4x4 on a budget

[StephenLee]

Don't laugh but in the 80's I had a Lada Niva 4x4 as a fun car/mud plugger/Buggering about. It was not the most sophisticated thing on the planet but it was tough, small, cheap and had creditable light 4x4 off road performance.
They are now on sale again at around £10K brand new from a chap in Suffolk.

Stephen

[jansman]

Don't laugh but in the 80's I had a Lada Niva 4x4 as a fun car/mud plugger/Buggering about. It was not the most sophisticated thing on the planet but it was tough, small, cheap and had creditable light 4x4 off road performance.
They are now on sale again at around £10K brand new from a chap in Suffolk.

Stephen

No laugh here. In the 80's I had a lada riva estate. Bloody bombproof. All I used it for was taking the dogs coursing. And fishing. It went 5 years,no problems and sailed the mot. It died when a lady skidded into it in her car on the ice.

[Dangerous Dave]

Iv had a land rover discovery, Suzuki jimney and a freelander. the jimney totally outperformed the others off road but I wouldn't recommend it for an everyday family car. I once drove it up a munro when most other people were skiing down. Mind you, I had it lifted 3 inches, with spacers and mud claw tryes. For £12k you could buy whatever you wanted and keep something like the jimney as a cheap little, go anywhere second car that you don't mind knocking about a bit. If you want to spend all that on a 4x4 then you cann't go wrong with the Japanese cars for all round performance and more importantly reliability. Living in the hills in Scotland the last couple of winters I was pleasantly surprised at how good the freelander was in the snow.

[TomW]

My advice would be to buy the best vehicle you can to start with. All the toys in the world won't help you if the engine is knackered!
My personal spec sheet was for an older vehicle with absolute bare minimum electrics, diesel engine, good load space and four wheel drive. I ended up with a 1988 landrover 110. With a pair of seats from a hilux surf its as comfy as anything, perfectly capable at all everyday tasks/driving conditions and so simple that I do all my own spanner work. As for reliability, in the year I've had her after being stood in a farmyard for 2+years, 1 fail to start (loose electrical terminal, fixed in 30secs), 1 loss of power, (loose electrical terminal , again fixed swiftly) and a burst injector pipe, took 4 days to repair as we broke down on a Saturday afternoon in Brussels and the part had to be ordered in from France, but that's a whole other story

I've driven Toyota hilux, mitsubishi l200 and jeep Cherokee and been let down by all three both mechanically and off road. I had to use my old fiesta for my off road duties for two weeks when the hilux went down and it handled the terrain just fine, though I had to do a few more trips to move everything

Most important thing off road is driving skill and for reliability its maintenance. I do not claim to be great at either! Whatever you go for good luck and have fun....

[metatron]

I like Land Rovers, I've owned a few but they are one of the worst built 4x4 in the world, its why nearly every country has given up on them. Jap is the way to go for reliability.

[TomW]

I don't think the build quality is bad just that they are handbuilt to fairly wide tolerances Landrovers really aren't unreliable. I think they've gotten this reputation from a dodgy batch of new vehicles (e.g freelander 1) and the quantity of older vehicles around has compounded it. Even when they do go wrong they're so much easier to work on with loads of available spares.
Ultimately any vehicle is a compromise and you've got to go with what you're comfortable with.

[Aldebon]

Daihatsu fourtrak tdi, why do you think they put that diesel engine the land rover

[Darktide]

I like Land Rovers, I've owned a few but they are one of the worst built 4x4 in the world, its why nearly every country has given up on them. Jap is the way to go for reliability.

I bought a 27 year old landrover 90 earlier this year and it's been great. I had very little prior mechanical knowledge but since getting the 90 I've done all servicing myself, and a few weeks ago I even put in a new clutch. I live in a fairly rural location and there are loads of landrovers on the roads so come shtf, there won't be a shortage of parts