And the setting of tearing through pools of mud, gears crashing, as the vehicle is pitted against nature’s wilds is a signature scene that the virus is actually helping expand.
ARB Shepparton, the local one-stop-shop for everything off-road, has kept its engines revving through 2020 with the support of local community according to director and general manager Simon Guthrie.
“(The past six months) have been good, the 4WD industry is a firm one; where a lot of people are spending a more time camping and all that sort of stuff,” he said.
“We were quiet to start with due to the first wave, when no one knew anything about it, but it has bounced back pretty well.
“All in all, we are doing well at the moment.”
But Simon believes the real potential of the industry is just around the corner.
And it’s called domestic tourism.
COVID-19 restrictions might have slightly shifted the way petrolheads conduct their motorised mayhem but it has also created a whole new demand for 4WD.
Simon said he anticipated swathes of regular jetsetters to head to the hills to spend their time camping, touring and adventuring instead.
“There are two parts of our business in regard to 4WD – there are the people who do it for fun, which they can during stage three, but they need to be just the driver in each car,” he said.
“The other aspect is people setting up for touring, going away for months at a time.
“I can imagine what is going happen in the future is the people who can’t duck up to Bali for three or four weeks, for example, will go camping or caravanning or something along those lines.”
Which means ARB is going to be even busier.
From bull bars to winches, canopies and suspension, ARB’s extensive inventory of mechanical products and services merged with its staff expertise has kept the doors swinging.
Focused on serving Shepparton’s adventurous community, Simon has said adversity hadn’t altered the way ARB ran its business.
“Our customer base, primarily, is Shepparton,” he said.
“Once people got a bit of confidence in how everything was going, we put some info up on social media to let them know we were around.
“We work pretty hard on our sales and customer service, but we’ve always done that, so we never really changed anything in that regard.
“I do love to keep local business going – I think if we support each other we will get through it all.”