diff --git a/maven-surefire-common/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugin/surefire/SurefireProperties.java b/maven-surefire-common/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugin/surefire/SurefireProperties.java
index fd2b4fb..4b13898 100644
--- a/maven-surefire-common/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugin/surefire/SurefireProperties.java
+++ b/maven-surefire-common/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugin/surefire/SurefireProperties.java
@@ -143,19 +143,22 @@
                                                             Properties userProperties, SurefireProperties props )
     {
         SurefireProperties result = new SurefireProperties();
+
+        // SUREFIRE-1385: Make sure user properties are set first, so that system properties
+        // configured in the POM or properties file take precedence
+        
+        // We used to take all of our system properties and dump them in with the
+        // user specified properties for SUREFIRE-121, causing SUREFIRE-491.
+        // Not gonna do THAT any more... instead, we only propagate those system properties
+        // that have been explicitly specified by the user via -Dkey=value on the CLI.
+        result.copyPropertiesFrom( userProperties );
+
         result.copyPropertiesFrom( systemProperties );
 
         result.copyPropertiesFrom( props );
 
         copyProperties( result, systemPropertyVariables );
-        copyProperties( result, systemPropertyVariables );
 
-        // We used to take all of our system properties and dump them in with the
-        // user specified properties for SUREFIRE-121, causing SUREFIRE-491.
-        // Not gonna do THAT any more... instead, we only propagate those system properties
-        // that have been explicitly specified by the user via -Dkey=value on the CLI
-
-        result.copyPropertiesFrom( userProperties );
         return result;
     }
 
diff --git a/maven-surefire-common/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/plugin/surefire/SurefirePropertiesTest.java b/maven-surefire-common/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/plugin/surefire/SurefirePropertiesTest.java
index af9ee75..6f727b0 100644
--- a/maven-surefire-common/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/plugin/surefire/SurefirePropertiesTest.java
+++ b/maven-surefire-common/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/plugin/surefire/SurefirePropertiesTest.java
@@ -19,6 +19,8 @@
  */
 
 import java.util.Enumeration;
+import java.util.HashMap;
+import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.Properties;
 
 import junit.framework.TestCase;
@@ -75,4 +77,23 @@
 
     }
 
+    public void testCalculateEffectiveProperties_SystemPropertyVariablesOverrideUserProperties()
+    {
+        Properties userProperties = new Properties();
+        userProperties.setProperty( "prop2", "user-property-2" );
+        userProperties.setProperty( "prop3", "user-property-3" );
+
+        Map<String, String> systemPropertyVariables = new HashMap<String, String>( 2 );
+        systemPropertyVariables.put( "prop1", "system-property-variable-1" );
+        systemPropertyVariables.put( "prop2", "system-property-variable-2" );
+
+        SurefireProperties surefireProperties =
+            SurefireProperties.calculateEffectiveProperties( null, systemPropertyVariables, userProperties, null );
+
+        assertEquals( 3, surefireProperties.size() );
+        assertEquals( "system-property-variable-1", surefireProperties.get( "prop1" ) );
+        assertEquals( "system-property-variable-2", surefireProperties.get( "prop2" ) );
+        assertEquals( "user-property-3", surefireProperties.get( "prop3" ) );
+    }
+
 }
diff --git a/surefire-integration-tests/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/surefire/its/jiras/Surefire1385SystemPropertyVariablesOverrideIT.java b/surefire-integration-tests/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/surefire/its/jiras/Surefire1385SystemPropertyVariablesOverrideIT.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b82e603
--- /dev/null
+++ b/surefire-integration-tests/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/surefire/its/jiras/Surefire1385SystemPropertyVariablesOverrideIT.java
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+package org.apache.maven.surefire.its.jiras;
+
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+
+import org.apache.maven.surefire.its.fixture.SurefireJUnit4IntegrationTestCase;
+import org.apache.maven.surefire.its.fixture.SurefireLauncher;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+/**
+ * @author gboue
+ * @since 2.20.1
+ */
+public class Surefire1385SystemPropertyVariablesOverrideIT
+        extends SurefireJUnit4IntegrationTestCase
+{
+
+    @Test
+    public void systemPropertyVariablesShouldOverrideUserProperties()
+    {
+        unpack().sysProp( "prop-2", "from-cli-2" ).sysProp( "prop-3", "from-cli-3" ).executeTest().verifyErrorFree( 3 );
+    }
+
+    private SurefireLauncher unpack()
+    {
+        return unpack( "/surefire-1385-system-property-variables-override" );
+    }
+
+}
diff --git a/surefire-integration-tests/src/test/resources/surefire-1385-system-property-variables-override/pom.xml b/surefire-integration-tests/src/test/resources/surefire-1385-system-property-variables-override/pom.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4ea06c3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/surefire-integration-tests/src/test/resources/surefire-1385-system-property-variables-override/pom.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<!--
+  ~ Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+  ~ or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+  ~ distributed with this work for additional information
+  ~ regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+  ~ to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+  ~ "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+  ~ with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+  ~
+  ~   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+  ~
+  ~ Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+  ~ software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+  ~ "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+  ~ KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+  ~ specific language governing permissions and limitations
+  ~ under the License.
+  -->
+<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+     xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
+  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
+
+  <parent>
+    <groupId>org.apache.maven.surefire</groupId>
+    <artifactId>it-parent</artifactId>
+    <version>1.0</version>
+    <relativePath>../pom.xml</relativePath>
+  </parent>
+
+  <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins.surefire</groupId>
+  <artifactId>surefire-1385</artifactId>
+  <version>1.0</version>
+
+  <properties>
+    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
+  </properties>
+
+  <dependencies>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>junit</groupId>
+      <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
+      <version>4.12</version>
+      <scope>test</scope>
+    </dependency>
+  </dependencies>
+
+  <build>
+    <plugins>
+      <plugin>
+        <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
+        <configuration>
+          <systemPropertyVariables>
+            <prop-1>from-system-property-variable-1</prop-1>
+            <prop-2>from-system-property-variable-2</prop-2>
+          </systemPropertyVariables>
+        </configuration>
+      </plugin>
+    </plugins>
+  </build>
+</project>
diff --git a/surefire-integration-tests/src/test/resources/surefire-1385-system-property-variables-override/src/test/java/ATest.java b/surefire-integration-tests/src/test/resources/surefire-1385-system-property-variables-override/src/test/java/ATest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..10ecdb3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/surefire-integration-tests/src/test/resources/surefire-1385-system-property-variables-override/src/test/java/ATest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
+
+public class ATest
+{
+
+    @Test
+    public void testProp1()
+    {
+        assertEquals( "from-system-property-variable-1", System.getProperty( "prop-1" ) );
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testProp2()
+    {
+        assertEquals( "from-system-property-variable-2", System.getProperty( "prop-2" ) );
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testProp3()
+    {
+        assertEquals( "from-cli-3", System.getProperty( "prop-3" ) );
+    }
+}