Looking for adventure

The mid-size, four-wheel-drive market is booming worldwide. Motoring editor ALASTAIR SLOANE checks out why.

Take Auckland's growth, for example. Apartments are going up all over the place. People are investing in carparks. Roads are becoming more congested. Public transport keeps getting a bad press. Sounds like an ideal market for zippy small cars, right?

Wrong. Well, partly wrong. The growth of small cars is going along with that of the city's high-rise population. But the segment growing the most is that of four-wheel-drives - up 50 per cent since 1996, thanks largely to used imports.

Why? Many are heavyweight off-roaders, with truck-like chassis and axles more suited to Kathmandu than Khyber Pass - like the Toyota Land Cruiser, Nissan Patrol and Land Rover Discovery.

Many, too, boast similar off-road ability in a softer set-up, like the new Jeep Cherokee and Mitsubishi Pajero. Many again are smaller soft-roaders, like the Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V, Nissan X-Trail, Subaru Outback and Forester, Suzuki Vitara. Some, like the Mercedes-Benz M-Class and BMW X5, are simply luxury alternatives, boasting a badge.

The answer lies somewhere between personal choice, practicality and emotional appeal.

The mid-size, four-wheel-drive market is booming worldwide. Buyers want interior space, improved car-like handling and ride comfort, towing ability and a high, commanding seating position.

Sheet metal comes into it, too. Auckland is plagued by red-light runners and has an estimated 44,000 unlicensed drivers. Ask mothers why they take their children to and from school in a big four-wheel-drive. They feel safer, that's why.

Never mind that the bigger vehicles, particularly, aren't as manoeuvrable. So what that you have to leave them at the furthest point in the supermarket carpark. What you see is what you get.

There's also a sense of adventure - the emotional appeal. Crossing some sloppy ground to get to a fishing spot, nosing through snow at a skifield, finding a camping spot beyond the modest reach of the front-drive family four-door ... whatever.

Development of lifestyle four-wheel-drives continues. It seems everyone wants to go off-road. Mainstream carmakers Holden and Ford will have crossover models based on the Commodore and Falcon.

Porsche will enter the four-wheel-drive segment next year with its Cayenne, which shares its platform with the Volkswagen Colorado, due in 2003.

The new Range Rover will arrive next June. BMW is working on 3-Series and 7-Series versions of its X5. Mercedes-Benz is building a longer M-Class.

Saab is expected to reveal a concept car called the 9-3X at the Detroit motor show next month, which will pave the way for its first off-roader. Saab says it is "likely to inspire a new style of all-terrain motoring."

The new Range Rover was designed and engineered by BMW before the German carmaker sold Land Rover to Ford.

It is expected to have the palpable prestige of its predecessors. It is longer, heavier and more luxurious, yet faster and more frugal. Inside it has leather and wood; outside a powerful presence. An air-suspension system gives an extra 68mm in off-road ride height over the model it replaces.

Volvo, meantime, has confirmed its luxury sports utility vehicle, the XC90 (XC for "cross country"), will go on sale in 2003.

The XC90 is pictured here for the first time in New Zealand and will be unveiled at the Detroit show.

It remains true to Volvo's AAC concept vehicle displayed at Detroit last January and at the Sydney motor show in October. The carmaker says its SUV is "aimed to be one of the safest and most exciting on the market."

The XC90 enters a crowded luxury market, with introductory prices from rival Germans around $100,000.

It comes with seven forward-facing seats and, like most vehicles of its type, is based on passenger car underpinnings, in this case the Volvo S80 flagship. The BMW X5 is based on the platform of the 5-Series sedan.

The V-shaped bonnet and pronounced shoulders are typically Volvo and have been combined with a powerful stance and design featuring rounded lines. The look of the nose is new and there is a hint of BMW's X5 about the tail.

"We wanted the car to look masculine and confident, but not macho," said chief designer Peter Horbury.

Volvo says the XC90 boasts "new solutions in the important area of roll-over protection." It also says it has been designed to be kinder to conventional cars in an accident.

The new model will be powered by a choice of turbocharged five-cylinder and six-cylinder petrol engines, or a new five-cylinder diesel unit.

Each model will come with Volvo's new four-wheel-drive transmission, which uses a Haldex electronic differential.

The XC90 will be built at the Torslanda factory on Sweden's west coast, where Volvo is concentrating production of its larger models.

The North American market is expected to account for about 65 per cent of total Volvo XC90 sales.