Hils Everitt – editor
At last, Happy New Year it is indeed for my Grand that has really suffered in 2010. Am I glad to see the back of that year. Readers with good, long memories will recall that I was without my silver machine for several months while Mercedes Benz refused to release any parts to Jeep dealers during the financial trouble for the US company. I finally got delivery of the reconditioned auto gearbox which worked beautifully, but I’d almost forgotten what the Grand Cherokee looked like it as it been gone so long.
Thank goodness we were ready! As regular readers will know, our December issue had a detailed feature on winter driving, with specific advice on winter tyres. Little did we know that the snow was on its way to us so early this year, arriving by the freezer-full at the end of November. It was to provide a stern test for both our Toyota and its new winter tyres.
What is it with these Jimnys? After the ignominy of having motorway spray kicked in my face by last month’s diminutive, aquaplaning Suzuki, the bobtailed Jimny I was overtaken by this month could easily have been driven by the Jack Russell on the passenger’s knee for all the respect it was showing the steep, snow-slithery Pennine lane my Grand Vitara was lumbering up in four high. A wee bit too much on the gas and the little Suzuki went into a bit of a shimmy on the salty slush. I thanked the God of tarmac and dirt that there was nothing coming the other way. The Jack Russell’s guardians were having snow fun in the arctic sun and, with similar disregard for the edge of the snow-hidden tarmac, they took off up the embankment, rounded an innocent Rowan tree a few times and stopped for a quick photo call before heading off back down toward Silsden, the Jimny wagging its tail like an eager pup.
With the onset of freezing snowy weather in December forecast I knew I had to address the problem with the Terrano’s broken heater matrix. I put in an order for the part early December and now in early January I am still waiting for the garage to receive the part and repair it. Consequently, I have been driving the Terrano through some of the worst winter weather for years without a heater. Apart from the discomfort of freezing extremities, the worst part was that after de-icing the outside of the windscreen and windows I also had to do the same inside. Because the temperature never rose above freezing over 10 days it meant that, throughout all my journeys, my breath froze on the inside, and every 30 seconds or so a scraper had to be applied to the inside of the windscreen. Apart from being extremely tedious, it seriously affected visibility, especially at night.
Phil Weeden – editorial director
As you can see from the picture right, our diminutive little Suzuki almost completely disappeared in the heaviest snowfall I have ever seen in my corner of West Kent.
The Muddy Bottom site in the New Forest is well named, so much so that we dared not take the Rodeo directly up the main access road to the camping area further up the hill – it was a grim, grey and drizzly day, the muddy road up was slippery, rutted and steep, too steep, we decided, to trust the Rodeo’s road tyres considering the load the truck was carrying. Hence we took a zig-zag detour across open ground which, although covered in wet grass and scrubby undergrowth, allowed us to approach our goal on less of an incline. In fact, the Rodeo managed the terrain with very little trouble, even though our chosen route included a few unexpected humps and hollows – these at least had not been polished slippery smooth by the passage of many whirling mud terrains, as had the access track.
On the last weekend of September the De-Cider Trophy was held near Saltash, Cornwall. This is one of the highlights of the year’s challenge circuit and always attracts many of the UK’s top challenge teams. The two-day and one-night event means that camping is essential if the cider and hog roast are to be enjoyed.
With the new transmission only a week old and an upcoming trip of 5000 miles around the corner, I decided another test run was in order. Our somewhat unofficial Vancouver Island Land Rover Club had a day trip planned and it seemed the perfect opportunity. Greg Sutfin led the group of five Rovers in his Series IIa 109in along the backside of Lake Cowichan on easy, gravel, logging roads. The day was sold as a ‘no scratch’ trail so when we came across a series of washouts, we turned around and headed home before reaching our destination. It did what I needed, however, in finding any last-minute problems with ‘Kelsey’.
So, two years and 30,000 miles into ownership and my second encounter with the man at the MoT test centre came and went without the slightest hitch. A hint of a slapped wrist over the tyres, and even then it was only an ‘advisory’, but there appeared to be nothing more dreadfully amiss than a few bodywork scuffs, an increasingly tatty-looking interior and a completely clean bill of health from the steering wheel down. Of course, I was sceptical and eyed the document carefully, thinking that I, or more worryingly, they, had missed something. The noises, the vibration, the oddness on turning corners; where were these cataclysmic faults in the drivetrain and steering?
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