First 4x4 advice for a novice

First 4x4 advice for a novice

Author
Discussion

jonald1

Original Poster:

3 posts

82 months

Thursday 11th May 2017
quotequote all
Hi all,

Im new to this forum and am a novice when it comes to all things offroad and 4x4.

I currently drive a mk6 ford fiesta and have since i passed my test.

im looking to get my first 4x4 as i grew up around them on a farm and have aways wanted to own one and go wheeling etc.

im a little bit nervous about driving a much bigger car having only driven my fiesta since i passed

also what is good used 4x4 in the uk for £1000 or under?

ive been looking at suzuki vitaras, toyota rav 4s and landrover freelanders, but i know the freelanders have a bad rep for reliability. Is this right?

what are the other good options?

All i want is a reliable used 4x4 for £1000 or less that is relativley capable offroad and suitable as daily driver as well, probably looking to to put a small lift on it and some bigger wheels and tyres for that aggressive look.

Sorry for the long post, any advice would be great,

Cheers.


CubanPete

3,630 posts

187 months

Thursday 11th May 2017
quotequote all
SJ410 / 413 / JIMNY are extremely capable off roaders.

I wouldn't want to be hacking up and down the motorway on a daily basis in one.

jonald1

Original Poster:

3 posts

82 months

Thursday 11th May 2017
quotequote all
CubanPete said:
SJ410 / 413 / JIMNY are extremely capable off roaders.

I wouldn't want to be hacking up and down the motorway on a daily basis in one.
Yeah any of those would be ideal, but I haven't found any for under £1k or even near, maybe 1 or 2 jimnys on AutoTrader for £1.5k.

I may keep the fiesta for longer journeys but that's not a motorway cruiser either haha.

richs2891

895 posts

252 months

Friday 12th May 2017
quotequote all
The Vitara and Rav 4's will be ok on a motorway, better than a Jimny, OK not as good as a Fiesta, but not to be dismissed

LandRoverManiac

402 posts

91 months

Friday 12th May 2017
quotequote all
jonald1 said:
Hi all,

Im new to this forum and am a novice when it comes to all things offroad and 4x4.

I currently drive a mk6 ford fiesta and have since i passed my test.

im looking to get my first 4x4 as i grew up around them on a farm and have aways wanted to own one and go wheeling etc.

im a little bit nervous about driving a much bigger car having only driven my fiesta since i passed

also what is good used 4x4 in the uk for £1000 or under?

ive been looking at suzuki vitaras, toyota rav 4s and landrover freelanders, but i know the freelanders have a bad rep for reliability. Is this right?


Cheers.
Wall of text incoming:

I'm biased, but I'd go for a Freelander if you want a readily available and cheap/competent 4x4 that will still be nice to use on the road the rest of the time. There are loads of the things running around - so you are spoilt for choice. 3-door, lower-spec models can be had in quite nice nick for less than £1000 easily.

A sub £1000 Freelander will likely be one of the K-series petrol variety or the older L-series (non TD4) diesel. The best engine in a Freelander is the BMW TD4 unit - but that costs more to buy and is probably out of budget. If you can get a TD4 - it'll return the best fuel economy in the real-world and be pretty reliable (engine-wise) - but any sub £1000 ones will be high mileage or really tatty.

All versions of Freelander are quite compact and handle similarly to a family-car - so it won't take long for you to adjust to driving it as it would if it were a full-on barge like a Disco or Range Rover. If you can do your own spannering (quite a handy skill if you intend on running any older vehicle - esp. a 4x4) you can fix most things on a Freelander.

In petrol form the engine suffers from head gasket failure - assuming it hasn't been modified or fixed by now. Most of them have - but if the issue occurs it can be fixed.

In simple cases - this costs all of £80 to put right in terms of parts (add on labour if not doing yourself) and can be done in afternoon by anyone with more than two firing brain cells. As far as engines go they are easy to work on - garages are familiar with these same units in Rovers, MGs, Caterhams, etc.

