Which 4x4 for a Newb?

[wadsy]

Hi all

My first post as I'm considering my first venture into 4x4 ownership :)
I was hoping to get some advice as to what would be a suitable vehicle :? Mainly for road use (and coping with the weather!) but if I do get one I'm sure I'd like to do some laning and maybe a bit more off-road.

I was thinking of diesel for economy and something like a Pajero swb 2.8?

Your advice much appreciated

Cheers

[simon holland]

disco 300tdi,s are very cheap now good on the road aslong as long as you dont modifiy them to much and are good off road and driven carefully i get 25 mpg out of mine but it is modified

[JumboBeef]

Disco! Disco! Disco!

[TDi90]

Audi Allroad A6.

[Oz]

Disco

[wadsy]

Thanks for the replies :)

Just measured my car porch (approx. 14.5' long, 75" high) and (if wikipedia dimesions are correct) a swb Pajero will fit, but a Disco won't :(

Any other options?

Cheers

[discowoman]

Pajero's and economy aren't 2 words that usually go together-  VERY luck to get 30mpg on a run..
also the 2.8's have problems with the O rings in the injector pump, causes stalling and problems starting - cheap part - but involves a strip down to cure it!
Disco's are a good choice but check the sills - bot floor and inner wings for rust
same for Range rovers
Series landies are cheap cheerful - great fun and easy to repair - if a little 'agricultural'
daihatsu 4tracks are good all rounders, as are diesel fronteras, but not so many 'off road' bits vailable for them - avoid the 2.0 litre sport as it drinks like a fiash - lol
suzuki vitara aint bad- small and cheap also pretty good in the sticky stuff
your choice at the end of the day!

[DoubleTop]

Freelander every time  :dance:

DT.

[vicskyline]

As a defender owner I say defender 300tdi we have owned ours for 6 years and she has never really give use any trouble I owned a disco for a short while if ur after comfort I'd say disco, on fuel my defender is brilliant on fuel a great all rounder  :lol:

[MudRat]

i have a modded disco, but my daily drive is a nissan x trail, optional and selectable perm 4wd, excellent on the road, good in all weathers and towed a sankey through a very muddy field with a diesel tank in it on road tyres, crap ground clearance, but a great motor!

[muddyjames]

Disco! Disco! Disco!

Ditto Ditto Ditto

[dxmedia]

Any thing but a landy ;)

Jeep, Isuzu, toyota.  You want to be out green laning not fixing ;)

[kizz81]

i disagree :lol: if you dont learn to fix what you break then you may end up in a comfy 4x4 watching the landys as they drive past  ;)

but seriously depends what you want to do with it, from standerd a landy is a pretty good all rounder where as other 4x4's take mods to get anywhere, if you wanna start serious then get a tank  :lol:

[Tel]

Any thing but a landy ;)

Jeep, Isuzu, toyota.  You want to be out green laning not fixing ;)

i do love my landys but i have to say hes right mine spends more time off the road than on the road and mines had a very extensive rebuild hoping a new engine will see mine good for a while im running out of things to buy lol

[simon holland]

i dont think anyone that drives a landy would ever recomend one to a friend but at the same time would never drive anything else

[Bishops Finger]

i disagree :lol: if you dont learn to fix what you break then you may end up in a comfy 4x4 watching the landys as they drive past  ;)

but seriously depends what you want to do with it, from standerd a landy is a pretty good all rounder where as other 4x4's take mods to get anywhere, if you wanna start serious then get a tank  :lol:

Ha ha...ever been near a Jeep......stock TJ's /Cherokees/GC/XJ ..do whaats needed......then you mod em...

[wadsy]

Thanks for the input :)

As it needs to be reliable and not too expensive to run I was thinking maybe a jap truck would be best (sorry) and as I said above, it needs to be small-ish to fit in my (car) porch; a Pajero swb will fit, a Disco won't!  I suppose I'd be looking at about 2k as well ;)

Any places in the west berks area good to have a look at options or is it a case of seeing what comes up?

Cheers

[kizz81]

fiat panda?  :dance:

[Range Rover Blues]

If a Disco won't fit, I assume it's too tall? try a RRC instead.  Late model ones have EAS so you can drop it even lower, they are one of the best LR in showroom condition, ABS/TC, EAS, Viscous centre diff and of course can take all the same mods as and when funds allow.

Late hard dash had the 200TDi, sifties had the 300TDi, older ones (badged TurboDiesel) had the VM, not a bad engine until it goes wrong but a bit unrefined.

If it's got to be cheap to run then why not a smaller 4x4, like a 'Zuk?

Bitsamissin' do make good 4x4 and I'd often impressed by them, but at the end of the day they have their limits and it's harder to overcome things like ground clearance and articulation than with a LR.

[LiftedDisco]

It sounds as if you are looking away from the LR options - a friend of mine has a SWB Pajero that she picked up for £650 and it's a good bit of kit...

However, someone else mentioned a Frontera in passing - Fatbaz on here has a SWB Frontera with the 2.8 engine (taken from the Isuzu) and it is a cracking motor - apparently the 2.8 is way, way better than the 2.2 and I know that Stuart uses his for daily commute of 15 miles or so each way plus laning and the odd play-day.  I think that the 2.8 is harder to find, but worth it in the end...

Hope this helps - welcome to MC!

