By Gary and Genie Anderson

COURTESY OF land rover If you have a cabin on the coast or are an avid skier, the Land Rover LR3 HSE provides 90 cubic feet of cargo space and comfortable seating for five adults.

Coming into autumn, families can look forward to activities that require some serious hauling capacity: weekend getaways and holiday trips or just ferrying an athletic team or Scout troop to an away event. For these trips, you may need room for as many as seven passengers, a large cargo capacity and, in some cases, power to pull a heavy trailer.

If this is the case, then a sport-utility vehicle may be the only sensible choice, despite its thirst for gasoline.

If you can afford a $50,000 vehicle and want the best in the class, then we can recommend one of two trucks - yes, trucks, let’s call a spade a spade - that we drove last mont the 2006 Land Rover LR3 HSE and the 2006 Infiniti QX56.

These are very different vehicles. Which one makes sense for you?

One question will clear that up. If the person in your family who will be in the driver’s seat most frequently saw a catalog from REI and one from Pottery Barn lying on a table, which would he or she pick up first?

If you answered “REI,” then the Land Rover LR3 HSE, the improved descendent of the old Discovery, is the vehicle for you. In this price range, it is the most all-around competent off-road vehicle built.

This is the one you want if you have a vacation cabin on the coast, plan camping trips into the many parks within driving distance of us, or purchase your season passes to your favorite ski resort as soon as Any Mountain offers its preseason specials.

Step up into the interior and you know this is one serious go-anywhere truck. Edges and corners are squared-off and there are a variety of stowage slots, equipment compartments and cargo nets within easy reach for tools, equipment and gear.

Under your right hand on the center console is an impressive array of knobs that give you exactly the right combination of gearing, wheel control and braking for any surface and pitch under your wheels.

Shift the single knob in the center to the icons for road, forest, gravel, mud or snow and you’re ready to tackle any surface, with the vehicle selecting high or low gearing as appropriate, raising or lowering ride height as much as two inches and ready to transfer power to whatever wheel has traction.

Face a downhill slope as steep as 30 degrees and a press of the Hill Descent Control will automatically maintain the downhill speed at a slow, safe pace without any pressure on the throttle or brake.

The standard navigation system in the dash not only offers on-road directions but can be switched to off-road map coordinates and waypoints, and even has a screen for off-road driving and towing information.

With all seats open, you can carry five adults in complete comfort, and an additional two adult or child passengers in the third row when you need to ferry a group to the chair lifts.

Fold down the seats to form a completely flat cargo floor, and an awesome 90 cubic feet of cargo will fit through the easy-opening tailgate/hatch.

If you need to haul a trailer of canoes, snowmobiles or horses, no worries. The 300 horsepower and 315 pound-feet of torque, with the trailer-towing accessories, can haul up to 7,700 pounds.

But what if your driver reached for the Pottery Barn catalog and expects to be transporting a gymnastics team to practice or visiting a weekend antiques fair?

Then the luxurious, flexible and commodious Infiniti QX56, built on the same chassis as the Nissan Armada, is for you.

Billed as “luxury on a grand scale,” the cabin is as sleek and living-room-like as the Land Rover is tough and toolbox-like. Passengers in the second row (captain’s chairs optional) will feel as if they’re in the cabin of a private jet, and even third-row occupants won’t complain.

For its enormous size - equivalent to the Cadillac Escalade and Lincoln Navigator - this is still an easy vehicle to drive, and 315 horsepower and 390 pound-feet of torque can propel its bulk at comfortable highway speeds. Effective sound-proofing insures that three couples on the way to the symphony can enjoy a taste of the evening to come with concert quality Bose sound.

When the vehicle is shifted to reverse, the navigation screen shifts to show a televised view of the rear of the vehicle.

Though it has less interior space than the Land Rover, the QX56 seats fold flat to carry up to 61 cubic feet of antiques or soccer balls in the carpeted cargo area.

With the vast array of standard equipment on the QX56, the only other question you have to ask before selecting the color scheme is whether there is snow travel in your vehicle’s future. If so, opt for the four-wheel-drive version, which adds about $3,000 to the base price but will allow you to bypass the chain controls on mountain passes. The two-wheel drive offers greater towing capacity and slightly better gas mileage.

Oh, that. Fortunately the gas tanks on both vehicles are large enough to enable long cruises between gas stations, but you’ll use the better part of a $100 bill to fill up the tank in either vehicle. The Land Rover is rated 14 mpg city and 18 mpg highway, and the Infiniti 4×2 is rated 13 mpg city and 19 mpg highway. In the real world, figure that neither will give you more than 15 mpg in mixed use.

But if you do need the people, cargo and trailer hauling capacity of a sport-utility, at least you’ll know you’re driving the vehicles that are rated at the top of their class.

Gary and Genie Anderson, Los Altos residents for more than 20 years, are co-owners of Enthusiast Publications LLC, which edits MC Squared, the MINI magazine, and contributes articles and columns to a variety of other automobile magazines.