Off road

The Volkswagen Amarok has been around since 2011 and it has garnered a stack of awards, a legion of fans and long ago set the standard for refinement in utes. Times changed, though, and the rest of the ute pack eventually caught up or even surpassed it. But the new Amarok is here and it shares the Ford Ranger's platform and many of that ute's components. Is it better than the top-selling Ranger?

Toyota Australia has confirmed the V8-powered 70 Series LandCruiser workhorse is no more.Customers who have just received their vehicle might feel like they’ve won the lottery as their car is now worth a lot more than it was yesterday, according to Toyota Australia's Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Franchise Operations Sean Hanley.“Obviously the value of these cars is going to go up incredibly overnight,” he said.Near-new versions of the final V8-powered LandCruiser 200 Series were selling for incredible prices on the used market when it was announced the new 300 Series wouldn’t feature a V8 option, and it's likely the 70 Series will follow suit.Hanley promised there would be no funny business in allocating orders to customers.“We will be speaking to our dealers and we will be putting in very strong processes in place to ensure that those that have got orders get prioritised.“So my advice to consumers who have been waiting: Do not pay over retail. What they choose to do with those cars is their business beyond that, used cars are used cars. I can't control that,” he said.The writing was on the wall for the beloved rugged four-wheel drive as the Federal Government's New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) comes into effect next July.Hanley said community expectations for environmentally friendly vehicles also forced the V8 LandCruiser into retirement.The Japanese giant launched a four-cylinder turbo-diesel version last year as a more efficient alternative to the vaunted V8 70 Series.Toyota had already effectively deleted the V8 70 Series from its line-up by pausing orders for the past two years.Production of the V8-powered wagon, troop carrier, Workmate and GX utes will end in September with existing orders expected to be filled by early 2025.Production of the high demand V8-powered GXL single and dual-cab utes will continue into next year with deliveries continuing until the end of 2025.Hanley couldn’t guarantee all existing V8 orders would be filled, though.“We're requesting the maximum possible allocation for Australia. We still have considerable time. It's our goal to fill those orders. That's what we want to do. So, we're working to fill those, we want to satisfy as many of those customers as possible,” said Hanley.“We'll have a better understanding of the number of V8s available for Australian customers when final production is allocated in the next few months. So we're working through that, but we're quite confident that we'll be able to get the majority, if not all.”Toyota is hoping to draw some customers away from the V8 LandCruiser by adding a new five-speed manual transmission to the previously auto-only four-cylinder LandCruiser 70 Series.Hanley said customers overwhelmingly wanted the V8 but was confident customers would warm to the four-cylinder version.“Clearly there's a preference still for V8, so we can't hide from that, that's reality,” said Hanley.“People want the V8 and culturally you can understand that and we understand that. So it's going to take some time for people to move, but what we are finding is once they drive the four cylinder, they experience the four-cylinder and the torque they moved to it.”“There will always be diehard V8 people. That's a fact of life.”

The new Mitsubishi Pajero will be a potent plug-in powerhouse, with the reborn icon to pump out some 285kW, out-punching the Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series and Lexus LX, according to new reports.The new model is now all-but confirmed, with the brand global

Toyota's once top-selling HiLux has taken a hammering in 2024, with the brand's normally dominant dual cab now dropping more than 5000 units behind its arch rival the Ford Ranger over the first six months of this year.

Whether they're for work or for play, we are officially a nation of outdoorsy adventurers.

The latest Chinese-built ute - the GWM Cannon Alpha - brings with it a lot of news: there's a petrol-hybrid version available; a new-for-the-range 2.4-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine; and this ute is big - bigger than a standard GWM ute, bigger than a Toyota HiLux, Ford Ranger and Isuzu D-Max. But is the new diesel worth your attention?

