Best 4x4 for rural / remote living - UK

[snozz]

I've had a Mitsubishi Delica for almost 2 years now and it hasn't done a thing wrong. Just had it's MOT today - £180 inc MOT and labour - needed a fog light bulb and a couple of parts on the axle replacing - it's 16 years old but still strong as ever and has a full low gearbox.

Snozz

 

[Imagedude]

I've got a Hilux and a Defender and have experience of Landcruisers, Patrols and Ford Explorers. The swb Defender 90 has by far the best off-road performance despite lacking cross-axle diff locks, however lack of diff locks is a pain on snow and ice. The Hilux has been the most reliable. The Patrol had the usual Nissan engine and drivetrain problems, these may have been sorted in later models. The Landcruiser had a major gearbox failure which is almost guaranteed on the auto boxes once they reach 7 years of age. The Explorer was better than expected. Briefly had access to a Merc M-class but these are little more than pimped 4x4 Vito vans. Would love a Toyota FJ but they are £45000+ and usually only available as a LHD import. I like G-Waggons but they only seem to make £85000 deluxe versions these days.
If I needed a 4x4 family car I'd take a long hard look at the Skoda Yeti 4x4.

 

[PRDL]

if you are on a budget tyre are the best way to go. , i have used this make be for and woow , couldn't stop me , i was driving a peugeot 306 1.9 td at the time and had to feed some horses up a ice track two times a day at -5 , it was fun, they were studded so had some grip on snow covered ice , ps i got them of a mate for free, but i have a different car, so i think i have to get my own set.

 

[PRDL]

very nice on the landy porn

 

[Ex-member PaganBushcraft]

Every thing you say is true but thay no longer make the fantastic JEEP of WWII the one with the big white star on the hood If thay did I would buy one. The closest thing to WWII JEEP is a Landrover Defender The new jeeps are just not as good as the old go anywhere JEEP of the WWII. The Landrover was made for Farmer to use in the fields as there was a shortage of tractors after the war in the UK the first landys had a takeoff drive at the back for hay cutters and haybailers plow blades and harrows and all the other things a small Farm used/ Saying this the JEEP of WWII was the Farther of all good 4x4's

Actually when the Jeep was designed (in the 1930s) the requirements had nothing to do with the Defender (which wouldn't be designed for about another 2 decades) Rather the requirements were based on the horse; it had to go anywhere a horse could go and carry 2 soldiers and their gear. The final design carry FOUR soldiers and their gear and could be made amphibious with a canvas tarp.

And about 2 decades later the whole Land Rover line was based on copying a Jeep owned by the founder of the Land Rover company.

 

[Martyn]

For the scenario the OP mentioned (excellent offroad performance, combined with good road manners and luxury saloon comfort), there are only 2 real choices - Range Rover and G Wagen. It's worth saying though, that anything can get stuck in snow and ice if it's running performance road tyres of the type usually seen on both the RR & GW. If you want to be sure of getting out of the highland snow, what you need is something with a ladder chassis, live axles, locking differentials, a 2" suspension lift, but most importantly, some big-bottom knobbly tyres and a set of chains in the boot as well as sand ladders, a high lift jack and a winch!

For this reason, if money was no object, I'd be going for a customised Range Rover...

Basically a fast, comfortable, warm, posh Defender.

But a RR with stock road tyres ...or anything with road tyres and....

[video=youtube;K053KWIEcL8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K053KWIEcL8[/video]

...you're only marginally better off than a Ford Fiesta.

 

[bilmo-p5]

+1 your comments on tyres - they're your contact with reality.

...you're only marginally better off than a Ford Fiesta.

Disagree! Re. the vid, I'd say you'd be considerably better off in a Fiesta.

 

[Jaan]

Agree with the tyre comment.

Winter driving is all about tyres. Of course four wheel drive helps a lot too. My family has a Volvo S60 with all-wheel drive and I've yet to get stuck in the winter. My dad pulled out a lorrey (only the front part, but it weighs 5 tonnes) with our Volvo. Even though we have the non-studded winter tyres it's still not a problem.

And I've seen tons and tons of normal two-wheel drive cars stuck in simple parking lots. So four wheel drive helps too.

Now if you try to drive with your fancy 4x4 with summer road tyres, then it's a different story.

 

[EdS]

Every thing you say is true but thay no longer make the fantastic JEEP of WWII the one with the big white star on the hood If thay did I would buy one. The closest thing to WWII JEEP is a Landrover Defender The new jeeps are just not as good as the old go anywhere JEEP of the WWII. The Landrover was made for Farmer to use in the fields as there was a shortage of tractors after the war in the UK the first landys had a takeoff drive at the back for hay cutters and haybailers plow blades and harrows and all the other things a small Farm used/ Saying this the JEEP of WWII was the Farther of all good 4x4's

When you say orginal Jeep - do you mean:
Willys Overland or the American Bantam? Or included the other "Jeeps" that saw WW2 service - Ford Pygmy or Willys MB

Or do you mean when Jeep became a trade mark of Willy in 1950 or subsequent buy outs in 1953 etc.. The trade mark of Jeep came about in 1950 following the establishing of the Civil Jeep (CJ) range in 1945(ish).

