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Land Rover’s latest creation arrives this month to (almost total) rave reviews in the press. This is a light SUV with a hefty agenda – it’s meant to change the perception of Range Rover, carve out a premium niche above the already classy Freelander and attract customers new to the sector not just the company.

Range Rovers are seen as big, expensive, luxury vehicles and the Evoque offers a new interpretation of the marque. Range Rover Sport might have been a precedent (much further up the scale) but Audi’s TT was a very clear inspiration.
 
Nissan X-Trail 16/10/2011
 
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Nissan's X-Trail SUV has been given a make-over for 2011.

Compact SUVs, like compact MPVs (people carriers), are big sellers now and all the top names have piled in – ‘premium’ brands and the rest. BMW has brought out a new X3 - larger to slot between the recent X1 and latest X5, there’s an Audi Q5 with a Q3 coming soon and Mazda has a CX-5 ready to fit in under the CX-7.
 
 
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US President Dwight D Eisenhower used to say that the two key ‘victory assets’ of World war II were the C-47 (‘Dakota’) and the Jeep.  It’s 70 years since the 1941 Jeep – compact, lightweight with high and low ratio four wheel drive – changed the whole way an army operated.

Another military star who saw the Jeep’s potential was Master Sergeant Ernest G Bilko (aka Phil Silvers).  From a rented shop-front in Roseville, Kansas, Jeeps “diverted” from Fort Baxter’s Motor Pool were painted, smartened up and offered for sale as a new imported small car under the name “Arrivederchi”.
 
 
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Skoda’s rescue and renewal by Volkswagen post-1989 and the Soviet collapse has been a huge success. One of the oldest surviving motor manufacturers, the Czech company has retained considerable autonomy but repaid it by producing car after car which really hit the mark. The big push now is on the 4x4 front.

Skoda has had a four wheel drive range based on the Octavia and Superb for some time.  Not confined to performance models, ‘Scout’ versions of the Octavia Estate which ride higher for greater ground clearance appeared quite early on.

 
 
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Volkswagen’s first Touareg launched towards the end of 2002 was a respected on/off-road 4x4 ‘premium’ SUV.  A revamp in 2007 reaffirmed its position.  Late last year ‘Touareg II’ arrived for 2011 model year.  It’s new from the ground up.

Again for the second generation, Porsche Cayenne is twinned to the Touareg – it has its own petrol engines and distinct chassis dynamics but the Diesel is from VW.  The partnership has worked well for both, VW sold half a million of the old Touareg world-wide and the Cayenne has consistently outsold Porsche’s own sports cars.

 
Mini Countryman 23/05/2011
 
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When Alec Issigonis sketched his idea for a economical small four seater car with a wheel in each corner, seating for four, and a transversally mounted engine driving the front wheels, on a table cloth in the early 1950’s it’s unlikely that he could of predicted just how influential his mid dinner doodle was to become.

Trying to come up with a solution to steal sales from European bubble car manufacturers  Issigonis had just drawn what was to become the blueprint for nearly all future small cars: Issigonis had designed the Mini.

Step forward more than half a century and BMW – makers of the Isetta - and one of the European manufacturers Alec was trying to beat- now make the Mini including both the Clubman, and Cooper. All BMW Minis owe their names to versions of the original Issigonis designed BMC car, including this one, the new Mini Countryman.

 
Hyundai ix35 14/10/2010
 
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“Compact SUV” is a broad church these days with a pretty diverse membership.

As companies try to cover all niches these ‘crossovers’ seek to offer, more or less successfully, both SUV and Estate/MPV attributes.

All of (lower-medium) motoring life is here – from cynically jacked-up hatchbacks to quite substantial 4x4 machines which can actually head off beyond the tarmac . . . and cope.
 
 
Land Rover Discovery 4
Land Rover’s large cars have all received makeovers for 2010. Range Rover was first in July with a supercharged 5.0 litre replacement for the 4.2 V8 petrol unit from Ford’s South Wales engine plant.

For September, the Range Rover Sport inherits the same Jaguar Land Rover 5.0-litre and similar interior and technology refinements. For the Discovery things go further and ‘3’ has become ‘4’.

Three key aspects, according to Land Rover, justify the new ‘name’: a TDV6 3.0 litre twin turbo diesel engine; improved on-road behaviour; fresh design features – inside and out.
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