Auto vs manual off road

[bigblock]

Bill said:

bigblock said:

Appologies for being off topic and highjacking Bills thread although I had already expressed an opinion that an auto was my prefered option for off road.

No worries, it's all interesting stuff and it's moved me to go and have a look. Unfortunately, although I did like it and there's a chance I could fit the sprogs in, the boot isn't that big and there's no way to fit a roofrack. Also SWMBO is keen on a 7 seater so I'd have my work cut out convincing her it's a goer.

Hi Bill, as I said in my post I am also looking at the Jeep Commander 5.7 Hemi which is a 7 seater. These were around £30k new and I found a couple of 57plates with full spec for sale at around £12k with less than 20k miles. Seems like quite a lot of 4x4 for the money. Unfortunatly I live more than 100 miles from any Jeep dealership so have not been able to see one up close to make a more informed comment.
Maybe 300BHP has some informed comments about them ?

[Bill]

SWMBO says no to the Commander, and I can't disagree with her

[Alicatt1]

Lefty Guns said:

Alicatt1 said:

Had a manual 4.2TD 80 series Landcruiser, great vehicle and with the right tyres on fantastic off road, that was 12 years ago, now I have a Range Rover Sport TDV8 and it is an auto with terrain response. It makes offroading so much easier and it can go lots of places which the LC couldn't go.
.

I have no experience of the new RR but I'm frankly astonished at this statement!

The phisical size of my 80 series Landcruiser limited where I could go, it was just too big to get along some of the tracks, the break over angle on the LC is less than on my RRS. When I got the 80series new it was an accident waiting to happen, the original fitment tyres on it were absolutly terrible in the wet, on the motorway in the rain you could feel it wanting to swap ends all the time even when you had slowed off to 40mph. The Dunlop Grand Trek tyres were the most limiting thing about the LC when new, I changed them after 20k miles ( just over a month's running) and fitted Yokohama SD05 all round and that transformed the vehicle both off road and on road. In all I put about 113,000 miles on the LC both off and on road, never let me down once and is still the most reliable vehicle I've ever had. would I have another? yes! The RRS has done 32,000 miles in 2 years and has been back at the dealers a few times, love the car but not so keen on the reliability. Oh and the TDV8 Range Rover Sport is heavier than the 4.2TD Landcruiser Amazon VX!

[Andy Sargeant]

Landcruiser every day for me, strong statement as my business is Landrovers.

Toooooooooooooooooooooooo many electronics to go wrong with R/Rovers, it's not "if" it's "when" they go wrong.

Andy.

[Ayahuasca]

My Landcruiser has an auto box and it is great for offroading. You can flick it into high range, low range or first easily, which I found to be essential in keeping it the right way up on steep slippery descents on muddly crumbling jungle trails that overlook 500 foot drops.

[leginigel]

I hated autos untill I dove a full blown offroader disco,I now drive autos all the time even my road car BMW 330 is a auto,offroad for most of the time even on steep drops by useing the foot brake you can keep good control,not for the faint hearted,my vote is for the auto.