Articles by Marcus Craft

Nissan Australia and Aussie vehicle-engineering company, Premcar, have combined forces to produce a gung-ho Navara ute via their on-going Warrior collaboration.It looks the goods and certainly packs a punch, conversion wise, on paper at least.But how well will this upgraded and re-engineered 4WD handle wild weather, flooded rivers and a pair of argumentative teenaged passengers?

Toyota’s much-anticipated compact LandCruiser, likely badged the FJ, looks set to form a crucial part of the car-maker’s plan to refresh its presence in the Australian car market.

What's old is new again. Sure, it's a well-worn saying, but it's used often for a reason … because it contains at least some truth. We're seeing it now in the rise of new 4WDs that have been engineered to contemporary standards but are steeped in traditional off-roading spirit – I call them old-school new 4WDs.

The Suzuki Jimny XL is the much-anticipated five-door version of the three-door Jimny. The XL is longer and heavier than the standard Jimny, but it has no mechanical or driver-assist tech advantages over its smaller stablemate. The original Jimny has been very successful so it stands to reason the XL should garner just as much positive attention. But is it actually any good?

The Ford Ranger is one of Australia's best-selling utes and because of its popularity there are many accessories available for it – from the factory and aftermarket.

The Ford Ranger Wildtrak has found favour with Australia's ute-loving public over recent years. Now Ford has launched the Everest Wildtrak.But beyond a few styling changes, the Wildtrak is really no different to the Everest Sport.We know the Everest is refined on-road and capable off-road, but is the Wildtrak, priced at more than $74,000, worth the extra money over its stablemates? 

Camping has changed a fair bit since Banjo Paterson wrote about ol' mate, the singing swagman who chose a spot under a coolabah tree and waited for his billy to boil.But it's changed for the better – and worse.Sure, advancements in equipment, safety and shelter are more than welcome, but many changes have come at a real cost, in terms of moving the experience of camping further and further away from its true origins, which involved residing in the great outdoors with few possessions or home comforts.That's no longer the case at all.While camping has already progressed too far, according to grumpy old barstools like myself, the recent CES (Consumer Electronic Show) 2024 in Las Vegas gave a little glimpse into the near-future of camping, including a preview of the LG Electronics Bon Voyage camper-trailer, and – in bad news for old grumpy blokes like me – high-tech glamping seems to have become the norm.But with every gear and tech advancement are we at serious risk of losing the real spirit of camping altogether?Read on.There's more camping stuff. Yep, there's much more gear nowadays than even a few years ago: there's a huge range of sleeping bags, swags or tents, chairs, tables, awnings, cooking utensils, portable cookers (or just buy a camper-trailers or caravan with a built-in or slide-out cook top) and so much more that I guarantee your head spins when you go looking for something camping related to buy.But more important than the sheer volume of stuff available, is the fact that the gear available today is – mostly – an improved version of whatever has come before: it's easier to use, more efficient, and the quality of materials and build are much better than ever before.There's more technology. Why miss out on your favourite streaming service while you're out bush? You don't have to these days. Nor do you have to forego your morning frappuccino because there are myriad coffee machines for that. You never have to stumble around your campsite at night ever again because there's now eye-wateringly bright LED lighting every which you look. Not forgetting the fact that your phones, tablets and drones will always be powered up because you have portable battery packs and solar panels galore.There are more people. It's wonderful! Camping is very much a social occasion – it's a happy mixture of different ages, cultures and backgrounds, coming together as part of a common pursuit: to thoroughly enjoy the great outdoors.Camping is now worse, and mostly for the same reasons it's also better. Confused? Stay with me.There's too much stuff. Whatever happened to roughing it? Now you can stay fed and hydrated, heated or cooled, entertained and mollycoddled to your preferred comfortable state of being in the great outdoors. Where's the bloody fun in that?If, as mentioned, you can get slide-out drawers for your clothing, sleeping bags, spares and even a kitchen sink with a stove-top as well, why should you even bother leaving your house?There's too much technology. Ah, the serenity of camping, right? Peace and quiet, with nothing but a gently flowing creek and soft birdsong as your soundtrack. That is until the people in the tent nearby decide to fire up their Bluetooth speakers and blast Taylor Swift turned up to 11, from dawn to 10pm – and that's if you're lucky. Or they're all watching an NRL game at maximum volume on a big screen TV that they've somehow transported to your beloved out-of-the-way campsite, purely for the sake of not missing one second of televised sport.And speaking of people: there are too many of them. People have turned camping into a nightmare. You can forget all about any modicum of peace and no quiet. At a modern-day campsite, there's too much loud talking, too much loud laughing, too much loud music (those bloody portable speakers!) – not to mention too many kids playing, laughing and having fun – all too loudly.One of the great things about camping is that you can scale your trip to suit you; the degree of difficulty and discomfort is entirely up to you.Want a no-frills minimalist adventure? No worries – leave all of your gear at home and enjoy the wild ride.Want a five-star-style outdoors experience during which you will likely want for nothing? Just take everything you can think of – and that kitchen sink in the slide-out drawer – and have a whole lot of fun.It's all camping.

