4x4 advice

[viking]

I like my Range Rover. Will go anywhere a LWB LR can but in comfort.

 

[sp4rkman]

Hi All,

Thanks for many posts offeirng advice on this subject. I understand it's a can of worms as everyone has their own opinions, experiences etc.

The wifes car (damn French P.O.S) packed up today and although the RAC got it sorted, the wife finally agreed to getting a 4x4. So off we went to all the dealers nearby.

We looked at a 04 Navara Outlaw, 04 Diahatsu Terios (wifes favourite, not mine), 04 Nissan X-Trail - 04's seem to be the most common around. We also looked at 56' Ford Ranger.

I'm quite keen on a Discovery 2 though - how many of you drive one and would you recommend it compared to the above vehicles?

sp4rkman

 

[greville1689]

I need a vehicle which can fit the whole family in (plus dog), do long journeys in reasonable comfort as well as be reliable. Any recomendations?

 

[simon1067]

I have had two Mitsubishi the oldd shape one and the new shape.
The old shape was great went anywhere and was well book. The new one I had for 4 montsh and gave it to one of the staff to drive. It was overpowered, badly built and just not a work horse like teh old one. Bits kept falling off it and it was deadly on roundabouts in the wet.
The old one never let me down in four years and a much more pratical vehicle.

 

[caorach]

I need a vehicle which can fit the whole family in (plus dog), do long journeys in reasonable comfort as well as be reliable. Any recomendations?

I'm far from an expert but have just recently bought my first 4X4 and I can give you my opinions, they might not be worth anything to you but...

At first I decided I wanted a real 4X4 and so looked at the Discovery, Shogun and Land Cruiser. The discovery was without doubt the best to drive on road and has a great reputation off road. The Land Cruiser came second in terms of on road comfort/driving and the Shogun came a distant third. The Discovery is expensive for what you get and adding fairly small items of trim/extras can be big money but it really is an excellent drive on the road. They are also expensive to keep at £400 - £600 even for a very basic service. I didn't look at Shogun servicing prices as I eliminated it from my list but the Land Cruiser was much less expensive to service with main dealer service costs for a "small" service less than £200. The land cruiser gets a great reputation for reliability but there are some injector oil seal problems which cause engines to blow up around 60,000 miles. I believe in Ireland there is a recall for this but not in the UK and that this is rare but, as you can imagine, it is also very expensive to fix. The Discovery has a fearsome reputation when it comes to reliability and cost to fix and I did notice that most people with the cash to buy a new one sell them just before the warranty expires, getting anything fixed on them is big money and for many they seem to become a full time hobby rather than a mode of transport. In the end I decided to go for a Discovery from a main dealer with a one year warranty with the plan that if it was getting a lot of warranty work done it it during the year then I would sell it before the warranty expired. Unfortunately the dealer tried to sell me a (2nd hand) car they had no legal title to and I was very, very lucky to discover this before I completed the deal. On writing to Land Rover on the matter they admitted they had tried to sell me a dodgy car and suggested that I don't contact them again! With the combination of awful reliability plus what can only be described as a remarkable attitude to someone trying to buy a car I decided there was no way I'd ever buy a Land Rover, if they treat me like that when I'm spending money with them what would they be like if I was broken down at the side of the road, or in a forest? So, I joined the band of people who think the Discovery is a first rate vehicle backed by an awful company and blighted by very expensive problems. I'd rather spend the cash on stalking than on repairing a Land Rover.

After some thinking I concluded that, probably, one of the more able "soft roaders" might do my job and I read a few posts on here and decided to take a look at the Nissan XTrail. I was really quite impressed by it - it had lots of things that you pay £1,500 for as options on the Land Rover and it was getting a reputation of being better than you might think off road. The boot is not lined with carpet and so can be washed out easily and it is a lot bigger than you imagine, more than big enough for a pile of deer. On top of this I found that there were quite a few ex-demo ones about with literally delivery milage on them and so I ended up buying one of those at what I consider to be a good price. I've put 2,000 miles on it so far, including maybe 20 miles per week off road, and have had no problems and it has gone everywhere I might want it. On a long run I have seen 50mpg when driving very easy and I probably average 45mpg+ on runs and about 42 - 43mpg when there is town driving in the mix. It has about 170bhp and is not too heavy and so in terms of driving feels pretty much like a car rather than a big van, oh and a service is about £170.

On the down side the Xtrail will never be as able off road as the "serious" off roaders and I suspect it is not as robust so lots of very serious off roading might break it over time. As I mostly stalk alone in quite remote areas to be honest even with the best 4X4 in the world I'm not going to be taking any risks, as there is no one to pull me out, so the Nissan has gone everywhere I need it to so far. It also has 17 inch alloys in a very odd size and so there is very little in the way of all terrain tyres available for it, however earlier models had 16 inch alloys for which there are lots of AT tyres and they pop up 2nd hand on ebay.

I hope that helps, here is a photo of mine in action on the day I picked it up:

 

[Ronin]

I guess I am kind of in a "fortunate" position having three vehicles - one of them set up specifically for shooting and deer extraction and its only used for this purpose.

Ive had Discos (200, 300 and D3).

Loved em, didnt like maintainence costs, with the early disco's you could do your own maintainence, so bills not so bad, the D3 was spendy on service costs - I was also one of those that bought new D3 and sold before warranty expired.....


Defender - yup would have a double cab 110 no problem, if they were a wee bit cheaper.

Ive had a L200 (04 plate) for last 6 months in that time added winch in the tub and a "tilt" cover that allows protection from elemants for carcass's and easy removal for lamping bunnies / foxs , if and when required.

The L200 is cheap to insure, cheap on tax although not good on fuel - circa 28 I think maybe less.


Would I have another - yes,


what would I buy as alternative - Hi-Lux or Defender.