4x4 Mart October Preview

www.4x4mart.co.uk

OCTOBER 2010 • £2.50

WIN AN OFF-ROAD TRAINING DAY – SEE PAGE 10

BUYING • SELLING • OWNING

4x4 EVENTS WHAT, WHERE, WHEN

2010 OUTLANDER

BUYING: DISCOVERY II READ OUR IN-DEPTH GUIDE INSIDE

NEW SPORTAGE KIA’S LATEST 4x4: KING OF THE CROSSOVERS? PLUS 40 YEARS OF THE JIMNY

RESTYLED MITSUBISHI

RUNNING ON GAS

LPG RANGE ROVER

DIESEL POWER!

TESTEDIS IN TH E ISSU

MORE THAN 1,000 4x4s FOR SALE FIND YOUR NEXT 4x4 INSIDE UPGRADE YOUR 4x4 4x4 Mart • October 2010 • £2.50

PUBLISHING EXCELLENCE THROUGH EXPERIENCE

Land Rover Freelander 2.0 £6,495 Nissan Pathfinder 2.5 DCI £18,995

Santana PS10 2007 £9,360

Suzuki Jimny 2005 £4,999

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4x4 MART | OCTOBER 2010

BUYING USED: LAND ROVER DISCOVERY II

IMPROVING THE BREED Land Rover was fast moving upmarket by the late 1990s, and the original Discovery was showing its age. What to do? Replace it with the Discovery II. Tom Phillips explains why it was far more than just a facelift

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t is rare for appearances to be as deceptive as with the Land Rover Discovery II. Upon its launch it looked… well, pretty much the same as the 1989 original, even down to the square headlights, rear ‘alpine’ lights and exposed roof drip rail. But don’t be fooled because, in reality, only the tailgate was carried over. That’s right; the Discovery II didn’t look it, but this really was a ‘new generation’ Disco.

Launched in 1998, the Discovery II was developed under BMW stewardship of the Land Rover brand – and this automatically meant it was considerably more advanced, more highly developed than the original.

That version of nine years earlier had been innovative in its own right, but time had moved on and the Disco II needed a clean-sheet approach. Despite its visual similarities, the body was longer and wider, with modern touches like plastic pull-out door handles and higher-set larger rear lights. No more Maestro van and Marina relics this time round! The aesthetic differences were subtle, but the vehicle itself was much higher quality than the original, with a better paint finish and narrower panel gaps to emphasise its improved build.

Underneath was where the really clever stuff lay, though. The ladder frame chassis was stiffened up with six crossmembers instead of five. Beam axle suspension was retained but Land Rover now fitted air springs at the rear, for self-levelling and extra ground clearance off-road. There were anti-roll bars all round.

Doesn’t sound too clever yet? Hold on: the Disco also boasted ACE – Active Cornering Enhancement, or anti-roll suspension. Hydraulic actuators attached to the roll bars offset the effect of body lean by sending a force through the bars. They got their feeds from an array of sensors

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4x4 MART | OCTOBER 2010

ROAD TEST: KIA SPORTAGE FIRST EDITION

DRASTIC MEASURES

ROAD TEST

It’s hard to think of another new vehicle that represents such a drastic change over its predecessor. So Paul Guinness spent two weeks at the wheel of the latest Kia Sportage to see if it lives up to the hype

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y any standards, the previousgeneration Kia Sportage wasn’t an exciting vehicle. And neither was its predecessor of the 1990s. Oh sure, they both provided a value-for-money alternative to the top-selling compact SUVs of the time, offering decent equipment levels and low prices. But when it came to driver appeal or onthe-road dynamics, they were well down the league table.

With the all-new third-generation Sportage, though, Kia has taken a different approach. For a start, this is the first model from the Korean maker to have been styled from scratch by former Audi designer Peter Schreyer – and that means it’s a shape that’s bold, distinctive and up-to-the-minute. No longer can Kia’s smallest four-wheel drive offering be described as ‘stodgy’ or ‘dull’. From its bold grille and sleek front end through to its upright rump – plus the rearward slant of the two

back doors – everything about the new Sportage says ‘stylish’ and ‘modern’.

Fans of the old Sportage might find the change too dramatic, but Kia is going after a wholly different market this time round.

