October was a significant month for Mitsubishi. Retail sales of its Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) have now started in The Netherlands, the designated country in Europe to start what the company firmly believe will be a significant sales drive of ‘alternative’ vehicles. Impressively, Mitsubishi has 10,000 signed orders for the Outlander PHEV across Europe since order books opened in December 2012. Built at the Okazaki Plant, near Nagoya in Japan, the Outlander PHEV boasts a maximum driving range of 824km (512 miles) of which 52km (32 miles) can be in pure EV mode. The Outlander PHEV is claimed by Mitsubishi to be ‘the first self-power generating twin motor (permanent) 4WD Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle, and it meets its market at a time of profound changes in the mind-set of global customers, vindicating Mitsubishi Motors’ claim of 20 per cent of its production made of electric/hybrid/plug-in hybrid vehicles by 2020.’

When it comes to a real expedition, not for archaeologist Francisco Estrada-Belli the comfort of a modern day, hi tech, four-wheel drive. Not for him some over hyped publicity drive from London to India in vehicles with six figure price tags, this guy’s serious. Professor Estrada-Belli’s weapon of choice is a lifted, big tyred, Jeep Grand Wagoneer of 1985 vintage. There’s a wonderful serendipity that he should use this wonderful old beast during his recent expedition in Guatemala, where he unearthed a previously unknown Mayan stone frieze that dated back to 600AD… perhaps a touch older than the Jeep, but we still think it’s impressive! As you can imagine by just looking at the pictures shown here, it was tough going, as the Professor explained:

“We didn’t treat the poor truck very well. Most places we travel don’t have roads, and more often than not we had to drive in very rainy, muddy conditions with heavy loads. The Jeep’s engine was very tired after years of abuse, so we needed to have it rebuilt before the expedition.”

The timing didn’t work this year for us to have a Toyota Land Cruiser in our 2014 4×4 Of The Year test. This is the first time the model has been ‘missing’ for many a year. The reason was simply that the new model had yet to arrive in the UK. Details have now been released to confirm that it will be on sale on 1st December at a starting price of only £34,995 – making it something of a bargain in the Premium class. Some subtle exterior changes have been made, and the new Land Cruiser will have the Toyota Touch 2 touchscreen multimedia system available for the first time, featuring Google Street View, which the company claims is a UK industry first for Toyota. The models will be available in Active, Icon and Invincible specification. We detailed Toyota’s off-road systems in our December issue, and the new Land Cruiser takes a lot of this one step further with the Icon grade having all the off-road driver assistance technology available as standard. This includes, crawl control, multi-terrain select, trailer stability control, multi terrain monitor, lane change assist with blind spot monitor system and rear cross traffic alert, rear electrical diff lock and fuel tank protector. Even at £52,495 for the top of the range Land Cruiser Invincible, this does represent a lot of 4×4 for the money. New Range Rover or matching his and her Land Cruisers, anyone?

Seller’s market
New car sales in the UK are booming, yet second-hand dealers aren’t knocking down prices as their forecourts fill up with trade-ins, and as Bob Cooke explains, that’s not likely to change any time soonIt may have more to do with the ridiculously high cost of rail travel than with the level of enjoyment to be experienced on Britain’s crowded roads, but sales of new and second-hand cars have been going through the roof in the past few months. The 63-plate boosted September sales by over 12 per cent, making it the best-selling month since March 2008. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders say the increase has partly been fuelled by an increase in demand from private buyers attracted by increasingly fuel-efficient new models – the average consumption of cars purchased in the last three months is 55mpg.

That would seem to preclude many leading 4x4s, but Land Rover reported its best ever September sales with 10,769 vehicles registered, up 11 per cent on the same month last year with Defender sales up 30 per cent, the all new Range Rover up 24 per cent and Evoque up 35 per cent. The new Range Rover Sport made a strong start with sales of 1,309 vehicles during what was only the second month of customer deliveries.