Alan Kidd Forget groundhog day, this has turned into groundhog yeart

Every now and again when I sit down to write this column, I get the feeling that I’ve been here before. And this month, the groundhog day feeling is stronger than ever. Though it’s more like groundhog year.

Twelve months ago, as Christmas approached and the time came to wrap our Pick-Up of the Year issue, the whole of Britain was fretting about the tough year we were all being told lay in wait. If you need me to explain why I’m getting déjà vu from that, welcome home from outer space.

Let’s leave that whole subject to one side for as long as we can, though. There’s another way in which Pick-Up of the Year 2023 is taking me back to last year, too.

Last December, I went on a press event organised by Ford to promote the special editions it was using to keep the heat turned up under the Ranger. It was a cracking gig with some great green laning and extreme off-roading, and they sent us home with a Christmas tree in a pot.

Mainly, though, us hacks all wanted to know about the all-new Ranger. As in, when can I get behind the wheel.

‘We’re seeing this mainly as a 2023 story’ was the slightly enigmatic response. With car makers’ model years tending to start in the middle of summer, I felt relatively safe in assuming that by the time this issue came around, I’d have driven one and we’d be in a position to consider it as a contender for Pick-Up of the Year.

So this time last year, there was a bit of a bear-with-us-while-we-mark-time theme going on. And this year? Guess what.

Which means that it’s still the old Ranger in this year’s awards, even though it’s basically already been replaced. Still, we’ve been saying for years now that even though it’s the oldest truck on the market, it’s never stopped being able to show newer vehicles a thing or two, so you could see this as the opportunity for the ultimate swansong.

I’ve not even mentioned the new VW Amarok yet, which is is based on the same platform as the new Ranger and will also be arriving in the UK during 2023. That will take the one-tonne market back up to fi ve, which it where it was this time last year before the Nissan Navara dropped out. Changed days indeed from when there were twice as many models to choose from and every manufacturer with an LCV department was desperate to badgeengineer their way into the pick-up market.

That’s down to external factors rather than any drop-off in demand, of course. And the Amarok won’t be the only new model to join (or in this case rejoin) the market. Nissan has left the door open for a return, for one, and Ineos intends to do a double-cab version of the Grenadier. The idea of the Mitsubishi L200 coming back under a different nameplate hasn’t gone away completely. As long as people still want them (and they do), pick-ups will continue to thrive.

On the subject of Rangers, and pick-ups, as I write this I’ve just arrived home from a photoshoot during which I had a very interesting encounter with a National Trust ranger on a green lane in Derbyshire. We had a vehicle parked up at a wild angle on a ridge at the side of the trail when she turned up in her D-Max and, rather sadly, I automatically assumed we were going to get an ear-bashing for existing.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. She knew we were doing nothing out of order and mainly, she thought it was fairly hilarious that the vehicle perched there on three wheels was a Bentley. She told us that her other half is a green laner and that, in her words, ‘we’re all on the same side.’

And what side is that? Well, she also mentioned that the Trust is currently fi ghting a TRO on the lane, which other bodies are after because of 4x4-driving vandals using the SSSI alongside it as their personal playground. It’s a part of the country where opportunistic antis have wreaked havoc in the past, and the criminal element give them the perfect excuse. So the side we’re all on is Decent Folk. The enemy is, in a word, selfi shness – whether that of hooligans on huge mud-plugging tyres or greedy haters don’t want to share. The countryside is a wonderful place – and it’s big enough for all of us.

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Alan Kidd

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