4WD

Yesterday was World Land Rover Day, marking 71 years of all-terrain history for the manufacturer. The day also marked a 1.2 million kilometer (745,645 mile) milestone in the test and development cycle for the brand new, new look, Defender.

Highly capable off-road wagon or the 4WD equivalent of a Gucci handbag; however you view the Mercedes G-Class, the updated model is now available with a grunty 2.9-liter six-cylinder turbo diesel engine that takes you some 20 percent farther per gallon than the gasoline-powered G 500.

​The Mercedes-AMG G63 is already a fairly extreme vehicle. The high performance version of the boxy G-Wagen 4WD uses a twin-turbo 4-liter V8 making 585 horsepower. But Brabus sees the extreme as a perfect launching point for the ludicrous, and has turned the G63 into a full-on off-road supercar.

Sand and water: there's plenty of both at Lake Havasu, Arizona, making it a bit of a mecca for high-octane vehicles built to tear across both the desert and the lake. Here are our photo highlights from the Southwest's biggest motorsports and outdoor recreation expo.

Famously Russian car company Lada has released a funky, chunky 4x4 concept SUV that maybe, just maybe, might end up being the successor to the famous Niva. With a deep and cool-looking X-shape in the doors and a hyper-modern interior, the 4X4 Vision concept is likely to capture a lot of attention.

Renault is apparently big in Russia, owning almost a third of the market through its main brand and majority ownership of Lada. And apparently, Russians want to see more cars with the ground clearance and 4-wheel-drive capability of an SUV, but the body of a sedan.

The king of Ford's F150 pickup range, the 2019 F150 Limited, has just been given a pretty serious steroid injection. Using the latest-generation, high-output 3.5-liter Ecoboost V6 engine from the F150 Raptor, the Limited now makes a monstrous 450 hp (335 kW) and 510 lb-ft (691 Nm) of torque.

We've now had our first chance to take an up-close look at Rolls-Royce's most fascinating car in a long time. An ambitious and almost self-contradictory attempt to blend rugged off-road capability with uncompromising luxury, the Cullinan is a muscular tank full of technology and creature comforts.

Full specs and details have dropped on the adorable 2019 Suzuki Jimny, a miniature retro G-Wagen lookalike with true off-road capability at a fraction of the price. And we see nothing here that makes us like this humble, fun 4x4 any less.

Suzuki has released the first images of its upcoming new Jimny 4x4 … and it looks like an adorably baby-faced take on a mini G-Wagen. Bug-eyed, tiny and boxy, all it needs is the roof off, four ridiculously goodlooking male models and some orange mocha frappuccinos.

A multi-millionaire man-child, a raging obsession with performance cars and racing, a tall volcano, a gruelling desert race, a ridiculous round-the-world amphibious jaunt, a nasty go-anywhere off-roader and a pinch of Steve McQueen … This has got to be a story worth following.

Whether due to its rugged off-road capability or its Kardashian-level celebrity glow, the Mercedes-Benz G-Class has never been more popular. A full update for 2018 leaves the military chic exterior mostly unchanged, but ups the ante significantly in terms of comfort, refinement and intelligence.