If the head has warped (not so simple), get to a scrappy and get a good head for £100 from a Rover 45. As you can see, they are phenomenally expensive to fix compared to every other petrol engine of the same period..... (at this point my dripping sarcasm shorts the keyboard out). The internet is full of armchair engineers who will happily diagnose a Freelander with head-gasket failure if it so much as gets a flat tyre.

In all other respects the K-series 1.8 is a nice engine, pokey and cheap to maintain. Don't run it on low coolant, service it as you would with any other engine and it'll go on quite happily. Many people run their cars like an appliance - never checking things like fluid levels or servicing intervals - with any vehicle - if you don't maintain them they will bite you in the behind later on. This is more important for 4x4s than cars due to them being more complex mechanically.

L-series Diesel is like a tractor engine - bombproof but a bit loud and rattly. Just check it has it's cam-belts replaced. Some people have had all sorts of fun with tuning them with boxes and/or bigger injectors and generally trying to break them but alas unsuccessfully. They are tough and one of the good 'old-school' diesels that last a long time.

The other main point is the viscous coupling - this sends power to the rear wheels and begins to get stiffer with time/use. Some people have them last for 70,000 miles, some 1999 reg ones are still running around on the original with 150K miles. If you drive one and it feels like the handbrake is on when going round a tight bend or reversing round a corner - that'll be £200 for a replacement recon coupling. Check that the vehicle you are looking at actually has a propshaft to the rear still fitted - some people remove it when the VCU bill comes up and have a 2WD Freelander.

No - I don't see the point of it either.

Other things are niggles rather than groundbreaking, like window regulators not working, the odd ABS sensor glitch making the car computer throw a tantrum - that kind of thing. No worse than any other vehicle of a similar age. Best of all, they don't rust! I really wish LR had kind of nailed that down sooner - but there you go.

A Freelander can punch above it's weight thanks to being light and having some clever tricks like Hill-Descent and ETC that can enable even a novice driver to go further than he/she would otherwise. Stick some half-decent AT tyres on and you'll be able to tackle most green-lanes in the UK.










jonald1

Original Poster:

3 posts

82 months

Friday 12th May 2017
quotequote all
LandRoverManiac said:
Wall of text incoming:

I'm biased, but I'd go for a Freelander if you want a readily available and cheap/competent 4x4 that will still be nice to use on the road the rest of the time. There are loads of the things running around - so you are spoilt for choice. 3-door, lower-spec models can be had in quite nice nick for less than £1000 easily.

A sub £1000 Freelander will likely be one of the K-series petrol variety or the older L-series (non TD4) diesel. The best engine in a Freelander is the BMW TD4 unit - but that costs more to buy and is probably out of budget. If you can get a TD4 - it'll return the best fuel economy in the real-world and be pretty reliable (engine-wise) - but any sub £1000 ones will be high mileage or really tatty.

All versions of Freelander are quite compact and handle similarly to a family-car - so it won't take long for you to adjust to driving it as it would if it were a full-on barge like a Disco or Range Rover. If you can do your own spannering (quite a handy skill if you intend on running any older vehicle - esp. a 4x4) you can fix most things on a Freelander.

In petrol form the engine suffers from head gasket failure - assuming it hasn't been modified or fixed by now. Most of them have - but if the issue occurs it can be fixed.

In simple cases - this costs all of £80 to put right in terms of parts (add on labour if not doing yourself) and can be done in afternoon by anyone with more than two firing brain cells. As far as engines go they are easy to work on - garages are familiar with these same units in Rovers, MGs, Caterhams, etc.

If the head has warped (not so simple), get to a scrappy and get a good head for £100 from a Rover 45. As you can see, they are phenomenally expensive to fix compared to every other petrol engine of the same period..... (at this point my dripping sarcasm shorts the keyboard out). The internet is full of armchair engineers who will happily diagnose a Freelander with head-gasket failure if it so much as gets a flat tyre.

