Articles by Mike Ryan

Mitsubishi's medium sized recreational all terrain 4WD 5-seat wagon, Challenger received a major upgrade in 2000. It received new looks, suspension, transmission and improved convenience items.

The Jeep Compass has just been confirmed for arrival in Australia later this year, offering a unique blend of premium styling, capability, efficiency and value that is set to ignite the compact-SUV segment.

If four wheel driving and adventure, along with magnificent scenery are at the top of your touring agenda, then consider visiting Eastern Victoria.

March 1995 and Toyota launched its new four-valve LandCruiser 80 Series turbo-diesel. There were three turbo-diesel models in the revamped ten model 80 Series range.

Next year will see vehicles such as the Toyota RAV4, BMW X6, Holden Captiva and Subaru Forester compete in a new category of the Australian Rally Championship.

Introduced in March 1981, the Scrambler was Jeep's version of a 4x4 pickup. It was introduced to counter the success of imported Japanese pickups.

Steel cable has traditionally been fitted to winches, being considered the most efficient and strongest cable for arduous off road winching tasks. A new product that is winning over hardcore four-wheel drivers is synthetic rope, which is considered to be stronger and lighter, and less prone to kink, curl or splinter, making it easier to handle and work with.

The Australian 4WD Industry Council has presented a $22,000 donation to the Royal Flying Doctor Service on behalf of 42,600 people who responded to a national road safety survey. The survey showed that bull bars and nudge bars are vital to Australian vehicle and occupant safety, particularly in regional, rural and remote areas.

Sydney-based Australian automotive distributor, WMC Group has secured the rights to distribute the Chinese-built Foton range of 4x2 and 4x4 utility vehicles, with plans for the first vehicles to go on sale in Australia early in 2012.

The Mercedes-Benz G-wagon is a breath of fresh air on a four-wheel drive landscape that reeks of sameness.

An Isuzu D-Max crew ute has returned an impressive 5.49L/100km on a 3452km economy drive from Melbourne to Cairns. Off road racers Bruce Garland and Harry Suzuki completed the run on less than two tanks of diesel fuel.

First manufacturers flooded the market with a host of all-wheel drive, wannabe 4x4s, that rode high and featured body cladding and an AWD system that delivered some form of all paw traction under certain conditions.