It’s an age-old question that has been casually dropped into conversation at opportune moments around many a campfire throughout the years: which is best for 4WDing – a 4x4 ute or an SUV?Utes have undeniably become the beloved workhorses of the light-duty world, while SUVs have become the go-to conveyance for most Australian buyers, even if they don't have kids and gear to haul around.But, if we’re talking about heading out of the urban and suburban environment and going off-road to enjoy some dirty – but perfectly legal – adventures, then should you buy a ute or an SUV?Read on.In terms of engine and transmission, power and torque outputs, driver-assist technology (including off-road traction control systems and the like) and general performance in the dirty stuff, utes and SUVs are fairly even.Utes have a lot going for them as 4x4s and as standard (i.e. before any aftermarket work, including aggressive all-terrain tyres or suspension upgrades), but not a lot separates utes and SUVs in the off-roading stakes.The ute has an open load space so the extent of your packing is not limited by your vehicle’s roofline, because the tub doesn’t have one. You can load beyond the top edge of a ute’s tub if needed, and tall or awkwardly shaped loads aren’t a problem either.But because there is no actual physical barrier to loading taller objects in a ute’s tub – and there’s a perception that utes have vastly superior load-carrying capabilities than SUVs – the temptation for many ute users is to then overload the ute’s tub, which unfortunately lots of people do. Note ute payloads are generally better, not vastly superior, to that of SUVs – and besides, even if utes did have vastly superior payloads to SUVs, if you have even an iota of common-sense, you should never pack to the absolute limit of your vehicle’s payload anyway, no matter what it is – that’s simply asking for strife.SUVs also have plenty of positives in their favour as 4WDs and even as standard, and those may make them more appealing than utes in a buyer’s eyes.SUVs have coil-spring set-ups, so their ride quality and handling is a lot more composed and predictable than that of traditional leaf-spring utes on sealed surfaces and corrugated dirt tracks. Having noted that, however, utes have improved in those terms, but unladen utes still tend to skip around on irregular surfaces because there’s not a lot of weight over the rear axle and that jittery unpredictable sensation in the rear end may be literally quite unsettling for those drivers who are unfamiliar with these ute-specific characteristics.SUVs offer more flexibility in terms of passenger-carrying capabilities because an SUV may have five, seven or eight seats. If you want to put seven or eight people in a ute you’d have to throw some of them in the tub and – hey, genius! – that’s illegal.Your valuables (people, pets and camping gear) are afforded more safety and security in a SUV than in a ute because a SUV is a fully enclosed and lockable load space, accessible from the main cabin – in fact, it is the main cabin.Sure, contemporary utes have all manner of OEM or aftermarket tub coverings on offer (hard or soft tonneau covers, roller shutters, aluminium lids etc). Or you can purchase a great aftermarket canopy to be fixed to your ute tub to protect your load, and some of those options are lockable and quite comprehensive in their features. However, a canopy is not an engineered-at-vehicle-origin solution, so while it offers much better security, water- and dust-proofing than having no tub cover at all, it’s no match for a SUV's built-in load space.And, besides, by affixing a cover to a ute’s tub – whether it’s a tonneau, roller shutter, canopy, or simply a bit of tarp over the top – defeats the original purpose of owning an open-topped ute anyway, because by doing so you’re instantly robbing the ute tub of its load-carrying versatility.When all is said and done, utes and SUVs are pretty evenly matched off-roaders – in terms of engine and transmission, power and torque outputs, driver-assist technology and general performance.Both kinds of vehicles have plenty going for them as 4WDs, but for different reasons – all to do with practicality, not performance – and the best choice for you ultimately boils down to your habits and lifestyle.Do you need a work-and-play vehicle with an open load space in your everyday life, as well as for your off-roading trips? Get a ute.Do you need a comfortable all-rounder with an enclosed and secure weather-proof passenger- and load-space day to day, and for your camping holidays? Get an SUV.At the risk of sounding like a middle-aged bloke trying to sound as wise as Yoda: there’s a confusion of choice in the modern 4WD market but, often in life, your best bet is to blank out all the noise, and focus on what you actually need, not what you might want.

The Chinese-made GWM Tank 300 Ultra, is a well-stocked, petrol 4WD with front and rear diff locks - all for a price-tag around $50,000. Could this be the purpose-built adventure machine so many people have been looking for, but have thus far failed to find due to high prices in the market?

What is a light rigid vehicle? A light rigid vehicle is a vehicle “with a GVM [Gross Vehicle Mass] of more than 4.5 tonnes, but not more than 8.0 tonnes (any towed trailer must not weigh more than 9.0 tonnes GVM) vehicles up to 8.0 tonnes GVM which can carry more than 12 adults including the driver,” according to Transport for NSW.