In all other respects the K-series 1.8 is a nice engine, pokey and cheap to maintain. Don't run it on low coolant, service it as you would with any other engine and it'll go on quite happily. Many people run their cars like an appliance - never checking things like fluid levels or servicing intervals - with any vehicle - if you don't maintain them they will bite you in the behind later on. This is more important for 4x4s than cars due to them being more complex mechanically.

L-series Diesel is like a tractor engine - bombproof but a bit loud and rattly. Just check it has it's cam-belts replaced. Some people have had all sorts of fun with tuning them with boxes and/or bigger injectors and generally trying to break them but alas unsuccessfully. They are tough and one of the good 'old-school' diesels that last a long time.

The other main point is the viscous coupling - this sends power to the rear wheels and begins to get stiffer with time/use. Some people have them last for 70,000 miles, some 1999 reg ones are still running around on the original with 150K miles. If you drive one and it feels like the handbrake is on when going round a tight bend or reversing round a corner - that'll be £200 for a replacement recon coupling. Check that the vehicle you are looking at actually has a propshaft to the rear still fitted - some people remove it when the VCU bill comes up and have a 2WD Freelander.

No - I don't see the point of it either.

Other things are niggles rather than groundbreaking, like window regulators not working, the odd ABS sensor glitch making the car computer throw a tantrum - that kind of thing. No worse than any other vehicle of a similar age. Best of all, they don't rust! I really wish LR had kind of nailed that down sooner - but there you go.

A Freelander can punch above it's weight thanks to being light and having some clever tricks like Hill-Descent and ETC that can enable even a novice driver to go further than he/she would otherwise. Stick some half-decent AT tyres on and you'll be able to tackle most green-lanes in the UK.
Thank you for a very detailed response, I like landrovers and the only thing putting me off was the bad rep freelanders have.

I honestly wouldn't mind stretching the budget for a slightly newer one providing it would last, which it seems like it would providing it's the right one and it's looked after.

Unfortunately I don't know much with regards to spannering beside changing a tyre and the necessary checks. I wouldn't mind learning but wouldn't wanna mess with my motor and ruin it. I do have a mate who's a trained mechanic and he does most jobs for me cheap and little stuff for free which helps.

But like i said, very informative post this mate, thank you.

300bhp/ton

41,030 posts

189 months

Friday 12th May 2017
quotequote all
jonald1 said:
Hi all,

Im new to this forum and am a novice when it comes to all things offroad and 4x4.

I currently drive a mk6 ford fiesta and have since i passed my test.

im looking to get my first 4x4 as i grew up around them on a farm and have aways wanted to own one and go wheeling etc.

im a little bit nervous about driving a much bigger car having only driven my fiesta since i passed

also what is good used 4x4 in the uk for £1000 or under?

ive been looking at suzuki vitaras, toyota rav 4s and landrover freelanders, but i know the freelanders have a bad rep for reliability. Is this right?

what are the other good options?

All i want is a reliable used 4x4 for £1000 or less that is relativley capable offroad and suitable as daily driver as well, probably looking to to put a small lift on it and some bigger wheels and tyres for that aggressive look.

Sorry for the long post, any advice would be great,

Cheers.
Under £1k is pretty limited choice. If you can push your budget to £1.5-2k you'll get a lot more choices.

The biggest question really is what kind of off road and how often.

Not all 4x4's are created equal. And understanding how they work off road, or rather what type of vehicle works for what type of terrain is quite critical.

If it's mild greenlanes then a certain kind of vehicle will suit. But if you fancy pay n play sites, RTV trials competitions or more extreme off roading. Then you'll maybe want a different kind of 4x4.

There are many I like and for different reasons. However I'd say take a good long look at the XJ Jeep Cherokee.

Vanin

1,010 posts

165 months