Cheap!! 4x4 Needed, multiple duties, suggestions? £4k budget
Discussion
Morning Pistonheads collective,
It's been a while since I posted on here - some ideas/experience/counsel required!
We 'need' a 4x4 - it's going to be the 4th vehicle and I'd rather not add another vehicle to the quiver....however! Duties will be:
- Launching a small 5m rib down a rocky slip/beach launch (slip is grippy, sand can be quite deep).
- Nipping across a peninsular with beach stuff + family of 4.
- Using as a gardening/tip run/MTB bike carrying hack.
- The general runaround/doesn't matter if gets dented vehicle!
Boat launch is kind of dictating Low Ratio/diff lock - but, do wonder whether an old style CRV with good off road tyres would do the job?
Considerations at the moment:
- Discovery 3 (money pit?)
- Grand Cheep Cherokee? (not loads of room in the back for MTBs).
- Shogun (seats removable, good for bikes etc).
- CRV/RAV4 - Like the idea on this Jap reliablilty/forget about it.....limited room for bikes.
Any other ideas/comments?
Thanks all,
It's been a while since I posted on here - some ideas/experience/counsel required!
We 'need' a 4x4 - it's going to be the 4th vehicle and I'd rather not add another vehicle to the quiver....however! Duties will be:
- Launching a small 5m rib down a rocky slip/beach launch (slip is grippy, sand can be quite deep).
- Nipping across a peninsular with beach stuff + family of 4.
- Using as a gardening/tip run/MTB bike carrying hack.
- The general runaround/doesn't matter if gets dented vehicle!
Boat launch is kind of dictating Low Ratio/diff lock - but, do wonder whether an old style CRV with good off road tyres would do the job?
Considerations at the moment:
- Discovery 3 (money pit?)
- Grand Cheep Cherokee? (not loads of room in the back for MTBs).
- Shogun (seats removable, good for bikes etc).
- CRV/RAV4 - Like the idea on this Jap reliablilty/forget about it.....limited room for bikes.
Any other ideas/comments?
Thanks all,
We had a Gen 3 CRV for 6 years and it was utterly brilliant at everything it did for us as a family (including camping, towing a car trailer, tip runs, coping with muddy fields, journeys in the snow etc etc).....but nothing too far from the tarmac in reality. As I understand, the 'real time 4WD system' that the Honda employs is not 'continuously rated', but rather designed to get you out of a sticky situation (which is does remarkably well), but I suspect the running gear / 4WD system / ground clearance might be lacking for what you need. I'm not sure what type of system the RAV4 employs?
A Shogun / Pathfinder / Murano (or something else with switchable 4WD and perhaps lockable diff) might be a better option if your going to need to 'crawl' up some slippy rocks, traverse a sandy beach etc....but you'll certainly lose the day to day drivability (body roll, NVH, mpg over a CRV/Rav4).
Tricky one, but either way, I'd probably stick with Japanese for reliability though.
A Shogun / Pathfinder / Murano (or something else with switchable 4WD and perhaps lockable diff) might be a better option if your going to need to 'crawl' up some slippy rocks, traverse a sandy beach etc....but you'll certainly lose the day to day drivability (body roll, NVH, mpg over a CRV/Rav4).
Tricky one, but either way, I'd probably stick with Japanese for reliability though.
Edited by MattyD803 on Tuesday 2nd May 11:23
We have been doing exactly this with an '07 Mitsubishi Outlander. Towing and launching a 5m rib, light off road, bikes and kids, pony & horse stuff - towing, events, hay, feed etc. plus family duties with seating for up to 7.... It's been remarkably good! It's not a 'proper' 4x4 like a Land Rover / Range Rover as it's an electronic 'box with torque vectoring, but it's an impressively effective all rounder and the Elegance trim has all the toys you could want. Even better, it will do comfortably over 40mpg on a motorway run.
We've recently 'upgraded' it to an XC90 as the Outlander is approaching 250k miles (!) and the XC90 does everything the Outlander did.... better (much more expensive to run in every respect though).
We also have old school Land Rover and Range Rover (P38) on the fleet and whilst the Land Rover is great fun, it's a bit too agricultural and too much of a compromise for regular use. The Range Rover is fantastic - immensely comfortable and highly effective off road (in low range it feels like it will literally pull the crust off the earth) but it comes with some fairly sizeable compromises... it isn't that big inside and the running costs are pretty crippling!
Overall the Outlander proved the most generally useful for the same sort of stuff you are trying to do and the XC90 slightly better....
We've recently 'upgraded' it to an XC90 as the Outlander is approaching 250k miles (!) and the XC90 does everything the Outlander did.... better (much more expensive to run in every respect though).
We also have old school Land Rover and Range Rover (P38) on the fleet and whilst the Land Rover is great fun, it's a bit too agricultural and too much of a compromise for regular use. The Range Rover is fantastic - immensely comfortable and highly effective off road (in low range it feels like it will literally pull the crust off the earth) but it comes with some fairly sizeable compromises... it isn't that big inside and the running costs are pretty crippling!
Overall the Outlander proved the most generally useful for the same sort of stuff you are trying to do and the XC90 slightly better....
Grand Cherokee or a Ranger with a hardtop as suggested above:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202304296...
Navara:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202305026...
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202304296...
Navara:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202305026...
Just get something cheap and cheerful like this old Kia Sportage 2.0 petrol and a decent set of offroad tyres
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202304136...
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202304136...
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