The Land Rover Defender has gone next level.The British carmaker has revealed the new Defender Octa, an unstoppable high-performance four-wheel drive.Land Rover claims it is the most powerful and extreme Defender ever built and it’s easy to see why.Based on the five-door Defender 110, the Octa beefs up performance with a twin-turbo 4.4-litre V8 with mild hybrid boost that is good for 467kW and 750Nm. This jumps to 800Nm when using the dynamic launch mode.Land Rover claims it can complete the benchmark 0-100km/h sprint in four seconds flat, which is impressive for a circa-2500kg machine.The British carmaker hasn’t provided fuel use figures, but if you are asking that question, this isn’t the car for you.The Defender Octa channels the Ford Ranger Raptor with a high-performance off-road mode dubbed Octa Mode.You don't accidentally select Octa Mode: it is only activated by a long press of the dedicated steering wheel or via the rotary dial or central touchscreen.After Octa Mode is engaged the ambient lighting turns red, the dials transform to provide power, torque and G-force readouts. The exhaust valves open and the gear shifts and steering is adjusted for a more dynamic character.Octa Mode is designed for scooting across loose gravel surfaces with ultimate control.The car’s active air suspension can read the road ahead and adjust on the fly. It can also detect if the vehicle is airborne and adjust the suspension to cushion the landing.It enables high degrees of wheel articulation and high levels of damping, while also maintaining taut body control and steering precision.Octa Mode also allows the Off-Road Launch feature for scintillating acceleration on loose surfaces.It’s not just about raw speed off-road, though. The Octa rides higher than the regular Defender for a total ground clearance of 323mm. Lifted suspension now allows for 550mm of wheel articulation and, combined with larger tyres, means approach and departure angles are improved to 40.2 and 42.8 degrees.Wading depth is increased by 100mm over all other Defenders.Land Rover has also boosted underbody protection to make the Octa even more off-road ready.The Defender Octa will be shown in the metal for the first time at the Goodwood Festival of Speed next week.In Australia the Defender Octa will be priced from $291,542 (before on-road costs) and the Defender Octa Edition One will start at $317,592.

Toyota has finally detailed just how efficient its new mild hybrid HiLux is.The Japanese giant has recently fitted 48-volt mild hybrid tech to its rugged HiLux ute but wouldn’t disclose fuel figures … until now.Toyota is only offering the fuel saving tech on four-wheel drive, dual-cab SR, SR5 and Rogue variants equipped with an automatic transmission.In the thirstier and heavier HiLux Rogue fuel use drops to 7.8L/100km from 8.4L/100km, which is a saving of about seven per cent.The SR5 and SR cab chassis variants benefit from the biggest fuel savings, dropping from 8.4L/100km to 7.6L/100km or 9.5 per cent.Dual cab SR and SR5 versions now drink 7.4L and 7.2L/100km respectively, down from 7.9L/100km in the non electrified examples.Despite the fuel use improvements the HiLux still isn’t as efficient as the 2.0-litre four-cylinder bi-turbo diesel powered Ford Ranger that sips 7.2L/100km.It does trump the 8.0L/100km fuel figure for the dual-cab, four-wheel drive Isuzu D-Max.Toyota has made a big showing of not referring to the 48-volt equipped HiLuxes as hybrids, instead dubbing it V-Active technology. The tech is commonly referred to as a mild hybrid by nearly every other carmaker.The mild hybrid provides electric assistance to the 2.8-litre turbodiesel four-cylinder engine on SR, SR5 and Rogue 4x4 automatic double-cab grades.Unlike Toyota’s hybrid set-up in its passenger cars the electric motor in the HiLux never solely drives the wheels.Instead it is used to power electrical systems, the starter motor and to assist the engine by up to 8.4kW and 65Nm though peak output remains unchanged at 150kW/500Nm.Regenerative braking is used to help charge the small battery on the go.The addition of the mild hybrid tech comes at a cost, with price rises of between $590 and $1605 depending on the variant.The next-generation Toyota HiLux is expected in the next 18 months and it is likely to come with plug-in hybrid power to compete with the BYD Shark that is due this year and the 2025 Ford Ranger plug-in hybrid.It is rumoured Toyota could be using BYD’s plug-in hybrid technology for its next-generation HiLux.

Australia is more than just a new sales opportunity for the Kia Tasman, it is shaping as a make-or-break market for the Korean brand's first ute, with Aussie buyers expected to snap up one in every three Tasmans built, according to new reports.

With its new-generation LandCruiser Prado, Toyota may have this time done more than merely the bare minimum it usually seems to apply to one of its new vehicles – and people are frothy-mouth excited over the upcoming launch here of what is known as the 250 Series in other markets.