Selling V40 / Good cheap 4x4s?

[wsm]

So, i'm selling the V40 Sport As much as I love it, if I sell it now I can get what I paid for it (4k) and can stop worrying about damaging it.
I have horses and since I sold my 4x4 and bought the V40 i've had to walk down the track to the field, which is annoying. So i'm selling up and buying another 4x4.

So any recommendations on decent, cheap 4x4s? Requirements are preferably diesel, boxy looking (no soft-roader women stuff, I want it to look like a tank), not TOO big (Isuzu trooper...) and NO Land Rovers.

Looking to spend less than 2k so I can bash it about a bit and not care. Been thinking Jeep Cherokee ~1997, 2.5td atm.

PS. No subarus either. I'd love a Forester, but anything with a Subaru badge doubles the insurance. I can insure a 4 litre V8 Jeep cheaper than a 2 litre Subaru.

[Oilydad]

Toyota Land Cruiser. About as tough as they come, and used in the world's toughest environments.

Either that or an older Series 3 Land Rover...know you said you don't want Land Rover, but the older ones are built like brick *hithouses.

Like all "modern" (girlie) 4X4's these days most of them are made for showing off in, not for proper 4x4 use.

What about THIS:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TOYOTA-LANDCRU...item2311644307

Looks like a REAL beast.....and it's diesel!! You'll tear up a few fields in that!

[wsm]

Originally Posted by Oilydad

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TOYOTA-LANDCRU...item2311644307

Looks like a REAL beast.....and it's diesel!! You'll tear up a few fields in that!

haha, not really practical for my needs! I love Landcruisers, but they're quite pricey and maybe a little too big.

[kebab10]

What about a Suzi,Isuzu, Daihatsu,basically any Jap ones. Landies are ok, unreliable and expensive. With a Discovery, discover how much you will spend on it.

[ruffday]

Dont buy a JEEP unless you have deep pockets.
The 4lt go like stink but are prone to HGF and around 80k will be ready for an expensive axel rebuild on either front/rear or even both.
The same can be said for the diesels as well.
The Later Merc engined Cherokees are a little better but doubt you will get a good one at that price.

Ive had a couple of Discoverys bot TDi and V8 and both had good and bad points.

Id be loking at a Disco 300 TDi with very good body work which are around at that price but will take some finding or maybe a Shogun/Pajero TD.
Some cheap Honda CRVs around as well.

[JimG]

Toyota Hi-Lux? Ford Ranger? Both great off road with lots of cargo space. Get a crew cab if you need passenger space.

[m0bzy]

I too am thinking of going 4x4,I am using my favourite survey of approaching drivers in car parks etc, and so far Jeep comes out on top every time,most people I have spoken too are on their second or third without a great deal of trouble.
Land /Range Rover I am sorry to say are not popular even with people that love 'em!!

[Chesh740R]

Jeeps are great, no Landrover/rangerover price tax as i call it.

I still have my 740 as a second car, but have swapped from Volvo's to Jeeps now as my Daily Driver Cars.

First Cherokee i bought was an ebay special, it was a 1993 4.0limited that had 11months MOT & Tax. I paid £300 for it and ran it for the year, had to replace the crank position sensor £60 and that was it maintance wise, didnt bother servicing it.

Used it and abused it doing landscape gardening, loading it and the roof to gunnels with crap.

Towards the last month of the MOT we took it to the local Off Roading place.

We Absued the hell out of it, drowned it, rolled it over and it just kept going. I then drove it for the rest of the month covered in the several tons of clay it was then caked in.

I then weighed it in for scrapmetal after having taking the new CPS back off. I got £180 for the shell, so including the CPS cost a years motoring cost me £180 + Petrol costs.

I had a 1 month break and bought an 850 T5 which within the month shot a rod out the side of its block.

I then again on ebay found a 1996 Grand Cherokee with LPG fitted, Headgasket Replaced and Autobox rebuilt, 4 new tyres etc. It didnt run and the descripton said it ran fine then didnt start the next day and there was no spark. Ahh ha i thought, CPS fault again, so paid £600 for it.

Collected it from garage where it had stumped the mechanics trying to fix it, they thought it was something to do with dizzy. Got it home the CPS wasnt the same as the old cherokee's. So checked it over, It had spark abeit weak so wasnt CPS. Plugged obd reader, igniton coil secondary winding weak. New coil fitted £20, but still no start. It had new leads, dizzy cap and rotor.

Spark Plug Leads were fitted back to front in firing order, replaced them in correct order and no start. Then sprayed easy start up intake and it back fired. Spark was happening at wrong point. Took Dizzy out and replaced it 180 degrees round. Jeep now fired up and ran great.

