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18th march 1993, Page 30
18th march 1993
Page 30
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Page 30, 18th march 1993 — °LSLL CIVON-3,40 dflOHO
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Wimbledon farmers. These are the people who have kept the fourwheel-drive sector in a frenzy of activity in the past few years: people with no intention of taking their off-road vehicles offroad. But surely their 4x4s have some right to join the Land Rovers and Jeeps in the all-terrain class, don't they?

For decades commercial users—civil engineering contractors, farmers and mineral exploration firms among them—have relied on Land Rovers to get to places other vehicles cannot reach, while hair-shirt contenders such as the UMM have been the preserve of more specialist markets. But many users spend more time on the road than off, so they need vehicles that can eat the miles comfortably in between forays on to the rough stuff.

To assess this small but busy sector we took three middle-ranking off-roaders, from Vauxhall, Mitsubishi and, inevitably, Land Rover to see if they can be put to work as well as play.

• PRODUCT PROFILES These vehicles are a step or two up from the most basic off-roaders; each of them can transport five people in some comfort. We tested five-door versions fitted with charge-cooled diesels. Standard features like power steering, cloth seats and electric windows will help make the Volvo drivers of Wimbledon feel at home.

While the Land Rover remains as British as it sounds, the Vauxhall is more oriental than its name suggests. This is basically an Isuzu design, as is the Brava pickup which shares its chassis and its IBC production line in Luton. The Frontera's local content is assured by its GM diesel: the Discovery and Shogun also use their own manufacturers' engines.

The major differences between these vehicles lie in their four-wheel-drive systems: Vauxhall's Frontera has switchable two or four-wheel drive, with a five-speed gearbox and a low-range transfer box that operates in 4WD. The Mitsubishi Shogun is altogether more sophisticated, with a system that can be switched between 2WD and 4WD on the move (at up to 1001cm/h); a transfer box; a lockable centre viscous coupling; and a rear differential that can be locked at low speeds for arduous off-roading. The Frontera and Shogun both have automatically locking front freewheel hubs.

The Discovery has permanent four-wheel drive—as do all Land Rovers these days— with a transfer box and lockable rear cliff which can be engaged (with care) in motion.

• PRODUCTIVITY These vehicles can be assessed in several ways: a reasonable starting point is their usable payload. The figures range from 470kg for the Shogun to 691kg for the Frontera. These are poor loads in comparison with a 4x4 pickup's average of a tonne (the Brava 4x4 takes 995kg), but payload has to be sacrificed for the weight of extra panels, doors, seats, fittings and sound insulation, as well as the softer suspension required of a passenger vehicle.

Another measure of ability in this class is trailer-pulling capacity: the Frontera can handle a braked trailer of 2,000kg, while the Shogun is rated at 3,300kg and the Discovery manages a massive 4,000kg.

Travelling our Kent test route unladen the three vehicles put up remarkably similar fuel consumption figures with only 3% separating the most economical (the Discovery) from the least (the Shogun). The Discovery's marginally better result, despite its large frontal area, can be put down to Land Rover's direct-injection diesel, which is efficient if none too refined.

The near-identical average speeds put up round the Kent route reflect traffic conditions as much as performance but hill-climb times were similar too, with the lightweight Frontera and Shogun just beating the Discovery.

The Shogun and Discovery have full-width loadspace doors with spare wheels mounted on them, making them tricky to hold open, but access is good. The Discovery comes with an extra pair of sideways-facing seats, while the Shogun has optional forward-facing seats. The extra seats aren't much use for adult passengers, but the Discovery is much easier to enter, and its seats fold away more neatly.

The Frontera has a bizarre arrangement for loadspace access, with a split tailgate hinged at the top and bottom, and the spare wheel mounted on a frame that swings out to the side. The top half of the tailgate is released by a button on the dashboard but cannot be opened without swinging the spare wheel out—and the frame is almost as massive as the Shogun's door. Also there is no lock on the frame, so it would be easy for someone to set it swinging free.

• ON THE ROAD First impressions can be misleading. At idle the Vauxhall and Mitsubishi engines are quiet and smooth, whereas the Land Rover suffers from a direct-injection engine's usual clatter. But the Discovery turned out to have the most willing engine of the three, producing significantly more torque than its competitors. The Shogun is smooth and powerful but needs lower gearing to perform-70mph corresponds to an indicated 3,500rpm compared with the Land Rover's 3,000rpm. The Frontera suffers most from typical turbo characteristics, in that it doesn't come on song until past 2,500rpm, while the Discovery pours out power (and a turbo whistle) throughout the rev range.

The Frontera and Shogun have slick, carlike gear changes; the Discovery had a notchy, heavy change that might become tiresome if the engine wasn't so flexible.

Motorway cruising is perfectly possible in these vehicles, but they all lack refinement in one way or another. The Shogun has excellent sound insulation and feels thoroughly isolated from outside traffic in town, but wind and tyre noise starts to intrude at higher speeds and the engine note becomes noticeable, The Frontera is more noisy in any case, and road rumble is exaggerated by its balloon tyres, 4 but it lacks the power of the others. The Discovery's noisy engine and constant 4WD whine become less intrusive at speed, and wind and road noise is not excessive. The Shogun suffers from a period of booming at 70mph, so legal-limit cruising is actually easier in the Land Rover.

