This month Hils ponders the highly competitive, yet rapidly progressing pick-up market that promises a bright future for some manufacturers

Following on from our mega 4x4 of the Year 2012 in last month’s issue, in this edition we look at the pick-up of the year (page 66). This year’s test, erring towards the lifestyle genre, has been hampered somewhat by the lack of availability of two important new models, their arrival in the UK having been delayed by floods and other natural disasters in the Far East that have prevented some parts’ manufacture.

It could have been one of the most significant comparison tests for some years with Toyota, VW and Ford all contributing their new vehicles. We had the VW, which has been around in various parts of the globe for almost two years now but only for a short time in the UK, but sadly not the 2012 Hilux and Ranger. A real shame, particularly since the Ranger features its new Traction Control System that now means the VW Amarok is no longer in a class of its own as a stylish and highly competent off-roader with electronic 4x4 technology.

This month Hils gets all ‘designer label’ on us and has a moan about terrible seasonal TV – which, funnily enough, does have a connection...

As you will see, this month’s issue contains the annual extravaganza that is our excellent 4x4 of the Year test. We always look forward to the week in autumn when we get to drive the best 4x4s available to us here in the UK and then spend long hours evaluating them to decide which will be crowned the winners of the specific groups and, of course, the overall winner.

I won’t divulge or comment on any of the results here, as I have no idea in which order you will be reading the various features in this magazine, and would not want to spoil your enjoyment of anticipating which have earned top honours.

Writing this issue’s group test of soft-roaders/crossovers/SUVs – whatever you want to call them – was quite an enlightening experience.

Here at 4x4 we are often rather dismayed by the lack of ‘real’ off-roaders left in the world; vehicles that offer a proper low-range transfer box and the sort of ground clearance that will make sure you can clear more than just a small, muddy hump or a patch of slippery grass in the gymkhana field.

But the world is changing and manufacturers are all competing to produce the best, compact, but still useful ‘soft-roader’ (my preferred term for the genre). The 4x4 has become a hot property in buyers’ guides and at auctions, as harsh winters seem now to be the norm in the UK. The Siberian weather that the east coast of the USA is experiencing as I write this, appears to be heading our way...

This man has set our reputation back again and it makes me sad that we will have to work hard to regain hard-won ground - all thanks to a tiny minority of idiots

I am sitting here looking out on a beautifully sunny and warm early October day having just written the special feature on winter driving and tyres – see page 24. It’s rather surreal to be honest, and I am finding it quite hard to believe that, this year, the heavy snow we now seem guaranteed to get each winter is forecast to arrive in just a few weeks’ time!

For the last two years we have been badgering you, about preparing your 4x4 for the severe weather and also about considering fitting winter tyres for those cold wet days and not just for the predicted snowfall and icy roads.