The first Discovery was unveiled some 25 years ago. This new version is a very different beast, and the start of a whole new family of vehicles.
Words: Nigel Fryatt Photography: Land Rover
To quote English novelist L. P. Hartley, ‘the past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.’ Back in 1989, the Land Rover Discovery was unveiled to critical acclaim both for its exterior looks and its radical Terence Conran designed interior. It was a major new model for the company, starting a whole new model range, and that despite it being something of a ‘bitza’ product, strongly linked to the Range Rover but with other parts from the then British Leyland empire, including the Sherpa commercial van and even the now much maligned Austin Maestro. Remember them? As Hartley said, they certainly did things ‘differently’ back then.
As we are mentioning the coming colder months here, it will also mean shorter days and a lot less sunlight. Working on a vehicle in the afternoon – especially when you are underneath it! – can be difficult, and a head torch can be an ideal accessory. Of course, these are also a ‘must have’ for all people thinking of travelling overland, and to be honest great to have even if you are just venturing to a UK campsite. If you are going to get one, then we have no problem recommending this one from ARB, it’s a 5W LED headlamp, fully adjustable and will run for a claimed seven hours. It comes complete with three AAA batteries and has a RRP of £24. Further details and your local distributor can be found on the Arbil 4×4 website.
There’s something somewhat ethereal about driving Mitsubishi’s cutting edge Outlander PHEV. It’s not the silence when cruising around town on its electric motors; it’s more the feeling of remoteness from the driving experience, which leaves the driver feeling rather like the captain of a ship relaying instructions for someone else to perform the required manoeuvre. Certainly the unearthly silence as the car pulls away adds to the overall effect, but it’s not the hybrid technology that drains the car of any feeling of excitement, it’s just the growing trend among most mainstream manufacturers to cosset the occupants of their cars against the harsh realities of bustling traffic by engineering the feel and feedback out of controls and switches so driving becomes more like playing a computer game, while packing in worthy but control-sapping technologies such as lane departure warnings, parking sensors and even automatic accident avoidance systems to counter the consequent loss of concentration as the driver fiddles with the multi-media touch-screen display. In the Outlander hybrid, the effect is enhanced by a transmission controlled by a computer-like joystick devoid of the positive action of a proper gear lever, the driver’s attention meanwhile being drawn from the road ahead by the large graphic dashboard display showing whether it’s the electric motors or the petrol engine or both at work, as if the driver a): needed to know, considering that the whole idea of seamless interaction of the various propulsion and battery charging modes is that it requires no input from the driver and b): couldn’t tell when the petrol engine cuts in by the added noise and vibration. There isn’t much of that, but only the most insensitive soul wouldn’t notice it.
Words and photography: Nick Redmayne
It wasn’t long ago that we were all being encouraged to buy diesel engine vehicles. The result is that many 4x4s today are so powered. Things are changing now, there’s even a scrappage scheme planned…
It seems that the Honda CR-V is the most reliable 4×4/SUV on the market. So claims the annual Which? Car Survey, which has named the Honda CR-V 2.2 i-DTEC the UK’s most reliable 4×4/SUV up to three-years old. The report actually says the Honda has zero reported breakdowns, average annual repair costs of just £10 and an overall reliability score of 98.5 per cent over a 12 month period. The research was based on an impressive 49,000 owners, reporting on some 58,000 vehicles, so that’s a fair sample. To celebrate this success, Honda has a summer campaign where customers can pick up a Honda CR-V 2.2 i-DTEC Black or White Edition for a monthly payment of just £349, with a £500 deposit contribution. Additionally with the option of a comprehensive care package offering five year’s warranty, servicing and roadside assistance for a one-off payment of £555, it is claimed that owners can assume their running costs are covered for the next five years, and that they stand to make potential savings of up to £1290.
This recent hot weather does bring with it the odd thunderstorm and if you are caught out driving in a heavy rainfall it can be an alarming experience. There seems to be too much water falling and the wipers often don’t seem able to cope. There is a cheap and highly effective way to aid your vision. Armor All produce a product called Shield for Glass and it has an amazing affect of almost ‘repelling’ the water. It’s used by a lot of motorsport enthusiasts when caught in a rainstorm while racing. Trust us, it works! Available at a lot of motor suppliers or you can call 0845 602 1995 for find your nearest supplier.
The trend to capture on camera your off-road exploits is a growing one. You can see budding film directors following the exploits of friends and family at many a Pay ‘n’ Play day. If this is something you fancy, and would like a ‘driver’s eye view’ of what’s happening then you really need a decent clamp to hold your camera steady… and often that’s not your co-driver bouncing alongside! RAM has some new action camera mounts that solve this problem. We have used a RAM mount before and can confirm that they are certainly rigged and well built, made from marine-grade aluminium, with durable composite plastics and the company’s patented shock-absorbent rubber coated adjustable ball sockets. These things can be fitted to roll cages, windscreens or any flat edge. The range of mounts is comprehensive, check out the website.
The intriguing new hybrid Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV has completed some serious testing in different driving conditions, including hot weather in the deserts of the USA and the cold snowy bits of Canada. It has also completed more than 30,000km over eight weeks of evaluation in Moscow, Yekaterinburg and Tolyatti, where the test cars experienced temperatures as low as -30°C, with snow covered road surfaces, unknown in other cold climate regions where the Outlander PHEV is already retailed. Impressively the car performed very well and with no concern for the electrical charging system.
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