Decent 4x4 capability

[oblio]

Later this year we will be moving to mid Wales to a rural location. We therefore think we will need to upgrade our current 'softroader' to one with good 4x4 capability.

Budget is £20-25k and it would need to be an automatic. The preference would be petrol as well (depending on how far we are living from civilisation). It would be used just for normal use rather than off roading/green laning etc but given the lanes/B roads where we live it needs to have good capability in adverse weather (snow etc)

I would welcome some suggestions as to where to start looking if possible.

Cheers

[Brads67]

Any Volvo XC

[KevinCamaroSS]

Any 4x4 softroader would cope with that sort of use, what is your current car?

[oblio]

KevinCamaroSS said:

Any 4x4 softroader would cope with that sort of use, what is your current car?

Nissan Juke and I don't think it would tbh. We had some decent snow here (Cirencester) this winter and whilst it was better than a 2 wheel drive car it was only just better!

Places where we are likely to move to will not have the roads cleared of snow nor be gritted for ice.

[Pothole]

Suzuki Jimny + winter tyres. Use the £15000 saved for (home heating) fuel bills.

[redddraggon]

Was that with winter tyres?

Winter tyres >> 4x4 in snow

[TurboHatchback]

You don't need a serious 4x4 for that, most AWD cars or soft roaders with the right tyres will do the job fine and be much better for the 99.9% of driving when there isn't a foot of snow. I'm guessing you've never done any serious offroading or driven a large 4x4 on all terrain tyres in snow but I can assure you that you don't need one and that an AWD car on winters is safer and better. Of course if there's several feet of snow then a large 4x4 on winters is the best solution you'll find but in the UK even that is fairly pointless as everywhere will be shut and all the roads gridlocked with stuck cars so you can't go anywhere anyway.

I would suggest something along the lines of an Audi A6 Allroad, Passat Alltrack or one of the multitude of AWD soft roaders and then invest in another set of wheels with proper winter tyres.

[RizzoTheRat]

In rural Wales if you go for a large 4x4 you'll spend more time worrying if you'll fit through gaps than you will being glad of the extra traction. Decent tyres on a smallish softroader, or the suggestion of a jimny or similar as an occasional use car make a lot of sense.

[oblio]

Thanks for the advice chaps.

I'll look into some replacement wheels/tyres for the Juke as a starting point.

I did see it as a an opportunity to persuade Mrs O that we could get a Landrover mind so that I could tick the "Every man needs to own a Landrover at some stage in his life" box

[Walter Sobchak]

Petrol, decent 4x4 ability, surely an excuse for a Cayenne Turbo!.

[Evanivitch]

RizzoTheRat said:

In rural Wales if you go for a large 4x4 you'll spend more time worrying if you'll fit through gaps than you will being glad of the extra traction. Decent tyres on a smallish softroader, or the suggestion of a jimny or similar as an occasional use car make a lot of sense.

This.

A bit of height helps with the hedgerows but a wide 4x4 will be a nightmare. Put some decent tyres on the Leaf or maybe consider a Panda 4x4 as an occasional runabout and winter mule.

[Bill]

oblio said:

Thanks for the advice chaps.

I'll look into some replacement wheels/tyres for the Juke as a starting point.

I did see it as a an opportunity to persuade Mrs O that we could get a Landrover mind so that I could tick the "Every man needs to own a Landrover at some stage in his life" box

How far from a decent specialist will you be? Don't get me wrong, a D4 (diesel only though) is absolutely epic but it's massive overkill and while they're better than previous generations they're still not perfect.

Personally I'd be looking at a Forester XT. (That said, with three kids and occasional need for 7 seats I got a D4. )

ETA or a Yeti.

[SlimJim16v]

The Juke will be fine on proper tyres.

The only thing that might be be better is something with at least one locking or slip limiting diff. I doubt a softroader has one.

[Pica-Pica]

Pothole said:

Suzuki Jimny + winter tyres. Use the £15000 saved for (home heating) fuel bills.

As someone who lives in North Wales, that is the best answer so far. This year we had some snow, but usually it is rain, and rarely below zero. So, a Skoda Fabia with winter/all season tyres, and yes, save the rest for heating bills (I assume you are not on mains gas).
If you must have a 4WD, and off road capability, get a Forester.

PS. I have a 335D xdrive, and ventured onto tracks in Scotland. Unless you need real mud track capability, you do not need massive ground clearance.

[Watchman]

The best snow car I’ve ever driven is a Subaru on Winter tyres. An Outback or Forester will give the ground clearance for deeper snow.

Apart from them, any soft roader on Winter tyres (or ATs) will cope with snow.

[KevinCamaroSS]

oblio said:

KevinCamaroSS said:

Any 4x4 softroader would cope with that sort of use, what is your current car?

Nissan Juke and I don't think it would tbh. We had some decent snow here (Cirencester) this winter and whilst it was better than a 2 wheel drive car it was only just better!

Places where we are likely to move to will not have the roads cleared of snow nor be gritted for ice.

Funnily enough I have just moved from Cirencester to a small Herefordshire village 3 miles from a decent road. My wife has a Fiat 500X 4x4 as a daily driver, I have a Dacia Duster. Both are on 4-season tyres and had no trouble in the last few months where we had 25cm of snow. A Juke 4x4 should be fine if it is on 4-season tyres, winters are not really needed this far south.

Edited by KevinCamaroSS on Monday 16th April 15:30

[bakerstreet]

Audi A6 All Road would get my vote. Good looking cars and loads of space inside

[cailean]

Forester SJ, used now at half your budget, steel wheels, Yokohama G015 A/T tyres (snow rated). Job done.

[popeyewhite]

TurboHatchback said:

You don't need a serious 4x4 for that, most AWD cars or soft roaders with the right tyres will do the job fine and be much better for the 99.9% of driving when there isn't a foot of snow. I'm guessing you've never done any serious offroading or driven a large 4x4 on all terrain tyres in snow but I can assure you that you don't need one and that an AWD car on winters is safer and better.

I can assure you it's not. The only time an AWD car or any car on winters is better than a large 4x4 on winters is on compacted, flat snow where it can travel a bit faster than it really should. Not the sort of snow we've had 6 times over winter 17/18 here in the Peak District. Unpredictable, drifting. anything without adequate clearance would beach itself and the 4x4 rescue boys would be laughing at you pitiable attempt at driving in serious snow conditions.

TurboHatchback said:

Of course if there's several feet of snow then a large 4x4 on winters is the best solution you'll find but in the UK even that is fairly pointless as everywhere will be shut and all the roads gridlocked with stuck cars so you can't go anywhere anyway.

Ah that's better, but rubbish again. A large 4x4 lets you get to work on roads that haven't been treated and the general public simply can't access. Also if you take a little 'excursion', you can drive the thing back onto the road again.

TurboHatchback said:

I would suggest something along the lines of an Audi A6 Allroad, Passat Alltrack or one of the multitude of AWD soft roaders and then invest in another set of wheels with proper winter tyres.

I'd suggest something with real ability, like a Disco 3/4 w/winter ATs. Diesel though.

[TooMany2cvs]

There's three real factors to "good winter transport".

1. Traction. 4wd helps with that, but it doesn't help one bit with changing direction or stopping.
2. Grip. That's all about tyres. Good winters.
3. Ground clearance. If your bumper and undertray are getting caught up on the surface, you've got a problem.

I bet you don't really NEED a "proper 4x4". What are all the locals driving around in? I bet there's just as many normal cars as anything beefier - there certainly is, here on the borders.