My guess is mechanic fudged up lead replacement and put engine to TDC on crank looked at where rotor was pointing to no1 and then put plug leads on back to front, when it didnt start he retimed it to TDC again and took cap of and thought the Rotor is pointing the wrong way to the last time, timing must have slipped (hard on a chain driven cam), so he took the dizzy out and rotated it 180degrees. It would never start then!!!!!!

Just goes to show how some mechanics dont even understand the basic fundementals of how engine works. I.e that a camshaft rotates only once for every 2 revoulutions of the cranks.

MOT'd the car and it went straight through, drove it for a year and this January it went through this years MOT with only needing to replace handbrake shoes. I've done a few other bits to it but including purchasing, MOTing twice and the few repairs i've done i've spent £900 on it.

The LPG conversion makes the 4.0 litre engine act as if its a 30mpg car to run cost wise.

So thats £450 a year motoring and i've yet to get my money back when i potentially scrap it at the end of this year if i think it'll want too much money put into it to get another ticket.

So that'll be £250 back in my pocket + what ever i can get for the LPG kit, allthough i'm now looking towards putting this LPG onto my next Jeep Purchase, I quite fancy a newer 4.7 V8. If fuel prices keep going up should bring them down into what i'd like to pay for one.

Buy them cheap enough that if they do go very spectaculary wrong you don't loose too much money. Parts prices for some bits are bloody extortiant, if you can wait you can pay a 1/4 of price of parts if you get them from the USA.

[lolinginthelolvo]

At the price you are talking about I would propose a Jeep, either the Grand Cherokee (96-99) or Cherokee (97-01).

Do not go for the diesel, its a 2.5 VM Diesel and if it is not properly maintained (coolant replaced when the oil is) they cook headgaskets. As they have four of them and the engine is poorly packaged this makes it a pain to do.
The 4.0l Petrol engine is unstoppable - no idea what the previous poster means about the head gaskets, maybe they are getting confused with the diesel. The obvious downside is running costs, which are unavoidablly high for fuel.
At your budget I would aim for an LPG (Try for a 'Multipoint' LPG system) equipped 4.0l. This will provide reasonable running costs with decent perfomance and good reliablility.

Both the Grand and Cherokee are mechanically similar. Both are made in different years to the ones mentioned above but in the years mentioned are most suitable for your budget. Both are Auto only with the 4.0l engine.

The Jeep Cherokee is best bought in top 'Limited' spec, where it should have full leather and electric windows, plus electric front seats and Air conditioning. It is Rwd in normal driving, with a switchable transferbox (extra lever next to the gearbox).

The Grand Cherokee is a plusher version of the cherokee. Different suspension and softer seats mean its more comfortable, and it has a larger interior. It also usually has more extras like climate control.
Check all electrics work in the grand, problems with electric windows can mean problems with the alarm too - caused by the wires in the front doors chafing through and shorting out - its an expensive or time consuming fix.
It is permenant 4wd.

If neither of those float your boat and you don't mind your 4wd being a little more agricultural (But not landrover levels of bad) then look for a Dihatsiu (sp?) Fourtrac. Although these are all three doors they are damned strong, with a sluggish but dependable 2.8l diesel engine.
Insurance can be a probelm on the Mitsibushis (sp?again?) as a lot of them are import specials but they are reasonably reliable (Go for diesel in all Jap models). The biggest problem with most Jap motors is rust, later (97-on) Jeep vehicles are galvanised, so rust is rare.

Always check underneath all 4x4s, to ensure there is no offroading damage or rust (Anything will rust if it has been used to launch boat in salt water often, another common 4x4 requirement). And always push every button and try every gadget, including the 4wd system, problems are always expensive if you can't fix yourself.

[lolinginthelolvo]

Oh and to add to the above, the dreaded landrovers...

They are truth be told less reliable than most of their rivals, but do not dismiss them out of hand.
The 200 and 300tdi (both diesels) engines are reliable, and lack the power to cause the axle problems petrol ones suffer from.
Rust is the major problem with all lardys, but if you can find a recently fixed one (All of them rot, don't beleive anyone who claims to be selling a minter) it will be fine, providing the welding was done to a good standard.
Parts are laughablly cheap, so although it might break before others it will be the cheapest to fix by far.
Realistically if all you are doing is driving it on the road and in and out of some fields with a trailer you are unlikely to find anything that unreliable, provided you keep on top of the servicing.

Discovery is arguablly the best mix of space and least uncomfortable - Range Rover Classics are getting a little long in the tooth now.Don't bother with any more recent Landrovers with the TD5 engine - its just about the least reliable engine ever created.