Hmm, in a couple of months my 405 estate will fail it's MOT.
Depending on how just badly it fails depends on what happens next. It's a '92 turbo diesel with 212k on it, and it's been fantastically reliable, costs almost nothing to run, carries loads of stuff, is big enough to sleep in, and annoys most of my friends because it's old, high mileage, very muddy and I keep it going almost entirely out of devilment ... but it sucks once the surface gets a bit sketchy - (ok, I know new shock's would help no end), but I rather fear that this years MOT failure may stretch the entertainment value just that bit too far this time - so I'm wondering what to replace it with.
I only poke about locally'ish (maybe 20 - 60 miles a day), I only occasionally do longer trips, say 200 miles (and I'll hire a car if I need to go further) and some of that will be start-stop town stuff tho - especially in the summer when the traffic builds up. I need something big enough to be a basecamp (including sleeping in sometimes), carry different things (bicycles, canoes, surfboards, timber, logging tools, fencing panels etc), I'm not too bothered about rear passengers, usually it's only me +1, with occasionally a couple more people, so it'll probably spend 95% of it's time with no rear seating of any kind.
Two things discourage me from a 405/406 sized vehicle - one is that I need more room, and the other ... is that I'd like something that could reliably handle green lanes, floods, and wet or soft ground. Nice, (big even) sizewise, (but not so good offraod) would be a panel van, like a Transit, or a Transporter, but being desirous of some offroad ability, it's looking increasingly like a LR110 on a 200 engine is the way to go, but whilst I'm still looking - are there any other suggested diesel alternatives of that kinda size (upto about £4K) ?
Thanks !
Depending on how just badly it fails depends on what happens next. It's a '92 turbo diesel with 212k on it, and it's been fantastically reliable, costs almost nothing to run, carries loads of stuff, is big enough to sleep in, and annoys most of my friends because it's old, high mileage, very muddy and I keep it going almost entirely out of devilment ... but it sucks once the surface gets a bit sketchy - (ok, I know new shock's would help no end), but I rather fear that this years MOT failure may stretch the entertainment value just that bit too far this time - so I'm wondering what to replace it with.
I only poke about locally'ish (maybe 20 - 60 miles a day), I only occasionally do longer trips, say 200 miles (and I'll hire a car if I need to go further) and some of that will be start-stop town stuff tho - especially in the summer when the traffic builds up. I need something big enough to be a basecamp (including sleeping in sometimes), carry different things (bicycles, canoes, surfboards, timber, logging tools, fencing panels etc), I'm not too bothered about rear passengers, usually it's only me +1, with occasionally a couple more people, so it'll probably spend 95% of it's time with no rear seating of any kind.
Two things discourage me from a 405/406 sized vehicle - one is that I need more room, and the other ... is that I'd like something that could reliably handle green lanes, floods, and wet or soft ground. Nice, (big even) sizewise, (but not so good offraod) would be a panel van, like a Transit, or a Transporter, but being desirous of some offroad ability, it's looking increasingly like a LR110 on a 200 engine is the way to go, but whilst I'm still looking - are there any other suggested diesel alternatives of that kinda size (upto about £4K) ?
Thanks !