Off Road Toy - £3k budget/

[Ecosseven]

Evening all and a Happy New Year.

With some spare time over the festive period I have been thinking about getting myself a cheap off road toy. This would be a third car and would only do around 1000-1500 miles a year with the majority of these being off road. I'm not interested in doing loads of modifications - I'll change the tyres and that will be it.

Key criteria will be to buy something as simple and reliable as possible. The current front runner if a Suzuki Jimny. On road performance isn't really important.

Other cars on the shortlist are as follows.

1. Grand Vitara (2005 onwards) - What are these like off road? do they have diff locks and a low range transfer case?
2. Frontera / trooper.
3. Jeep Cherokee (probably petrol version).

Budget is £3,000 for the vehicle and £500 for a new set of tyres.

Any thoughts or opinions appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[Darkslider]

If you're handy with the spanners or don't mind learning, an early 200 tdi Defender would be in budget, and very capable just with some mud tyres. They've got plenty of downsides but they seem to be universally appreciating so you won't lose money if it's not for you.

[Hard-Drive]

Darkslider said:

If you're handy with the spanners or don't mind learning, an early 200 tdi Defender would be in budget, and very capable just with some mud tyres. They've got plenty of downsides but they seem to be universally appreciating so you won't lose money if it's not for you.

^This 100%

[bakerstreet]

Darkslider said:

If you're handy with the spanners or don't mind learning, an early 200 tdi Defender would be in budget, and very capable just with some mud tyres. They've got plenty of downsides but they seem to be universally appreciating so you won't lose money if it's not for you.

And you will really really struggle to find one for £2.5k. In fact, you won't. Even ratty old pre 200Tdis will be £3k plus.

My money would go on the Jeep Grand cherokke in 5 pot diesel form. Comfy and a nice engine.

[tight fart]

Discovery 2" lift & tyres will match a defender.

[LandRoverManiac]

bakerstreet said:

And you will really really struggle to find one for £2.5k. In fact, you won't. Even ratty old pre 200Tdis will be £3k plus.

My money would go on the Jeep Grand cherokke in 5 pot diesel form. Comfy and a nice engine.

^^ This. You really wouldn't want to touch any Defender under 5K - it'll be an utter heap of a thing. The price inflation has well and truly knocked them out of the affordable end of the market.

To be honest OP - a lot of people who set out to get an 'off-roader' tend to fall into the trap of overkill - namely plumping for way more capability than they actually need. I'll stick my hand up and admit it myself. I used to run around in a heavily modded Defender and really did use it as LR intended (and in a couple of ways they didn't) - short of bombing around in a tank or Unimog, I really couldn't imagine a more capable bit of kit.

Then a couple of years later I got my stock Disco 2 and fitted a set of decent AT tyres. I then discovered that those same tough lanes, sites and routes were also perfectly navigable in a 'softer' vehicle and if anything sometimes easier thanks to stuff like ETC and HDC. It was also nicer to use on the road and/or more practical when not playing. For all those years knocking around in that Defender - I hadn't really been using it to it's full potential and it wasn't until I used a 'less capable' vehicle across the same terrain that the penny dropped.

For 3K you can get a pretty decent Disco 2 or an utterly immaculate Disco 1 - both of which share engines/gearboxes with the Defender anyway - and have money left over for one or two mods. Jeep WJ Grand Cherokee (like poster above) is a decent shout and easily bought for less than 3K. A modest lift + decent AT/MT tyres on either of those will probably give you 80% of the capability of a Defender (which most people never use to full potential anyway) for less than 50% of the cost.

For your other choices - a Suzuki Jimny is fairly 'chuckable' and bombproof (trying to kill off the one we had at work was something of a futile pastime) - albeit a bit gutless and lacking in grunt if you get bogged down. Vitara is similar to Grand Cherokee - perhaps less robust in terms of raw strength off-road but probably more reliable in every other respect. Any 4x4 at this price will need regular maintenance and a certain amount of tinkering - it's the nature of them. The only make I'd avoid like the plague is Nissan - from about 2000 onwards their 4x4s took a bit of a nosedive in reliability.

Just my two pence worth.

Edited by LandRoverManiac on Tuesday 30th January 22:29

[Jdjd1]

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