Yes, the new Sportage’s role in life is to give Kia a healthy share of the compact-crossover market, effectively created by the Nissan Qashqai a few years back – and now booming, thanks to an array of new rivals keen to cash in on the trend. And that’s why the majority of such vehicles are available with a choice of two- or fourwheel drive, the former appealing to buyers who like the style and stance of a crossover but who don’t need goanywhere all-wheel drive.

Once the full range of Kia Sportages goes on sale in the UK in November, this Korean newcomer will be no exception, with two- and four-wheel drive models available, as well as a

choice of petrol and diesel powerplants.

But for now there’s just this: the Sportage First Edition, launched unexpectedly early (in August) with the task of spreading this message: the Sportage has changed.

UNDER THE SKIN It’s not just in the styling department that the new Sportage is different.

Mechanically, it’s equally distant from the previous model, sitting on a new global platform that uses MacPherson struts at the front and independent multi-link suspension at the rear.

Only its sister car – the Hyundai iX35 – gets the same platform. And under the bonnet you’ll find a new 134bhp, 2.0-litre turbo-diesel engine (effectively a downsized version of the Sorento’s 2.2-litre ‘R’ motor), linked to a six-speed manual gearbox and with power sent through an active four-

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4x4 MART | OCTOBER 2010

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LPG RANGE ROVER

RUNNING ON GAS Or rather, running on Liquefied Petroleum Gas. We catch up with the proud owner of an ageing Range Rover to find out why he’s so hooked on the idea of LPG Words & Photographs: Rod Ker

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Tom Swinnerton has been a satisfied LPG driver for the last six years

anufacturers have come up with some memorable promotional slogans over the years. Pre-war MGs gave us the inspired Safety Fast, for instance, while Ford’s 1969 claim that the Capri was The Car You Always Promised Yourself provoked as many sneers as nods of agreement. Who, though, could quibble with the notion that the Range Rover was A Car For All Reasons when it appeared in 1970?

After about four years of work by Spen King and his team, and despite the best efforts of a newly cobbled together British Leyland management, the Range Rover seemed capable of almost anything.

Almost! The only thing it couldn’t do was be economical. According to Rover, 20-25mpg was possible.

According to the wildly smiling owner of your local filling station who had become suddenly rich, you might manage 15mpg. On a good day. With a following wind. It didn’t take a genius to work out why: the Rangie was big, heavy, bluff, low-geared and had permanent four-wheel drive. Detuned or not, the 3.5-litre V8 had plenty of excuses to slurp fuel.

Still, in a world seemingly overflowing with petrol, that didn’t matter much to anyone in 1970 who could afford to spend £1998 on a car.

A few years later, though, a series of fuel crises made the Range Rover’s dipsomania a distinct embarrassment.

So what did Leyland do? Very little, is the answer, apart from adding overdrive to bring the cruising revs down a bit. No doubt an extra 1mpg was an enormous comfort when you were sitting in a queue outside a garage waiting for the chance to buy a rationed fiver’s worth of juice.

The backroom boffins were aware of the problem, in fact, and a

considerable amount of work was put into converting the V8 into a diesel.

This turned out to be an engineering cul de sac, the idea being abandoned in 1983; but in beefing up the internals to cope with compression ignition, the team did at least have the basis for the larger capacity petrol V8s that would come later.

In the event, a truly economical Range Rover didn’t arrive until 1986, when BL went shopping in Italy and bought the VM 2.4-litre turbo oil burner. The mellifluous V8 burble had been replaced by a crude rattling, but you could go about twice as far on the same amount of fuel. And with a 0-60mph sprint taking almost 20 seconds, owners had plenty of spare time to work out how much money they were saving.

By this stage, the Rangie had stopped being a car for all reasons and had transmogrified into an aspirational icon. Luxury (and weight) was piling on, so more power was needed to keep those designer wellingtons moving at decent speed. To that end, 1989 gave us

a 3.9-litre version of the petrol V8. The good news was that after twenty years of development, modern technology had produced a vehicle that would go faster, while using less fuel and pumping out less pollution. The bad news was that you were still lucky to get out of the teens in terms of mpg.

The new 2.5-litre diesel launched at the same time could manage 30mpg, but a clattering four-cylinder Range Rover just isn’t the real thing.

