First there was the Grenadier, the simple and affordable off-road utility truck that was going to carry on where the old Land Rover Defender left off. Then there was the Grenadier, the remarkable but not very affordable premium off-roader that came on like the old Defender but picked up where the new one started. And now there’s the Quartermaster, the double-cab that takes the same formula and uses it to create a 4×4 pick-up like no other.

It’s like no other because it has beam axles at both ends. Yet in other ways there are similarities to other pick-ups currently on the market. You can have it with a 3.0-litre petrol engine: the Ford Ranger says hello. Its cabin is taken directly from a station wagon: step up the KGM Musso. The tax man will laugh at your efforts to slip by unnoticed:
soon, everything.

There’s another way in which the Quartermaster differs to the rest of the pickup market, however. The model we drove was a Fieldmaster, which gave it a starting price of £73,730. Add all the options that were on our tester and now it’s standing at £84,028. You can still do an awful lot more on a new Defender but as pick-ups go it’s on its own.

Find out more in the January issue of Overlander 4×4 –

https://shop.assignmentmedia.co.uk/issue/4×4202501

You might say that £55,730 is a lot of money to pay for a Hyundai. But it’s not much to pay for a house. And this is a Hyundai that’s the size of a house.

Or at least that’s how it looks. The first Santa Fe was a spongy and rather unpleasant thing. The second was a quantum leap forward in every way. The third and fourth did everything well apart from be noticed. And now they’ve gone and built the Tate Gallery on wheels.

Unbelievably, actually, the new Santa Fe is only a couple of inches longer than the previous one. Equally unbelievably, it has the same wheelbase as the Kia Sorento, whose engines and platform it shares. It just shows what car design can do, because even after three decades of pointing out to people that our big, clumsy Nissan Patrol was actually smaller than their slinky little Jag XKR and so on, it still twists our melon to look at the new Santa Fe and think that it’s just a
normal sized SUV.

Read the full article in the January issue of Overlander 4×4 –

https://shop.assignmentmedia.co.uk/issue/4×4202501

Paul Rowlands and Neil Lloyd survived a dramatic final weekend of the Motorsport UK British Cross Country Championship (BXCC) to take the title by just one point from Aston Cox and Simon Kerfoot. Walters Arena in Wales was the venue for the final two rounds of the championship and, going into the event, multiple crews were in with a chance of lifting the trophy.

Richard Watson and Paul Hughesheaded the leader board after round four but their victory hopes ended on the first run of round five when clutch problems on their Milner Evoque resulted in a stage maximum. They went back out in their new car, the ex-Mark Jacques Lofthouse Freelander, but this had steering issues which caused another stage maximum.

Phill Bayliss and Lance Murfin were in second place before Walters but several punctures blighted their round five. They still took a class win but finished well down the results on round five before salvaging 10th overall, and another class win, on round six.

Read the full article in the January issue of Overlander 4×4 –

https://shop.assignmentmedia.co.uk/issue/4×4202501

Ineos Automotive has announced that production of the Grenadier and Quartermaster will restart in early January. The lines were brought to a halt in September by what the company calls a ‘critical component shortage,’ widely believed to be linked to the insolvency of seat supplier Recaro, however this has now been resolved with all partners informed and ready to support resumption of operations at Hambach.

‘It’s great news that a solution has been found so quickly,’ says INEOS Automotive boss Lynn Calder. ‘Automotive supply chains are extremely complex but we were not willing to compromise on quality, so we are satisfi ed that we have found the best possible outcome. ‘By this summer, we had sold as many Grenadiers as we had for the whole of
2023 and are on track to have over 20,000 on the road before the end of this year.

We now turn our attention to preparing Hambach to restart in early January and with significant growth in major new
markets, including China and Mexico, and substantial expansion in the US, I believe 2025 is going to be our best year yet.

Find out more in the January issue of Overlander 4×4 –

https://shop.assignmentmedia.co.uk/issue/4×4202501

YOU MAY HAVE MISSED IT IN THE NEWS, but Ibiza has been taken over. By Defenders. By Destination Defender, to be specific.

As summer was turning into autumn, Destination Defender ‘took over the island of Ibiza with a series of activities for enthusiasts of the original British adventure brand.’ These included the opportunity to buy one, naturally – not
just any old one, but the exclusive Eivissa Edition which could only be ordered there and then, in either of the celebratory Sunrise and Noontide ‘curations.’

The Eivissa Edition is ‘a tribute to the iconic island of Ibiza.’ Which, aside from its reputation for non-stop partying, is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Land Rover made six of them, three in each form, in reference to the ancient Phoenicians who first settled on the island and to whom the number was sacred, representing their god Bes. No, not the guy from Happy Mondays.

The Noontide model is a Defender 90 which ‘embodies the freshness of daytime.’ It’s inspired by the sea and sky, along with the colour of traditionalnMediterranean buildings, which is to say it’s blue and white. The latter takes the shape of a contrast roof and matching wing vent surround, and the vehicle also has white six-spoke alloys – which are wrapped in 255/60R20 Pirelli road tyres, so a halfway sensible size by today’s standards even if the tread pattern doesn’t
scream adventure.

