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I need to buy a 4 wheel drive vehicle in the next week or so, for work use, to keep our carers mobile in the snow.
But I'll also be using it for the daily commute, about 20 miles each way, one jcn on the motorway included.

Now there seems to be three basic types,
1-an estate type, (Subaru Forester, Audi 4wd's, Volvo do one, and a couple of others)
2- a land rover type, medium sized ones seem ok, Honda, Kia, and a few other makes.
3- a twin cab pickup type. Needs to be 4wd, though.

I really don't know what I'm doing with cars, and so can anyone suggest some alternatives, and reasons?

And is there anything I should avoid like the plague?

I'm not after a large engine size, really, partly for tax purposes but also I have to pay my own fuel bills, so nothing too thirsty.

And I would like to be able to just drive it, no repairs or resprays.

Bikes I play with for fun, cars I won't bother with, they just go into the local garage for any work.
So what should I shortlist?

We've got a Nissan X-trail and it's bloody brilliant. £5k should get a good one and we've had nothing go wrong, cheap to service, parts cheap if needed and economy good. Had a quick peek at autotrader and lots around

i've had the 300tdi and the td5 landrovers and can say they're really good on the motorway and in the snow and good mpg....stay away from the kia's their heavy on tyres,expencive on parts...shoguns are the same...twin cab L200 i found skitty on the rear in the snow if no weights in the back

i have an old 1997 pajero td ,and its great, but a bit old for you tony, what i do know is theres not much leg-room in the back of a twin cab pick-up, just in case space is an issue, whatever you get make sure it has a tow bar, that way you can get hold of a cheap secondhand bike trailer and wallah!!! you can come and pick up my bike if it ever breaks down............

Fiat panda 4x4. Can't get better economy and traction. Bit of a cult vehicle in my opinion

AMCQ46 wrote:Fiat panda 4x4. Can't get better economy and traction. Bit of a cult vehicle in my opinion

You really are quite a strange individual Al.

Kev L wrote:

AMCQ46 wrote:Fiat panda 4x4. Can't get better economy and traction. Bit of a cult vehicle in my opinion

You really are quite a strange individual Al.

I pride myself on that..well the individual part, not sure about the strange

lada niva 4x4
what about these two......

my landcruise was nearly as big as that

Those fiat 4x4s are brilliant. Good call AMC

Stay away from the volvo XCs. Unless the tyre depth on all Tyres is within 2mm of each other it can destroy the drive train. If you blow a tyre you have to replace both.

gilson wrote:Those fiat 4x4s are brilliant. Good call AMC

Stay away from the volvo XCs. Unless the tyre depth on all Tyres is within 2mm of each other it can destroy the drive train. If you blow a tyre you have to replace both.

Mate my other car is an XC90, got 90,000 miles on it, but it did lose the 4wd last yr when the rear 1/2 shaft spline eat the hub....other than a healthy appetite for diesel and rubber I can't fault it in 6yrs of ownership.

But if you run a 4x4 you know it will have serious running costs, it comes with the territory.

I bought a 1991 L200 short wheel base non turbo single cab pickup, its a work horse, i cant wait for the snow its a pleasure to drive, never needed the 4x4 bit yet, it has 160,000 on the clock, the guys at mitsubishi reckon the engines good for 750,000 because it dosent have a turbo !

bloke in the village bought a Ford Ranger, it wont pull his trailor fully loaded, he does farming stuff

Apparently lots of recalls on the Nissan stuff, major engine problems around 60,000

But the one you see time and time again across the world either with a few bails of hay or an anti aircrft gun in the back is aToyota, so i would look at some derivitive of that, land cruiser or similar, its a good time to buy !

Good luck with it mate

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Might struggle a bit on the motorway....

what about this tony http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300611382735? ... 1586.l2649

oh by the way its mine good truck but got to go as the skoda's in the garage having a new engine fitted

My diesel Hyundai Tucson has 154,000 miles on it and climbing. Had it from new as a company car (55 plate) and it's a two wheel drive with switchable 4 wheel drive. Good all round vehicle which has towed trailers etc and cheap to buy s/hand now. Lots of toys as heated, powered turn mirrors, heated leather seats, auto dip rear view etc etc. The newer ones have a six speed box too. With an 85ukp chip fitted from eBay that gets rid of the emission lean spots (designed to 'avoid' legislation) it has gone from 32mpg to 38.6 mpg and that's checked over thousands of miles; not a quick one tankfull check!
Good luck Tony. Chris