Banger 4x4 for Africa

[cozmcrae]

Right, this is probably going to be a strange one for you all but I'm currently in the market for a £1000/1500 decent size off roader to head around Africa with and need a bit of advice. I've been looking at them for a while and the two main contendors are old land rover discos and toyota hiluxs. I've seen there are so many discos for very little money available with all the aftermarket off road goodies fitted but I've heard so many scare stories about land rover reliability and the cost of parts which has made me lean a little more towards the toyota side of things even though they cost a little more and many more are standard cars. I'm hoping there are some off road entusiasts who mess about with cheap 4x4s on this who could shed some light on this for me since, being honest, I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to 4x4s. I am mechanically minded and do work on my own cars but things that go off road have never been something I've owned. It doesnt have to be one of the two cars listed but the main criteria it has to meet is
1. Moderatley reliable
2. Parts aren't too expensive. My daily is an E36 M3 so I'm not an idiot expecting to pay corsa prices for stuff but nothing stupidly expensive.
3. A decent size. There will be 3 guys in it and a little camping/survival gear
4. Easy to work on with minimal tools.
5. Parts readily available in Africa. I know thats a hard one but I'll ask anyway on the offchance any of you have traveled that way.

I'm also assuming its the same case with tuning a sports car that its much cheaper to buy something with a winch and all the off road gear rather than build it yourself?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated

[cozmcrae]

I am still to figure out my exact route but so far the only thing I know for certain is I'd be driving down through Spain to the ferry to Morocco. I'm going to have to check the stability of each country before making a set route and checking entry requirements. I've seen loads of Toyota pick up trucks in all the pictures of Africa I've seen but that's all I have to go on. Still leaning towards a hilux currently although I was tempted for one of these little jap 4x4 things but I think they maybe too small.

[cozmcrae]

NeMiSiS said:

Mitsubishi Delica.

I was actually thinking about one of those due to that added size for sleeping in and I personally think they look really cool, especially the older ones.
Its too late though as I bought an M reg 3.0td hilux last night for £1000 but thank you all for the advice.

[cozmcrae]

I just found this thread again and realised I just left it without any final information. I made another topic about the Hilux I bought, what I did with it and finally what happened to it. Just if anyone is interested.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...