If you mean Jeep as a trade mark then the Chrysller Jeep Wrangler Unlimited is the direct descendant of the CJ (itself from the Willys MB) - except it has more than a 3 speed box and they have improved the ground clearance so it now doesn't keep bottoming out. Extra height also means the engine no longer tends to set fire to dry vegetation if driven through it.

The Wrangler is to the MB what like Land Rover S1 to the new Defender.

Oh Chrysller & Jeep are now part of Fiat.

 

[Martyn]

The Wrangler is to the MB what....

They started well and finished well, it's everything in between that is the embarrassment.

 

[Twodogs]

The only choice for wilderness traveL where you need reliability is the 70 series Landcrusier ( If you can get one) .....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhU4syPICN4&feature=related

 

[garethw]

Definitely a 70 or 80 series Landcruiser..(before they all went to poshroaders), but for an old design car they are expensive second hand and unfortunatley the new ones are not imported officially into Europe. Check here though for a grey import: http://www.transauto.be/car/car.php?vehicle=219&lg=en Although most woul dbe hard to get road legal in the UK by the looks of it.
Its pretty hard to find a decent 4x4 these days... most are just not built to actually go off road.
I'm currently driving a lwb Nissan Terrano which is pretty capable offroad with decent rubber. It has a good engine and decent low ratio.

cheers
Gareth

 

[Martyn]

Agree with the tyre comment.

Winter driving is all about tyres. Of course four wheel drive helps a lot too.

Absolutely. Pretty much any 4x4 with some kind of locking or traction control will do, so long as you have decent road clearance and proper mud/snow tyres. There is absolutely no point investing £80k in a flashy 4x4 if your are going to run slicks on it (unless you have a spare set of rims & tyres which you change with the seasons). I see so many 4x4's with 100% road tyres - even low profiles are common on them. Having a 4x4 wouldn't matter a jot if your tyres cant get enough purchase on at least one wheel. Tyre choice is by far the most important thing for winter driving - way more important than choice of vehicle.

 

[Fizzy]

Overfinch have gone bust.

Wow!

Still, they were notoriously unreliable

 

[The Lord Poncho]

went into Administration this month - selling stock off. Wilson Field are the adminstators.

Autobrokers of Leeds have bought the buissness etc

I stand corrected then. Disapointing!

 

[EdS]

most likely there will be new Overfinch vehicles --- pretty much the same but owned by a new company

 

[treefrog]

Depends how remote you want to live. This should get you anywhere
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqzXueZS9NI

 

[mrcharly]

One thing not mentioned so far; how narrow are the roads where you live?

If you have narrow roads with high banks, then you need a defender. It's incredibly narrow (we found we could park ours in spaces that small cars couldn't get into).

As for the motorway speeds; you can't have good off-road performance and (affordable) high-speed cruising. A landy with at turbo diesel, even an old one, will be happy at 60mph with mixed on/road tyres. High ground clearance, boxy shape and you have the aerodynamics of a breezeblock. Just drive a bit slower and take it easy. We did Peterhead (north of Aberdeen) to York with one stop for food with a landy full of kids and camping gear. The non-turbo diesel early landies were incredibly underpowered and would struggle to get any speed. Any model less than 18years old shouldn't suffer from this problem.

 

[Martyn]

The non-turbo diesel early landies were incredibly underpowered and would struggle to get any speed. Any model less than 18years old shouldn't suffer from this problem.

It always makes me smile when I see Defenders criticised for being slow for exactly this reason, their experience is almost certainly of a very old model that has probably been worked half to death. My TD5 (2004 model) will do 0-60 in 11 seconds, hit 90 without breaking a sweat and tops out at about 100mph, it has central locking, electric windows, it doesnt leak - either oil out or water in and the heater works fine.

I recorded this on my iphone...

[video=youtube;iX1g9fwvPJg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX1g9fwvPJg[/video]

It's not a ferrari, but it's no steam roller either and I even get Lady Gaga on the radio.

 

[santaman2000]

...There is absolutely no point investing £80k in a flashy 4x4 if your are going to run slicks on it (unless you have a spare set of rims & tyres which you change with the seasons)...

Actually that's not a bad idea if you have the storage space. Those same mud/snow tires are as useless in deep sand as the slicks are in mud/snow.