LPG SOLUTION? Wouldn’t it be great if you could combine diesel economy with V8 performance and soundtrack? Well, you can, which brings us to the 1991 Vogue EFI seen here, still going strong with more than 200,000 miles under its wheels. Travelling almost the distance to the moon is quite an achievement for any vehicle, but the secret ingredient that made it possible for someone who isn’t an oil sheikh is an LPG conversion. Although direct comparisons are difficult to make

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4x4 MART | OCTOBER 2010

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DIESEL PERFORMANCE

BOOST THAT POWER! If you own a diesel-engined 4x4, have you ever been tempted to invest in a performance upgrade? There’s a wide choice of options available for today’s most popular models – and Tom Phillips has been taking a look at what you can expect

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ost of us are probably perfectly happy with our diesel-powered 4x4s, SUVs and off-roaders.

They manage to offer reliable, sturdy motoring, reasonable power and decent enough torque in most cases, without the depressing thirst for fuel suffered by many of their petrolengined equivalents. Sometimes, though, even the most contented drivers crave just a bit more power, or some extra response when their right foot is applied to the ‘go’ pedal. And

when it comes to towing or even offroading, a bit of extra torque could be handy on occasions.

In these cash-strapped times, though, it doesn’t always make sense to change our 4x4 for a more powerful model, given how much extra you’d almost certainly end up spending. So what’s the alternative? Simply this: improve what you already have.

In days of yore, this was a hit and miss affair, usually involving air filters, performance exhausts and the like. But

with modern electronically controlled diesels, it’s much more sophisticated.

You can choose the exact power and torque gains you want to achieve – plus, importantly, you select whether it’s all out performance or improvements in other areas that you’re seeking.

It’s not just about performance, you see. An effective diesel engine upgrade will not only be faster, it will also be more fuel efficient. Some firms claim up to 20 per cent better economy, simply through optimising the engine for your exact requirements. And in these days of the £5 gallon, this is to be welcomed.

WHAT ARE THE CHOICES? There are two main routes to diesel engine tuning: using either a tuning box or an engine ECU remap, the former being the simplest and quickest

to install. A tuning box is a clever solution: it’s an ‘interception point’ that alters electronic engine messages after they leave the ECU, but before they reach the diesel injection system. Here the signals have been massaged by a computer programmer, to supply more fuel to the engine and thus improve power outputs. On older or higher mileage machines in particular, they can work well.

An alternative to the tuning box is a solution that plugs into the engine diagnostics port and uploads new settings. It’s a sort of ‘plug and play’ remap that has been developed over recent years and does something similar to the tuning box, without resorting to a ‘full’ remap. These are rightly growing in popularity.

The more comprehensive alternative, though, is a wholescale engine remap.

This is where a technician actually

reads the bespoke engine map on your 4x4, downloads and saves it into a computer, then goes through a process of honing it in an analytical manner to improve it across the board.

How can this be done? Well, car makers design in every possible case scenario when developing electronics.

This means the tolerances are huge – way higher than careful owners such as you really need. By honing these tolerances, a remap gives definition and focus. See it as a sort of ‘fitness programme’, turning a couch potato into a lithe athlete…

HOW DO THEY WORK? The general principal of tuning a diesel engine is to increase the amount of fuel delivered to the combustion chambers. Diesel is, of course, compression ignition: air is ingested

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4x4 MART | OCTOBER 2010

OCTOBER 2010

4x4 NEWS Latest Jimny is true to its roots, being both simple and lightweight in design

WHAT’S IN YOUR GREAT NEW ISSUE… 2 4x4 NEWS

44 GET ONLINE!

All the latest updates – including the 40th anniversary of Suzuki’s smallest 4x4

Our pull-out guide to all the best 4x4-based websites in the UK

6 BUYING USED: LAND ROVER DISCOVERY II

71 LAND ROVER SIII OWNERS’ CLUB We talk to the people behind this thriving club to see what it’s all about

73 BOOST THAT POWER! Don’t buy a secondgeneration Disco without first reading our in-depth guide

10 NEWS BRIEFS

Looking for extra power and torque from your 4x4? Find out how it’s done…

76 ROAD TEST: KIA SPORTAGE Dramatically better than its predecessor – but is it one of today’s top buys?

The latest news flashes from the world of 4x4s

11 READER SURVEY Fancy winning an off-road training day?

Fill in our survey and you’re in with a chance!

13 RUNNING ON GAS

79 ROAD TEST: MITSUBISHI OUTLANDER

We catch up with the proud owner of an LPG-converted Range Rover

Updated and now available only in Juro guise, is the latest Outlander a tempting choice?

