4X4'S AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Does choosing a 4x4 necessarily mean ignoring your environmental conscience? Andy Enright Reports

There's no more controversial group of vehicles on the market at the moment than 4x4s. They are extremely popular and that popularity is growing but only a fraction of the motorists who buy these all-wheel-drive models ever explore their capacity for off-road travel. By chance, the features that 4x4s evolved to help them climb rocky hillsides and plough up mud-clogged tracks out in the wilds have endeared them to family buyers in our towns and cities. The problem is that all-wheel drive vehicles have become targets of the environmental lobby.

Much of the criticism levelled at 4x4 vehicles is based around size, whether it's in terms of the extensive exterior dimensions or the gas-guzzling V8 engines that are imagined to be throbbing away under the bonnet. If you want a leviathan offroader with single figure urban fuel economy, it is possible to get one but most people don't, and that's why the majority of 4x4s sold are from the compact 4x4 sector.

These 'softroaders' typically take up no more space on the road than the average family saloon and are packing modest petrol or diesel powerplants. Take the biggest selling 4x4 of the last year, the Land Rover Freelander. This is narrower and shorter than a Ford Mondeo, instantly scotching rumours that it's a carriageway hog. What's more, the best selling engine in the Freelander, the 2.0-litre Td4, manages 37 miles per gallon, identical to something like a Ford Ka 1.6-litre. Carbon dioxide? The old shape Freelander emits less than a Mini Cooper S and its replacement is cleaner again.

It's well worth keeping the 'problem' in proportion. That's less than one in thirteen new cars registered each year is a 4x4. Of this number, well over half were of the compac...