Skoda’s brilliant Yeti is our reigning 4x4 of the Year, but all-wheel drive is becoming ever-more significant throughout the rest of the company’s range too. Whether you’re after a small family car that can climb a wet hillside or a titanic estate that won’t sink at the first sign of ice and snow, the resurgent Czech manufacturer has no end of vehicles ready to be your best friend in the world.

Lamborghini is one of those companies that never does anything by halves. Its cars aren’t just great: they’re incredible. And when it decided to build an off-roader, the result wasn’t just odd: it was little short of unbelievable.

It’s three years and counting since the Hummer H1 went out of production. With it went the soul of a brand that came to represent the ultimate in off-road excess – and whose huge terrain-taming abilities were as nothing compared to its mighty proportions and sensationally rude image. But the military Humvee on which it was based is still very much alive – so have we really seen the last of the only Hummer worthy of the name?

Of all the American pick-up trucks, the Dodge Ram is by far the most commonly seen on UK roads, simply as a consequence of the vehicle being made available through official importers back in 2006.

Is the Hummer H3 a vehicle that’s really supposed to be taken seriously? It may be a hugely scaled down version of the Humvee-based H1 that came to encapsulate America’s conspicuous consumption, but there’s something so ridiculously overt about its 'Action Man' styling it’s almost comical.

It wouldn’t be unfair to say that when the original 4x4 boom happened in the early 1990s, the Jeep Cherokee was at its heart. Not only was it, at the time, the volume-seller within a product offensive that marked the return of American brands to the UK after a long absence, it was the vehicle which, perhaps above all others, symbolised what off-road vehicles had become.

When Mercedes launched the ML420 CDI, it was hard to believe that this wasn’t going to be the zenith of diesel SUV performance from a company that’s no stranger to making things go faster than they need to. The 3.0-litre V6 diesel in the 320 CDI was, and many will agree still is, as good an engine as you’ll ever need in an SUV, yet here was a 4.0-litre unit offering a load more power and torque for a price premium of around twelve grand. How very Mercedes.

The first time you see the Koleos and its subtly stylised exterior you’ll realise there’s something amiss, something unusual about its design you can’t quite put your finger on. You’ll look closer and determine that although there’s nothing wrong with its sporty shape, colour scheme or triangular front headlights, there’s one small of aspect of its design that distinguishes it from any other vehicle on the current SUV market. Eventually, it will occur to you – it’s the Renault badge.

Since its launch in April 2008, the new Subaru Forester doesn’t appear to have made a particularly huge impression on the 4x4 industry. It’s come at a bad time of course, but while most people would be willing to go along with its transition from an off-roader-estate to a fully-fledged SUV – especially given its new found levels of practicality – when it comes to on-road abilities the standard 2.0-litre petrol unit’s average output leaves its performance feeling rather watery and somewhat unsatisfying.

The special edition Invincible 200 is now the most powerful pick-up in Britain and represents a clear attempt by Toyota to restore the Hi-Lux to a class-leading position. But will a tuned 3.0-litre engine and a handful of extra equipment be enough to achieve this?