Advice Needed

[cliopete]

Recently moved house and desperately need to buy a cheapish 4x4 to cope with the snow and ice up the lane where I now reside. Been house bound for the last two days and the Williams is poo in snow as most of you know.
Any advice on a suitable 4x4 eg Rav 4, Freelander, Vitara, Defender would be appreciated. Only have a budget of about £3000.

Pete

[LEIGH-ANNE]

you need to speak to richy mate

[jamie_St200]

Jimny is purist new ish 4x4. you will get a good one for that money. cheap to run, insure etc and dont seem to be depreciating that much either.

[richy]

Recently moved house and desperately need to buy a cheapish 4x4 to cope with the snow and ice up the lane where I now reside. Been house bound for the last two days and the Williams is poo in snow as most of you know.
Any advice on a suitable 4x4 eg Rav 4, Freelander, Vitara, Defender would be appreciated. Only have a budget of about £3000.

Pete

personally i wouldnt touch a rav 4, gaylander or vitara lol def worth looking at a defender/discovery or something along the lines of a mitso l200/hilux etc

defender would proberly be quite old for 3k, they do seem to hold there value but are very capable machines, id love one but inside wise there really basic so not ideal for my everyday car lol

i personally own a discovery 2 - TD5, had it since august last year and its been spot on for me, brilliant in this snow lol but doubt you would get a decent spec 2 for the budget you have, more likely to be a disco 1 - tdi

[cliopete]

So you don't rate Freelanders then Richy? Not even the TD4 engined one which is probably what I would go for. Disco probably a bit to big for the misses to handle round the narrow bits.
The Jimny is a bit too small for our business usage, occasionally have to hump lots of boxes around.
Pete

[cliopete]

Been offered an X-type Jag Estate that's done about 300,000 miles at a knock down price. Are they all 4 wheel drive?

[richy]

personally i wouldnt ever buy one, i think the new TD4 versions look much better but will be outside the 3k budget you said and the older ones ive driven were ... well rubbish tbh

no idea on the jag tbh, not sure if they did all 4wd or just certain models/versions of the x-type

[micmatt313]

the old fiat panda 4x4's great fun in the snow and very capable - in fact they're better in the snow than the dry as it's much more difficult to get them on the roof..

Unless the snow is really deep a decent set of winter tyres on some cheap wheels might be a cheaper option - used to drive to chamonix no problem in fwd with winter tyres, and chains if it got really bad.

[Danno]

its discovery all the way for me, I'm with richy - wouldnt touch anything else. I had 1 and it was a good all-rounder, in fact i'm looking for another at the moment.

[white16valver]

Old skool defender if you can find one!

Easy to fix (apparently) and aluminium body = not rust problems :) Plus they are one of the best 4x4s off road that you can get.

Plus they hold their value!

[Purple]

Would an old Landcruiser be within the budget? Not the tarted up SUV ones of recent years, but the plainer, older ones used by UN peacekeepers. Those are pretty basic and sturdy.

[2 live]

you know the guy that lived the other end of the street to me mate? hes had plenty 4x4 s well rated the suzuki sj410 for playing off road. but wont touch anything else apart from landys .

get yourself landy. hold their money well, go anywhere, plenty load space......bit short on mod cons tho.

[summeh]

Freelanders are the worst heaps of shite ever.

[h6ewy]

Freelanders are shite - they are not a 4x4 - they are a car with a crap system - they dont even have low range.

A defender is best but it will be fairly old for £3000 and basic but they are ace. For more comfort go for a Disco but if I were you I would spend about £1500-£2000 on a tidy Diahatsu Fourtrak - Very capable and cheap for what they are.

[richy]

you wander why people call the freelander a gaylander lol, more of a shopping run car then anything else! cant beleive they still havent put a transfer box or anything in them lol

never driven a landcruiser but supposedly there pretty good too, used all over the world along with landys etc

we have a ford ranger at work and tbh ive never really rated it as a proper 4x4 but with the recent weather and the sites we go to(mostly off road ) its actually done pretty well, our normal vans are shockingly shit lol

[white16valver]

How about one of those Top Gear unkillable flatbeds?! :P lol

(Memory loss = can't remember what it's called lol)

[stevie_b]

^ You mean the Toyota HiLux.

Haven't had any 4x4s (I manage with an E39 540i for towing) so can't advise you much other than to repeat the above from what I have heard elsewhere - avoid the Freelander!

[Jaymzfc]

Used to drive toyota landcruisers in the desert when i worked there, brilliant 4x4's closest thing to a landrover 90 but with more power. they can take any beating you give them.

[col]

Used to have a Willys jeep, best offroader (cj style) ex canadian army.......looked cooll in bar treads. 8)

[LEIGH-ANNE]

Minds gone into overdrive imagining all u lot in 4x4's in the desert and army lol.....

:roll:


Sowwi.... :wink:

[northy]

Mmm mine too :winkey:

http://www.scavengeinc.com/images/forplay/sexy-army-siren-costume.jpg