July 2012 Issue of 4×4 Magazine
Given the dreadful weather that we had been having throughout April, it was very pleasing to wake up in the ARB roof tent to realise two things; one, I’d had a great night’s sleep in what is a very comfortable space, and two, it wasn’t raining and the sun was shining! Rapidly dismounting from the heights of Arbil’s excellent mobile shop Ford Ranger, it was a case of ensuring photographer Ros Woodham was awake and able to get snapping.
The results of our camping feature can be seen in this issue, together with our feature getting stuck in with Ian Woolley’s Mudrut gang – an intriguing cast of characters dedicated to the 4×4 game. Ian spends a lot of time in the frozen north chasing the Northern Lights, but we caught him at home in Worcestershire for a great weekend. Many thanks to him and landowner Tony Symonds for being so obliging and great hosts. Tony is a great Toyota Hilux fan, and has a great truck in the UK and an even better pick-up ‘Down Under’ for off-roading in Australia. More of which will be reported in a future issue.
While it remained dry, thankfully, for our camping feature, it was still ridiculously cold overnight. All of which made my quick sojourn over to Portugal to test some new Goodyear 4×4 tyres all the more welcome. The sun came out and we learned that off-roading in Portugal is the second most supported sport in the country after football! Amazing, and the fact that it is possible to drive many hundreds of fantastic tracks across the hills, only makes you very jealous.
Unsurprisingly perhaps, the Range Rover Evoque was voted the Women’s World Car of the Year 2012, beating BMW, Jaguar and Porsche to first place. Audi’s Q3 came third. The jury is based on the votes of female motoring writers from 12 countries and yet again, the Evoque has beaten all before it. Looking at the number of female drivers you see behind the wheel of the new baby Range Rover, its popularity just seems to grow in every sector. One female fan includes Victoria Beckham who appears to have been involved in a collaboration with designer Gerry McGovern to produce the new Evoque Special Edition. Hand finished matt grey paint, 20inch gloss black forged alloy wheels and rose-gold detailing will be exclusive to the new Limited Edition. The interior has Vintage Tan leather, with ‘a bold baseball stitch, detail chosen by Victoria as a tongue-in-cheek reference to her sporting husband David’. There, and you thought he played football, didn’t you? A bespoke luggage set is also included – for those Posh designer dresses… The model initially goes on sale in China later this year. For those of us on Planet Earth, this all seems somewhat frivolous, but with ‘indicative pricing’ of a whooping £79,995, it will undoubtedly sell and is yet another success story in the life of the Evoque.
Sue Loy 
Spent a very wet Sunday morning at our local Toyota dealer this month. Why? Well, it’s time for a change, or rather more of the same as I have decided to change the RAV4. For what, you may wonder… well, for another RAV4! Having spent the last couple of decades living with the Editor of this magazine, I do get the chance to drive an awful lot of 4x4s, so perhaps you’d think I’m not being very imaginative! It’s easy to imagine being the owner of the sumptuous, effortless, powerful, beautiful Range Rover Sport that I drove recently, and I would love one, but sadly that cannot be on the list.
Louise Limb – contributor
In the couple of months since my last entry, the trip to have the brakes looked at again is still very much on the ‘to do’ list (I just drive even more cautiously for now), along with servicing and a peek at the back box of the exhaust, since ‘flatulent elephant’ has now been added to the mental chart of weird noises and sensations emitting from my gently aging steed. My Grand Vitara has served me well (and is so much more solid than the two Vitaras that preceded it), with only the usual catalogue of replacements and repairs, with the addition of course of marque specific irritants like plastic door handles that snap off in your hand, weak bits of trim (for example the power socket – formerly known in the age of the Morris Minor as the cigarette lighter) shattering under normal use and that old chestnut I have now to endure, the possible corrosion of the co axial cable leading to the radio aerial.
There’s a whole new range of SUVs on the way, dubbed the Super SUVs by the London-based ‘boutique luxury carmaker’ Eterniti, and the first in line is the Artemis – according to the company’s effusive press announcement. The Artemis will bring ‘the higher levels of luxury performance and exclusivity demanded by today’s wealthy buyers’, levels that have not, apparently, been available before. The Eterniti Artemis (which is something of a mouthful itself) will go into production later this year, and therefore before the other ‘Super SUVs’ from Bentley, Maserati and Lamborghini (see separate story), with models on sale by the autumn. Extra legroom in the rear allows for this vehicle to be chauffeured and as you would expect ‘only the finest’ leather, quilted undercarpets and boot trim, lambswool rugs, natural wood veneer (is there any other kind of wood?) and carbon fibre will make the interior a very luxurious place to be.
There was a time when the Range Rover’s crown was seriously under threat. Nigel Fryatt remembers the Mitsubishi Shogun and wonders why it never quite achieved its claim of being ‘King Off The Road”
Hils Everitt – Editor at Large
Phew…our new long-termer must have the longest ever official product name we’ve ever had. To make life easier I’ll refer to it as the ‘Tiguan’; but that’s not in any way an attempt to undermine its amazing attributes.
ŠKODA’s all-conquering Yeti has once again showed just how desirable it is, scooping two trophies at this year’s awards from motoring website HonestJohn.co.uk. The honours are unique in that they aren’t handed out by a panel of judges. Instead, the decision-makers are the best experts of all – the website’s users – who reward models which are most searched for and viewed.
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