Hilux, Ranger launches set for September

Toyota's facelifted Hilux is drawing close.  The media launch is set for Sept 19-20, out of Queenstown, so expect it to be on sale on or around those dates. Its arch-rival the Ford Ranger launches on the 27th and 28th in a joint Oz-New Zealand event in rural South Australia.

Foreign correspondent

4wdNewz has been in the UK for the Range Rover Evoque launch, which included off-roading supervised by the Land Rover Experience organisation. These guys are so professional in what they do. Here, at the end of an off-road session in North Wales, a team washes one of the Evoques of its mud and muck, before returning it to the highway. The black Defender 110 with its high-pressure washer and tank was on hand at the end of each off-road section. Posted while waiting at Heathrow for the plane home.

One for Defender enthusiasts

Photographed at Halewood, where the Freelander and Evoque are built, is this 12-seat Defender 147. The Puma-engined seven-door was one of 10 built in South Africa for safari duties. Four came to England and, because they can't be made roadworthy because of some UK law or other, serve as factory hacks. They're built on a stretched 130 chassis and the standard of workmanship is very high.

New, in a manner of speaking

Land Rover’s has sent out a press release saying the Defender has a new 2.2-litre diesel engine and it'll be here by Christmas, bringing "new levels of performance and refinement". But hold your excitement, Land Rover fans, it's just the Fiord Puma "Transit" motor we already get, massaged to meet Euro 5 regulations. It loses a couple of hundred cubic centimeters of capacity in the process, but delivers the same power, torque and economy as the  2.4. Emissions, however, are lower.