Prestige AWD at $42,055 and the Mazda CX-5 S Premium Plus at $41,080. There was also the Toyota RAV4 Woodland at $42,200, and the Volkswagen Tiguan SEL R-Line Turbo at $44,500. The class also included a Jeep Wrangler Moab 392 at $85,425 and a nice new Subaru Outback at $49,445.

On the first day we got to drive all these vehicles on a prepared paved course with a zero-to-60 (or higher) acceleration test and then a panic stop, followed by a fairly challenging and tight run around a race made for go-karts. This is the first place where the EVs stood out strongly. Their acceleration is legendary, but it’s also silky smooth where the four-cylinder engines in the Kia, Mazda, and VW, and even in the Toyota Hybrid felt … like last century’s tech. The EVs continued to stand out on the go-kart course with low center of gravity and the ability to one-pedal the vehicle around the course.

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Moving off-road

The off-road portion of the contest reinforced the on-road impressions. Subaru and Hyundai have delivered vehicles that will go anywhere the gas-fired vehicles will go, only they’ll do it silently and with less wheel-slip drama.

The Subaru Uncharted has an EPA-estimated range of 273 miles and the Subaru Trailseeker will go one mile farther than that. The Hyundai Ioniq will hit 259 miles — and I’ll note that real-world applications are showing most EVs will go farther than the EPA says they’ll go.

So, by the end of the event, if you told me to spend my own money, the Subaru Trailseeker was a no-brainer choice among the economy class vehicles. First of all, it’s right-sized. Fans of the original Legacy Outback and first-generation Subaru Forester (or the Impreza/WRX wagons) will appreciate the combination of a long roof and plenty of space with truly breathtaking performance. The $1,000 to $5,000 price bump compared to the gas cars is inconsequential and honestly will be recovered quickly at this year’s gas prices.

The Subaru Uncharted was a little bigger than I liked, but the same no-brainer logic applies. If you need a slightly larger SUV and you want the EV performance, there’s your choice. This is not to say the Hyundai is a bad choice — far from it. But Subaru has really set the bar with these new EVs.

Bigger and Bigger

Among the three-row contenders we had the closely related Hyundai Palisade XRT Pro and Kia Telluride X-Pro, together with the Honda Pilot Elite and the 2026 Mitsubishi Outlander Trail Edition. Of these, only the Mitsubishi retails under $45,000.

While the Mitsubishi lagged a bit in on-road speed performance, it seemed to be to be at least as nice inside as the others, and was competent in the off-pavement testing. Honda opted out of taking the Pilot off-road, as the Elite trim was definitely urban chic. The Kia and the Hyundai were the ostensibly off-road trims, and they did fine on the grass and mud.

Still, for the money, I thought the Mitsubishi was the best option. This brand is often overlooked in a market jam-packed with mid-size three row contenders, and that’s to the detriment of the buying public. The Outlander is worth a close look, if you’re shopping that market, and it’s available as a plug-in hybrid.

Electric is the New Luxury

Luxury SUVs are always fun, and we had four vitally interesting options this year. First, the 2026 Lucid Gravity was the high-price leader at $125,650. That’s steep, and the Gravity makes no apologies for it. While value is in the eye of the beholder, I’ll note that the Gravity went zero-to-93 mph in the space allotted for a zero-to-60 run, and then stopped in a remarkably short distance. It handled well, went off-road, and did it all with that trademark Lucid science fiction driving experience. This thing is cool, and if you’ve got that kind of money for a crossover SUV, I can’t say a bad thing about the Gravity.

We also had the 2026 Polestar 4 crossover, with all-wheel electric drive, almost as fast as the Lucid, and very much a comfortable and capable on-road vehicle at $79,100. Polestar also opted out of the off-road, so it wasn’t considered for an award, but honestly, no one’s going to take a Lucid or a Polestar on the kind of paths we did. Here again, in the luxury segment, Polestar is a compelling choice.

On the gas-fired side, Genesis brought us two versions of their GV80 SUVs. These were powered by their 3.5-liter turbo V6 and clocked in at $85,395 and $91,545. Like all Genesis products, these were flawless in luxury and performance. Even the tach and speedo needles have this cool little flamey thing going on like Kylo Ren’s lightsaber. But you know what? For that price in the $80s, I’m going to go with the Polestar and its 280 miles of range and have enough money left over to have a nice charging system installed at my house.

The Official Results

When it was all over, the assembled journalists voted for their favorite vehicles in all the categories, plus a special award for EVs and for extreme off-road capability.

To no one’s surprise, the Jeep Wrangler Moab was far and away the favorite for extreme hooning. The journalists felt the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid offered the best value, and the Kia Telluride was the best three-row. The Lucid predictably picked up the best luxury SUV award.

I’m pleased to say I wasn’t out in left field on the Subaru Trailseeker, though. The Trailseeker picked up the awards for best two-row SUV, best electrified SUV, and the overall award for the Northwest Outdoor Activity Vehicle of the Year. Honestly, this was no surprise, based on the discussions between the professional automotive journalists at the event. Subaru has really knocked it out of the park with the Trailseeker, and you should head to a Subaru dealer and check it out.