Compromise is inevitable in a dual-purpose vehicle so some handling deficiencies were expected, but we were surprised by the problems that came up. The Frontera has a long wheelbase and the most basic suspension setup (relatively sophisticated front wishbones and torsion bars are combined with a live axle and leaf springs at the back) which is betrayed by a middling ride with a fore-andaft wallowing motion at speed and a tendency to oversteer under power.

The Shogun is more modern, with rear coil springs, three-link suspension, and damping that is adjustable on the move, but this is of little practical use as its settings feel like "soft", "softer" and "softest". The power steering is OK, and the Shogun soaks up city potholes, but it wallows around and suffers from excessive body roll when cornering. The Shogun also behaves oddly at speed in fourwheel drive: steering effort increases and the vehicle feels more nervous around the straight-ahead than it did in two-wheel drive.

The Discovery has the traditional Land Rover layout of beam axles fore and aft, suspended from the coils that are now standard across the range (apart from the air-sprung Range Rover LSE). Designed for maximum axle articulation, this set-up might be expected to allow too much roll on the road, but spring and damping rates have been chosen well. City bumps are ironed-out superbly, albeit with considerable roll and some of the shimmying of the Shogun, but the vehicle remains composed at speed and direction changes hold no fears (our test vehicle was fitted with optional anti-roll bars). This, with a responsive engine and steering, makes the Discovery the best of the three to drive.

• OFF THE ROAD While the Shogun and Frontera have bash plates underneath their major drive components, the Discovery makes do without but its frame and other parts are massive. This gives it away, as it proved to be the nearest thing to a true all-terrain vehicle in the test The Frontera is quite happy to go off-road, but one can't help feeling that it might stay there. It scrambled up Bagshot's Alpine Track with ease in high range and skittered around the loose surfaces of the Rough Road circuit with more balance than grip, and it was fun to drive. But wet mud clogged up the tyres, it started to slither, and the lack of a rear difflock became worrisome. Stickier stuff and deep puddles demanded slow progress, even with the Vauxhall's impressive ground clearance, and its peaky engine threatened to stall. So the Frontera will go off load, but it has its limits.

The Shogun used its smooth expanse of power to tackle the rough stuff, and remained quiet and comfortable inside, but the Mitsubishi's top-heavy feel and the sloppiness of the ride could make passengers feel queasy. The chassis grounded easily, but traction was good and the centre and rear difflocks gave the driver confidence that it could get out of a hole.

The Discovery felt immediately at home off-road, with a tremendously comfortable and controlled ride over ground that an ordinary car couldn't tackle, but we soon ran into a problem. The transfer box needed quite a push into the diff-lock position (we didn't need low range, which is very low indeed) and the lever kept jumping out of the gate. After less than an hour's driving the vehicle came to a complete halt: the engine was fine but there was no drive to the wheels. We suspected a faulty transfer box or linkage, but Land Rover subsequently diagnosed a burntout clutch. We hadn't indulged in any severe hill-starts with a trailer or standing-start acceleration runs, and had not encountered any clutch trouble, so this problem remains a mystery. A replacement Discovery handled muddy green lanes with no problems, but we used little of the vehicle's off-road potential.

• CAB COMFORT The three interiors show distinctly different approaches: the Frontera has a car-like trim and driving position, while the Shogun is luxuriously equipped, with more room, an upright, commanding driving position (and a proper clutch footrest). The Discovery has a terrific interior—it's high and airy, the deep windows give superb visibility and storage pockets abound—but its seats are poor, legroom is restricted in the back and there is no drinks holder or lockable space.

The Discovery's instruments and controls are basic but generally clear, while the Shogun's appear randomly throughout the cabin. The Frontera borrows a leaf from Isuzu's book, with far too many switches and a right-hand indicator stalk.

• BUILD QUALITY Off-road use is a good test of a vehicle's build quality, and there were a few more squeaks and rattles in the Mitsubishi and Vauxhall after our drive, but nothing went wrong. The Land Rover was pretty solid, but its mouldings were none too crisp and its large panel gaps let masses of mud in to the sills. More worryingly, we found that its front differential breather pipe was routed over a bump stop; one thump and it would be crushed.

• SUMMARY The three vehicles tested here can be separated quite easily: the Frontera is relatively cheap and cheerful, but it won't cope with really difficult terrain. The Discovery is a superb off-road machine and is good on the road too; it's satisfying to drive but takes the most effort, and there is a question-mark over its build quality.

The Shogun is luxurious and easy to drive, but pricey and not entirely convincing offroad, but against this it has a three-year unlimited mileage warranty.

As a site vehicle we would choose the Discovery or, with a limited budget, the Frontera, although both face strong competi- tion from the Isuzu Trooper which is available as a commercial. The Shogun is an excellent vehicle, but too expensive and unwieldy to win this contest CI by Toby Clark


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