Rob

[william127]

the big problem with jap motors is the cost and avalibility of the parts- a mate of mine has had no end of trouble trying to get track rods for his izuzu trooper. the only place he could get them new was izuzu who would only sell them with ends so it cost £250 a pair :shock:. he then tryed getting second hand ones and had to get 3 pairs before he got a working set.
i had similar trouble with my hilux, sj and an izuzu engine in my rangie.
compare this to my land rovers, i got a set of heavy duty rods and ends for £100 and theres a hell of a lot more steel in themm than there is in a trooper rod. and if a part goes there are 4 specailists within 10 miles of me :clap:

[wadsy]

If a Disco won't fit, I assume it's too tall? try a RRC instead.  Late model ones have EAS so you can drop it even lower, they are one of the best LR in showroom condition, ABS/TC, EAS, Viscous centre diff and of course can take all the same mods as and when funds allow.
Late hard dash had the 200TDi, sifties had the 300TDi, older ones (badged TurboDiesel) had the VM, not a bad engine until it goes wrong but a bit unrefined.
If it's got to be cheap to run then why not a smaller 4x4, like a 'Zuk?
Bitsamissin' do make good 4x4 and I'd often impressed by them, but at the end of the day they have their limits and it's harder to overcome things like ground clearance and articulation than with a LR.

Yes, too tall and long, the porch is about 14 and a half feet long and 75" high, would a RRC (Range Rover Classic?? - I had to look that up :oops:) fit.  I suppose the 'zuk is a possibility, but I'd prefer as big as the porch would allow.

Some good points about parts and specialists, but I think my storage space may well be the limiting factor.  I hadn't considered the Frontera, but, if it's up to it then worth a look.

Thanks again for all posts

[Manicminer]

It's a 4X4 not a pampered car, just park it on the lawn, or the flower bed  ;) :lol:

[Suvvey]

the big problem with jap motors is the cost and avalibility of the parts

I think this is a popular misconception. I owned a Pajero for 4 years before the Defender and never had any trouble getting service parts for it and reasonably priced. Offroad mods are slightly harder to find and much more expensive than the Landy equivelant but to be honest you don't need anything more than all terrain tyres if you are only planning on doing 'light' laning.
They do have less front end articulation due to the wishbone suspension rather than a live axle but they either have a limited slip or lockable diff at the rear which seems to offset this restriction.
£2000 will buy you a lot of paj for your money and seeing as they are imports they rarely suffer from rust. I think you'd struggle to find an equivelant Disco that wasn't full of tin worm.
BUT fuel economy is their downside. Especially (I found) the auto's. Best I could get from my LWB 2.5 auto was 32mpg on a run but was only getting 19mpg on average with daily use :shock: And my 110 200tdi is now returning 30mpg or better doing the same work :shock:
If you do go for a paj get the 2.8 as the 2.5 is underpowered (especially in auto) and 2.8 is a completely different beast. Also they use a timing chain rather than belt which saves on service costs and gives a lot of peace of mind as there are a lot of cheap belt tensioners about that have been known to let go Yes they do suffer from a problem with the diesel pump but the seals themselves cost no more than a few quid it's just a case of having someone who will do the work without ripping you off (join a good owners club and it will probably cost you no more than a cuppa and some bacon butties ;)) one more thing to look for is that there is pressure in the coolant hoses when up to temp as I found the rad cap had a tendancy to ever give up or make a bad seal far too often.
I can't comment on other Jap motors as I've never had one but if your looking for a truck that handles like a car onroad, that is extremely comfortable, well equipped inside but will not let you down when you leave the road then A paj to me ticks all those boxes.

[dxmedia]

I've never owned a 4x4 with parts as cheap as troopers  :roll:


milners.

[Suvvey]

Yep Milners is where i got all my parts from. A Landy owner may well look through their online shop and say that there doesn't seem to be many parts listed but thats because with a Jap you don't need them :lol: Most of it is built to last the life of the truck unlike LR where every componant right down to the chassis seems to have a 'use by' date on it :twisted:

If you are interested in Paj's then take a look at http://www.pocuk.com/forums/ although you may need to join. There are also 2 or 3 other good owners clubs (probably with far less politics too ;) :roll:) They are all friendly places and will give you all the help/information you need.

[Oz]

Right i hate to agree with this but yep a pajero or shogun is the way to go for an all rounder that is reliable.. i have tried a few different motor as you can see below

[william127]

i did use milners for my hilux parts, and we did look at milners for those track rods, i also used roughtracks, a specialist parts company for hiluxes, which saved a heck of a lot, but the prices were still eye watering. 
and (putting tin helmet on) my landrovers have been more reliable, fact

the  hilux was fast, comfortable and economical, with next to no rust though

[Range Rover Blues]

I think there's a lot of series owners will disagree that their trucks have a "use by " date on them.  For my part, our 21 year old RRC used to be a police car, it's been to the moon and back.  Anything that wears out I can swap because it's big meccano.  It's cheapert o run than a Micra, fuel costs aside.

Another thought, if a Bitsa' needs a locking diff to keep up with a LR, where will it be behind a LR with locking diffs :-k

Anyhoo, all this doesn't answer the question.  A RRC shares it's chassi with the Disco, so it's barley a few inches shorter due to the spare wheel.  They are a bit lower but I'm guessing from what you said it's about more than keeping it under cover :-k, like the carport has a gate or something.

Also for a first 4x4 there is insewerance to consider.

[TDi90]

listen to my good advice