Louise Limb – contributor

You can imagine my dismay when, flicking through what passes for my vehicle paperwork, I found that my warranty had run out. I’d just given the Suzuki main dealer over £350 to service my vehicle and their cheerfulness was annoying. Yes, it would have been covered under my warranty but don’t worry, they chirped, it’s not an expensive repair and we’ll be kind over the man hours it will take as you’re a regular’. I groaned inwardly; Barclaycard’s well-spoken, if slightly stilted, automaton would be on the phone again just checking that yet another three-figure purchase on my account was really mine.

Garry Stuart – freelance photographer

Over the past month or so the Terrano has served as transport to several assignments in Cornwall and Dover plus single trips to Anglesey and Northumberland, racking up the mileage in the process. Touch wood, there has been very little to report as the truck itself has been running as smoothly and reliably as ever. The heater matrix has not yet been repaired, but the water levels have remained constant, not even needing a top-up after covering thousands of kilometres. Strange, it must have repaired itself. Maybe some debris got lodged in the hole?

In Devon, the Terrano was put to light offroad duties carrying me and my kit around the expansive grounds of Newnham Park as I photographed the three-day ALRC Nationals for sister magazine Land Rover World.

Kevin Baldwin – contributor

Shock horror, the 90 has encountered its first real problem in 12 months of ownership. The metallic creaking sound I heard through the open window as I pulled away from my local filling station didn’t bode well at all. Luckily for me, I was less than five minutes from our workshop, where with the 90 wheels jacked up we assumed that a failing CV joint was the likely diagnosis. Stripping the hub to get at the CV would, instead, reveal a bone-dry front wheelbearing.

Ann Lockley – contributor

Like lost puppies, I have brought home several automotive lemons in my life but none quite like ‘Kelsey’, my 1991 Range Rover Great Divide Edition (GDE). Like a dog that has been rescued from an appalling situation, she had more proverbial baggage to work on and repair then I care to list, but, in the end, has proven to be the best of companions.

I came by ‘Kels’ in February 2007 when she was bought from a Boise, Idaho location on eBay by my good friend, Stuart Longair, to be the sister of his ‘Chelsea’, GDE #319. I was in need of a Land Rover to use as a daily driver that could double as a trail rig since my immaculate Rutland red 2004 Freelander SE3 was not up to the latter and thus for sale. I bought Kels from Stuart thinking that the Range Rover would be an extremely capable intermediate vehicle until I could import a 110 from the UK.

Bob Cooke – contributor

The Cherokee is my off-road plaything but everyone else sees it as a big truck. Hence whenever anyone has something big to move, who they gonna call? ‘Oh, Bob’ll move it, he’s got that big Cherokee!’ I keep trying to tell them that the Cherokee is a compact 4×4, but no-one listens.

The first call came from Tim who’d bought a doghouse at auction for Elaine’s Chocolate Labrador Conker. “It won’t fit in Elaine’s MX5,” he said. Of course not – and we were only able to squeeze it into the Cherokee after we’d knocked off some of the roof-edging trim. Then Kerrie needed the scenery for her travelling play shifted, so the Cherokee was again called into service, with seven sturdy 4ftx7ft stage flats strapped to the roof and the cargo bay bursting at the seams with props, including a fake fireplace and two heavy supporting beams. Last, but by no means least, Saffron decided to have a couple of chickens for her birthday which meant – you’ve guessed it – I had to collect the chicken shed needed to house her two feathered friends. There followed an 80-mile round trip to Herne Bay to collect and deliver the chicken shed, which was only just wide enough to scrape through the Cherokee’s tailgate opening, but being a foot too long I had to tie the tailgate down against the shed with a ratchet strap wound round the tow hitch.

Phil Weeden – editorial director

We introduced the Discovery to the long-term fleet a few issues ago. So, just to recap, we’re big fans of the Discovery and we ran a Series 1 in Land Rover World for a couple of years, so when discussing potential projects for sister publication Car Mechanics, the Td5 model seemed like the way to go. They’ve come down in price and yet they’re actually a reasonable workhorse for day-to-day stuff, allied to legendary Land Rover off-roading ability. The plan is to get it mechanically sorted, at which point we hand the vehicle over to our mates at Land Rover World where we can start playing in the mud.

When we went shopping for a Discovery, it was during the snowy spell we had in February, so 4x4s were selling fast and at firm prices. At our local auction house, BCA in Peterborough, even ratty looking off-roaders were shifting, so imagine our trepidation when the black Td5 you see in the photos rolled through the halls. We had to get this one as press deadlines were looming – not exactly the ideal buying conditions.

Bob Cooke – contributor

I remember being thoroughly impressed with the Isuzu Rodeo when it first appeared in 2003 as a replacement for the truly trucklike Vauxhall Brava. Not that I approved of the styling, particularly, too school-run sleek for my liking compared with my favourite at the time, the Nissan Navara, which has a much more off-roady appeal. But I did like the gutsy 3.0-litre turbodiesel, which gave the Rodeo lustier acceleration and much easier cruising than its 2.5-litre opponents.

Hence I was pleased to have the opportunity to drive the long-term Denver Max LE. My, what a lot of pretty chrome trim, pretty blue-illuminated dials, complete with sporty red needles, and what a lot of gadgetry to play with! Personally, I could do without the silly gleaming sidesteps, all they really end up doing after a spell of off-roading is to smear mud all over your trouser legs as you get out; I’d be too afraid of scraping the plating off against a rock. I’d rather have a chunky length of angle iron there to protect the sills. Still, the rest of the chrome I can live with. What did leave me cold, however, was the sat nav system. I don’t really have a problem with systems that don’t allow you to select a destination on the move, but this one seems only to allow you to do so after first initialisation, which takes agonising minutes. If you drive off while it’s initialising thinking to pull into a layby later to set your destination, forget it – you’ll have to switch off again and wait for the entire deadly boring initialisation process to happen again. And then…the system doesn’t seem to recognise postcodes, so you have to go through the whole process of selecting city, street etc which is of no use at all if you’re going to anywhere that hasn’t got a suitable street number.

Louise Limb – contributor

Having borrowed some Mediterranean weather for a few days, Britain basked in some pretty noticeable warmth and I snatched myself some time to get out on the hills and enjoy the fabulous Karst landscape that’s some 20 minutes up the road from me. The wild pansies and skylarks took my mind off the impending expenditure that the Grand Vitara was bound to incur.

Tuesday arrived, the sun went in and I handed over my keys to the nice people on the service desk at my local Suzuki main dealer. The good bit was that Phil was to be my grease monkey for what should have been the GV’s 36k miles service – a big one. He’s taken his Jeep to Croatia, knows his off-roaders and has a reserved view of anything Land Rover that was manufactured after 1971. His last Defender cost him £1000 in one year and that was using his immense skill and experience as well as secondhand parts. Phil was keen to show me what he was doing to my precious daily drive so off I went, beyond the edge of the carpeted public area and into workshop land.