The UK pick-up market is becoming even more interesting with news that from March, sales of the Chinese pick-up from Great Wall will begin in the UK.
Called the Wingle in China, the new model will – thankfully – be known as the Steed in the UK and as this was being written, vehicles were arriving at UK dealers for the March on sale date. The vehicle is being imported into the UK by the IM Group (Isuzu and Subaru) and at present there are around 32 Great Wall dealers, with the intention of this rising to about 40 this year.
The Great Wall Steed has been on sale in Italy, the only other European market, and so the UK will be a very important test for the Chinese manufacturer and the UK importer. We went to press before full details were announced, but it can be seen from the picture that this is an interesting looking machine – reminiscent of the Isuzu Rodeo. The price will be all-important, but it is likely to be competitive and that the Great Wall Steed will aim to achieve the moniker that it’s a ‘great workhorse’.
There may be questions on the build quality of the vehicle, especially in areas of plastic and interior trim, and how it compares to the Amarok and Ranger, top dogs at the moment from VW and Ford, but that will be balanced by the expectedly aggressive price. Prices as low as £16,000 have been mentioned. What is perhaps more important is that while this is the first Great Wall to enter the UK, it’s not likely to be the last – at least, if the Chinese manufacturer has its way. On this year’s Dakar, a Great Wall Haval achieved a very commendable seventh place overall. The Havel is a BMW X5-sized 4×4. So, what price that model being the next brick in the wall…?
Tractor and farm Trader has placed the Nissan Navara at the top of their towing list in a recent test. Taking five of the most popular pick-ups, editor Howard Sherren and his team spent time putting them through their paces off-road with a trailer loaded with 300kg bales of hay. 
Being a tough, serious 4×4 magazine, we are not supposed to be that bothered about ‘soft-roader’ SUVs, but confess that this one raised our interests. Nismo is the performance arm of the Japanese manufacturer Nissan, and at last year’s Tokyo Motor Show, the company unveiled the Juke Nismo.
Now officially relaunched in the UK, the brand new Korando is no longer the ugly duckling that was the original model, and SsangYong is pinning its hopes of a major revival in the UK on the new crossover
The 2011 Motor Show season ended in late November in Tokyo, where there were a few interesting 4x4s making a debut. Mitsubishi unveiled the Concept PX-MiEV II, which, while being something of a mouthful is actually a hybrid SUV. Matching the petrol and electric engines gives the vehicle a 500 mile range, but only a meagre 31 miles if you only use the electric power unit. It is also fitted with S-AW, which, we kid you not, stands for Super-All Wheel Drive. Although a concept vehicle, many commentators believe that this will be the look and shape of the new Mitsubishi Outlander, due in 2013. There were no details as to whether this would be available in the UK.
Jeep has announced details of two new versions of the Grand Cherokee. The 3.0 CRD Overland Summit is the high spec model that takes all the features of the current top of the range, Grand Cherokee Overland and adds a few more. An exclusive new Rugged Brown paint scheme with fully chromed grill and fog lamp bezels, and 20inch polished aluminium wheels distinguish the Summit model’s exterior. The additional tech spec includes Jeep’s Advanced Warning System and Adaptive Cruise Control group; which has Forward Collision Warning, Blind Spot Monitoring and Rear Cross-path detection systems. Inside the cabin, there’s a lot more wood and leather for the passengers . All this comes at a price of £44,795.
Toyota pick-ups were somewhat plentiful across Antarctica in December as amazingly another expedition was attempting a formidable double transverse across the southern most continent. Led by Tony Martin of Extreme World Races, these six-wheeled Toyota AT44 pick-ups had crossed from one side to the other at the time of going to press, covering an astonishing 3280km in 23 days. 
While we were struggling with Christmas trees, buying unnecessary presents and unwanted Brussel sprouts, some four-wheel drivers were breaking world records – in Antarctica. Regular readers will remember our feature in the September issue on the amazing Polar RTV. We drove the mighty beast (based on a Toyota Tacoma pick-up) at Brands Hatch, a slightly incongruous venue for a machine designed to be the fastest, motorised vehicle to reach the South Pole, unsupported. The intention had been to arrive at the Pole exactly 100 years after the first man to do it, Norwegian Roald Amundsen. The weather gods and a broken wishbone put paid to that, but driver Jason De Carteret and engineer Kieran Bradley made repairs, tried again, and still managed to break the record and travelled from Union Glacier, Patriot Hills, to the South Pole in an astonishing 39 hours and 54 minutes. That absolutely smashed the previous record of two days 21 hours and 21 minutes, by over 29 hours. Amundsen had taken some 56 days to do a similar trip…
This month Hils ponders the highly competitive, yet rapidly progressing pick-up market that promises a bright future for some manufacturers
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