Nigel Fryatt – contributor

Our RAV4 is knocking closer to the 100,000-mile mark and 10,000 of those miles have been done in the eight months since we bought the vehicle. In that time, while we’ve been checking, it has needed very little oil, and it’s not too thirsty, either; we have been averaging around the 35mpg mark.

Perhaps it would be better with new windscreen wipers, and we are very pleased with the Continental winter tyres fitted, but apart from that, costs have been very low, and it has been eight almost problem-free months. Still doesn’t make you that confident when you take your 4×4 for the MoT and an annual service does it?

Ann Lockley – contributor

Kelsey rides like a new rig after the installation of 90 per cent of her new Terrafirma parts! Getting the parts installed, however, proved to be a bit of a challenge. My long-time friend, and the person responsible for introducing me to Land Rovers some 20 years ago, Jason Coakley, manages Simoes Automotive, the shop that installed the new transmission in the summer. The trans swap was worse than a nightmare and the owner, Norbert Simoes, had actually banned ‘Kels’ from ever stepping ‘tyre’ in the parking lot ever again. Thankfully, he was enjoying a week’s vacation in the Bahamas – perfect timing. Glen van Drecht, the newest mechanic, offered to do the work. He did a great job, for his first Range Rover; even went so far as putting on new brake pads free of charge, and was still talking to me at the end of it…

Ian Shaw – contributor

Having spent most of my career as a magazine road tester, I am constantly questioning what separates a great vehicle from a merely good one; a vehicle you can respect from one you love. When it comes to the vehicle you own, the question has amplified validity – after all, it’s one’s own money at stake. Do you buy with heart or head – or a combination of the two?

If truth be known, I bought my Defender 110 Utility Wagon with a combination of the two. I don’t consider myself a dyed-in-the-wool Land Rover fanatic, I didn’t grow up on a farm or learn to drive in a Series III, and, other than tinkering with an ancient Series IIA a mate owned in our late teens, my first real experience of Land Rovers was as test editor on the old Off Road & 4Wheel Drive magazine when a 110 Hi-Capacity Pick-up arrived for test in 1989.

Bob Cooke – contributor

Derek was thinking: ‘I didn’t mean to get into this position, but there’s no point in stopping now – pedal to the metal and hope it all comes right!’ It was the moment I thought he was going to put Eugene’s rollover bar to the test for real, the moment I realised I was actually watching the underside of the Hotchkiss as it scrambled by, showering mud from its whirling bargrips.

I guess it was Gary’s fault. He had seen the Hotchkiss and expressed an interest in doing a little off-roading. Naturally, I’d invited him to join us at Boxgrove to have a little drive round in Eugene. Gary did take it very carefully for the first few minutes, so much so that he was making hard work of some of the obstacles. Hence I suggested that he could try going a little faster. Oh dear.

Garry Stuart – contributor

A drive up to Scotland to photograph the Scotia Extreme Winch Challenge was the last straw for me this winter. As I have mentioned previously, I have gone through this winter without a heater in the Nissan, due to a leaking heater matrix. After a long day on a freezing muddy Scottish hillside, I was faced with an equally freezing, four-hour-drive home. Not nice!

The next day I phoned Mark, who runs the local Kirkdale Garage in St Annes, Lancashire, and asked him to order a new matrix pronto. His suppliers seemed to have difficulty in getting one so I got onto the internet and in 15 minutes had bought one from an eBay store (www.demisterman.co.uk) which arrived by courier two days later. The Terrano was then booked into Kirkdale Garage for some major surgery. This will be the subject of a future 4×4 workshop feature, so I’ll say no more about it other than it was a traumatic experience.

Louise Limb – contributor

If Monday this week saw me well and truly into my second half century, today was also a significant milestone in my Grand Vitara’s (we hope) long relationship with the open road. As I pootled through Long Preston, a village on the A65 along the stretch from Skipton to Kendal, the numbers on the milometer suddenly changed from 40 something to a tidy 50,000. If my Suzuki had been a horse, I’d have patted it on the neck and given it a carrot.

It had been a good day, not too much chugging and no sliding at all really, even on the wet bits; leftovers from hilltop rain sluicing down into overworked gullies and forming puddles of a depth that can surprise. Ever since I spent a whopping £700 (give or take four pounds) on the beast between Christmas and New Year to cure the sluggishness and a seeming lack of revs, of which a cracked diesel filter housing had been the chief suspect, the Suzuki has continued, determinedly, to behave as if it is in way too high a gear for the speed. I’m lucky if I can maintain third gear when stuck behind ditherers who hate driving and think 40 is a suitable maximum speed; ‘quite fast enough for anyone’ as my dad used to say in his twilight driving years. A teeth-rattling diesel chug is standard, then, on the road, more so when I steer to the left. Off road and in 4 high, the problem evaporates. Hmm, must mention this to Jeepman Phil, when I finally admit defeat and take the Vitara back to him for further tinkering. Or maybe my 4×4 has the menopause…

Hils Everitt – Editor

In this cold weather we’ve experienced – although by the time you read this we are probably in the first flushes of spring, the snowdrops and crocuses are making a valiant effort and the daff shoots are poking their heads above the thawed earth – a car heater is one of those luxuries you just can’t do without.

I admire contribs Toby Savage and Bob Cooke and all those other mad people in their classic Jeeps enjoying the bracing, fresh  air, but give me a good, powerful and effective heater any day.

And that’s another way in which I can sing our long-term Jimny’s praises. Ok, so, yes, it’s a small 4×4 so not so much area to heat up, but boy when you get that little 1.3-litre fired up, the heater’s on full blast at top temp, it really is toasty in no time. So toasty, in fact, that I always end up overdoing it and have to turn it down quickly to avoid a really hot flush.