Read the full article in the January issue of Overlander 4×4 –

https://shop.assignmentmedia.co.uk/issue/4×4202501

Since the Dacia Duster went on sale in Britain, we’ve bought enough of them for every single resident of St Albans to have one. There’s a factoid to reckon with. Our editor was in St Albans a couple of
months ago, taking photographs of a hot rod for Custom Car magazine (never a dull moment in this job), and he can confirm that that would be a lot of Dacia Dusters.

Apparently the actual number is around 105,000; the boss man from Dacia told us that at the UK launch of the all-new one, before dropping the St Albans thing to drive the point home. He also told us that since orders opened for the new model, 1000 punters have put down a deposit for one.

And that’s before any actual vehicles have arrived in the
company’s showrooms. They’ll be doing that very soon, though – and in such numbers that despite having all those orders ahead of you in the queue, at the time of writing you’d still be able to stump up and get one on your
drive by Christmas. Hint, etc.

Read the full article in the Winter issue of Overlander 4×4 –

https://shop.assignmnetmedia.co.uk/issue/4×4202413

It’s a symbol of modern excess. And it’s forever being dropped by rap stars who don’t have the imagination to spec up a lowrider instead. But the Mercedes-Benz G-Class is also a legendary off-roader – and the new G 580 EQ promises to build on that legend, not just trade on it.

Yes, EQ is Merc’s code for electric. Not a hybrid: all-electric. And no you can’t carry spare electricity in a jerry can to get you across the Sahara. So take to the forums and fulminate on, o worthy soldier of diesel. None of us wanted it to change. But it has. And you know what, it might mean our grandchildren will get to live until they too are old enough to hate everything that’s new and unfamiliar, and there’s an outside chance that that’s worth a bit of inconvenience to us lot now.

Anyway. Whether you like EVs or think they’re the devil, the technology has come an incredibly long way in a short space of time – and it’s still developing as quickly as ever. So while it’s true that you can’t put electricity in a jerry can, it’s equally true that the equivalent is on its way.

In the meantime, the G 580 EQ is possibly the most convincing sounding electric off-roader yet to come from a
mainstream manufacturer.

Read the full article in the Winter issue of Overlander 4×4 –

https://shop.assignmnetmedia.co.uk/issue/4×4202413

We’ve always been huge fans of the Touareg, all the way back to when the original model arrived on the scene with its thumping great 5.0-litre V10 engine.

Now here we are on the fourth generation of Volkswagen’s premium SUV, and what started out smooth is, predictably, smoother than ever. There are currently three models in the Touareg range: Elegance, Black Edition and R. Each has an engine of its own. The Elegance and R have 3.0 TSI plug-in hybrid units with 381 and 462bhp respectively, while the Black Edition has a 3.0 TDI with 286bhp and 442lbf.ft.

We added the torque figure there because it’s the Black Edition we’re testing here. You can have it in any colour you want so long as it’s black (or white, silver, grey, beige, brown, blue or red) and of course you can have it with an almost limitless range of options. Ours came with an on-the-road price of £68,215 and an extras list befitting what was after all a press demo vehicle; were you to tick all the same boxes, you’d be paying £80,470.

Read the full article in the Winter issue of Overlander 4×4 –

https://shop.assignmnetmedia.co.uk/issue/4×4202413

DAVANTI HAS BEEN IN THE UK FOR SEVERAL YEARS with its Terratoura All-Terrain, a solid all-round performer that
does a sterling job of bridging the gap between the premium and budget ends of the market. It’s a good bit of kit at prices that don’t make you cringe, in other words.

Now there’s another good bit of kit to go alongside it, because Davanti has followed it up with the new Terratoura Mud-Terrain (M/T). This has a more aggressive tread pattern along with a rugged construction
designed to let it get you where you want to go off-road without getting wrecked in the process.

Most are classified as Professional Off-Road, making them exempt from certification, however a few sizes do carry
the EU label.

Read the full article in the Winter issue of Overlander 4×4 –

https://shop.assignmnetmedia.co.uk/issue/4×4202413

As was widely expected, the government’s autumn budget statement introduced a set of new rules for double-cab pick-ups. These are essentially the same as those brought in earlier in the year by the previous government but then hastily abandoned in the face of protests by the farming industry.

From April 2025, double-cabs (even those with a payload of 1000kg or more) will be treated as cars for most taxation
purposes – though not for VAT. This means employees choosing them as company cars will no longer enjoy the minimal benefit-in-kind (BIK) allowance that comes with driving what has previously been classified as a van. If you’re already in this situation, there’s no need to panic. Existing company car drivers with double-cabs will continue to
be taxed at the current rate until April 2029 – though if you sell the vehicle or its lease ends before that date, the exemption won’t roll over to its replacement.

Prior to the budget, double-cabs were classed as light commercial vehicles for income tax purposes, meaning they were subject to a flat BIK rate of £3960 a year. This meant employees would pay £66 or £132 a month, depending on their tax bracket. Under the new rules, the rate will be based on the truck’s P11D value – to all intents and purposes, what it would cost if you were to buy it yourself.

Everyday cars (and indeed SUVs, and double-cabs not capable of carrying more than 1000kg) are already taxed this way; for a typical one-tonner, it will see your tax bill rising by around 350%.

Read the full article in the Winter issue of Overlander 4×4 –

https://shop.assignmnetmedia.co.uk/issue/4×4202413