Land Rover Monthly April 2023

I’LL take any opportunity to get out and see areas of the country that I haven’t been to before, because I believe that a change of scenery can work wonders when it comes to feeling good and being motivated to crack on with stuff. One such opportunity was to help out at our first Spares Day of the year at the Three Counties Showground in Malvern. I have to confess that I’d never been to the Malvern area before, so I decided to make the day as much of an adventure as possible by leaving the faithful (and comfortable, and economical…) Freelander 2 at home and instead grabbed the keys to my V8 Series III. The 120-mile journey is the longest trip I’ve done to date in the Series III,…

Range Rover Velar refreshed As well as ‘Luxury Reimagined’ defining its models, Land Rover is also appealing to the kids, having exclusively revealed its enhanced Range Rover Velar on TikTok. Presumably said kids will then pester parents to buy one… To be fair, the Range Rover is one of the most popular vehicles on TikTok with over 5.2 billion views and launching an official channel dedicated to the brand – with ‘never-before-seen insight’ – was obviously a no-brainer for JLR. So what’s new? Well, the grille for starters, together with a new lower rear bumper and super-slim LED headlights. Inside a new single floating 11.4-inch curved glass touchscreen is integrated into the centre console, while the seats have been redesigned with new colours and materials, including a guilt-free vegetarian option…

Evoque off-roading Ed Evans’ intro to February’s technical section made me think. After putting my Defender into a hedge and on its side, I looked at the option of having the write-off payment from the insurance company, and buying a used Evoque. Most of my driving is on the road with just the occasional short trip up a muddy track or into a field, and I was thinking that a change to tyres with rather more aggressive tread pattern would easily cope with that. I also recalled that sometime ago Ed had predicted that as used prices fell enthusiasts would buy the Evoque and then modify them for more advanced off-road use. There seems to be very little kit for that on the market so far, although it’s probably a…

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LED LAMP PRICE: £33.36 each CONTACT: brookwell.co.uk These compact ARB 20W auxiliary lamps spread light out over a large area, making them ideal for use as work or camping lights. Packing an impressive 1100 Lumens from twin Osram LEDs, the lights come with a pre-fitted Deutsch connector as well as a bracket to suit ARB’s Base and Classic roof racks. TOOL ROLL PRICE: £105.86 CONTACT: LRSoffroad.co.uk Featuring four removable pouches, holders for a set of spanners and classic looks, this ARB tool roll is ideal to have tucked behind the seat or inside the battery box when out on adventures. It consists of a durable PVC outer with Cordura liner, and can also be spread out flat and used as a wing protector thanks to sewn-in magnets. DRILL BIT SHARPENER…

THE UK’s Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has recently released the new car registration data for 2022. It makes fascinating reading. Overall vehicle registrations were down two per cent on 2021 with 1.6M cars registered last year, which seems to be the lowest annual total for 30 years. Of these, only 83,000 were diesel-powered, a reduction of 40 per cent on 2021, which surely indicates that Michael Gove has got what he wanted and the diesel car is, to all intents and purposes, dead and buried. The picture regarding electric vehicles is mixed, with sales of diesel mild hybrids (MHEVs) down 27 per cent while petrol MHEV sales were up by 11 per cent, and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) were down 12 per cent. Sales of hybrid electric vehicles…