17 PRODUCTS & KIT

86 YOUR SHOUT

Gadgets and gizmos for your 4x4 – including diesel power upgrades

A Jeep fan with fond memories and a crossover buyer who’s tempted by a Mazda

19 4x4s FOR SALE

87 NEXT ISSUE

Our bumper 4x4s For Sale section starts here – your chance to grab a bargain!

Buying a used Mitsubishi L200 – plus all you need to know about converting to LPG

THE 4x4 MART TEAM Editor Paul Guinness editor@4x4mart.co.uk Advertising Manager Claire Broadmore claire@cslpublishing.com Managing Director Sue Baggaley Designer Flo Terentjev

Studio Manager Sal Law Production Controller Anthony Gibbons Private Advertising Lindsey Close Contributors Tom Phillips Rod Ker

Published every four weeks by: PUBLISHING CSL Publishing Ltd, Alliance House, 49 Sidney Street, Cambridge CB2 3HX Tel: 01223 460490 Fax: 01223 315960 Subscriptions: 01442 879097 EXCELLENCE THROUGH EXPERIENCE

The views and opinions of the contributors of this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher.

Accordingly, the publisher disclaims any responsibility for such views and opinions.

Printed in Cambridge by Cambridge Newspapers Ltd. Distributed by Comag Specialist, Tavistock Road, West Drayton UB7 7QE. © 2010 CSL Publishing Ltd 4x4 Mart is copyright of CSL Publishing Ltd 2010 and may not be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the publisher. Every care is taken in compiling the contents, but the proprietors assume no responsibility for any effect arising therefrom. We welcome unsolicited manuscripts and photographs, but accept no responsibility for their loss, damage or total disappearance.

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40 YEARS OF THE JIMNY! You might assume that the diminutive Suzuki Jimny dates back just over a decade, when the current-shape model first went on sale in the UK. But the name has been used on the smallest Suzuki 4x4 models far longer than that in Japan – since 1970, in fact. And Suzuki has launched a special ‘Jimny 40th Anniversary’ website and video to celebrate the occasion.

The site shows the history of the Jimny series, right from its launch in 1970 with the 360cc two-stroke LJ10 model. This was later fitted with a 797cc four-cylinder petrol engine, and was sold in the UK from the late Seventies, badged as the Suzuki LJ80. By 1982, though, the LJ-series was being replaced by the new SJ – a vehicle that would go on to achieve phenomenal worldwide success, particularly in its less utilitarian Samurai guise.

Since the launch of the original Jimny four decades ago, an impressive 2.48 million units have been sold in 188 global markets. And although today’s Jimny is a far more sophisticated tiddler than its predecessor of 1970, it hasn’t lost its emphasis on lightweight design,

How it all began: the LJ80 line-up of the 1970s got the Jimny family off to a good start in the UK

simple engineering and genuine offroad capability.

The current-shape model dates back to 1998, and the latest range-topping SZ4 version was fully tested in the August 2010 issue of 4x4 Mart. Prices currently start at £10,995 for the SZ3, which comes complete with metallic paint, front fog lamps, roof rails and remote central locking as standard

equipment.

To see the new Suzuki website celebrating the Jimny’s 40th anniversary and to watch the movie, go to www. globalsuzuki.com/jimny.

POTATO KING PLANS ‘VODKA’ PETROL William Chase, who describes himself as ‘the world’s leading potato entrepreneur’, is planning the next stage of his empire: potato power. The creator of the Tyrrells Crisp and Chase Vodka brands believes that waste from his Herefordshire vodka distillery could be used to make a high grade vehicle fuel. ’We have known for a long time that potato starch is an excellent source of bio ethanol, but this new scheme

will tap the resources left behind in distillery waste,’ explained Chase. It’s hoped that the fluid left behind in the coppers after Chase Vodka’s highgrade spirit has been distilled are still fermentable, along with the potato waste. ’There has been research completed at Edinburgh Napier University that has demonstrated that “pot ale” – the fluids left behind from the distilling process – can be fermented

into biobutanol,’ continued Chase. ‘I don’t see why we can’t do the same in Herefordshire. We would need local partners to create enough biomass to make the project commercially viable, but I firmly believe that vegetable matter will provide the world with the next generation of fuels.’

McCain, the UK’s largest potato processor, and Heinz are both believed to be exploring the use of potato peel as a source of biofuel.