Which small(ish) off roader for around £2k?

[Ecosseven]

I’m currently considering a small (ish) 4x4 for some off road fun. I live about 15 miles for a large off road centre. This would be a third car and only cover about 1500 miles a year. I want something with proper off road credentials but don’t want to spend a lot of time and money modifying the vehicle – happy to spend money on a decent set of AT or MT tyres and whatever I need to on maintenance. Cheap tax would be a bonus. Budget of £2000 - £2500 for the car and another £500 for a set of tyres and steel wheels.

Current shortlist

Suzuki Jimny.
Mitsubishi Shogun (SWB)
Nissan Patrol (SWB) – very rare
Jeep Cherokee

Any advice or comments gratefully received

[Ecosseven]

300bhp/ton said:

Ecosseven said:

I’m currently considering a small (ish) 4x4 for some off road fun. I live about 15 miles for a large off road centre. This would be a third car and only cover about 1500 miles a year. I want something with proper off road credentials but don’t want to spend a lot of time and money modifying the vehicle – happy to spend money on a decent set of AT or MT tyres and whatever I need to on maintenance. Cheap tax would be a bonus. Budget of £2000 - £2500 for the car and another £500 for a set of tyres and steel wheels.

Current shortlist

Suzuki Jimny.
Mitsubishi Shogun (SWB)
Nissan Patrol (SWB) – very rare
Jeep Cherokee

Any advice or comments gratefully received

Other things to consider are, will you want to use it for anything else?

e.g.

towing
tip runs
hauling

Or if you get into off roading, maybe laning or even competitions.


I only say this, as Prick & Prats sort of lose their lustre after a while.

For laning you may want to consider if you would be going solo or with vehicle full of people and how many road miles you'd maybe do. Comfort may play a bigger part in such a decision.

As for competition. There are loads of different types. The most common grass roots off road motorsport is off road trials. The largest community in this regard, by a country mile is Land Rover.

There are winch challenges, point to points as well as off road racing.


My preference for an off road vehicle is live axles front and rear. As a rule they will generally out perform independant suspension systems on rough terrain.



In terms of vehicles.


The Suzuki Jimny is a brilliant little vehicle. Think of it as a Series 1 Land Rover with Defender style suspension. Lives axles and a ladder chassis. Extremely capable. A mild lift and some MT's will help however.

Vitara's, these have independant front suspension. Technically not as capable as the Jimny off road and more likely to lift wheels off the ground, but can be made quite capable. Suspect you'd want more mods on one to get it to keep up with a Jimny on technical off road sections. The bigger engines and IFS should make it better on the road however, but it's probably marginal.

Suzuki SJ. The forerunner to the Jimny and uses leaf suspension. Equally capable, but harder to find these days, rust to buggery and a lot less comfy.


XJ Cherokee. Hugely capable off road with live axles front and rear, but you'll want a suspension lift and some MT tyres. They ride a little low stock. You can get a 2" budget boost lift which would be sufficient. Slightly bigger than the Suzuki's, so slightly less nimble. But these are still small vehicles. Only marginally longer than a Defender 90. They are also comfy on the road, have a good boot and seat 5 people. So likely more adaptable for more uses than the Suzuki's.

Shoguns, I'm not so familiar with these. Videos on YouTube show they can be capable. But they are IFS and tend to have large plastic bumpers. I suspect off road you are more likely to lift wheels and pull bits of bodywork off. Really depends how extreme the off road use will be.



Now in terms of parts and aftermarket. In the UK Land Rover is by far the largest, in fact it's many times the size of all the others together. This means they are generally fairly cheap and easy to run, easy to get bits for and a huge array of aftermarket parts and upgrades.

World wide, the Jeep has a huge aftermarket and some suppliers in the UK.

Suzuki's are generally pretty well catered for too in terms of off road bits.

But many/most of the other vehicles you'll find your choice of aftermarket parts for off road use might be extremely small or nonexistent. And arguably more pricey.


This is why I say, it is well worth considering a Land Rover product (assuming you are in the UK).

You might still find some Series vehicles such as an 88 in budget. Extremely capable out of the box, only needing a decent set of tyres.

Ninety's are probably out of budget, but you might still find something useable for only just over your budget.

And of course Discovery's, D2's and maybe even a Range Rover. These are a bit bigger, but could still be just the ticket if you want to get into off roading.



It largely boils down to how much extra effort after buying you want to put in and what you ultimately think you'll use it for.


For info, there are probably 30+ Land Rover clubs across the country. And almost all of them will run a trials event once a month. With upto 4 major interclub events a year as well. Cheap motorsport at £20-25/entry per event. But it is Land Rover only.

The AWDC do run trials events too, but there are far less of them and they might not always be local. Plus the different types of vehicle permitted, mean the vehicle you turn up in, really will play a big part on well you might be able to do.

Thanks for the detailed response 300bhp / ton. I'm leaning towards to jimny for the following reasons.

1. Plenty for sale in my budget.
2. On road performance not really important as I have 2 other cars.
3. Doesn't need to be large as other cars can be used for transporting people / goods when required. The jimny may still be used as a car for the tip run but with the back seats folded down it will be big enough.
4. Likely to be less costly to run that the other vehicles on my short list. Simple petrol engine. No diff locks to worry about and it doesn't have loads of electronics to go wrong. I just need to watch out for the rust.
5. I like the fact it's tiny and quirky. I wouldn't want to drive it 10k miles a year in one but for something with decent off road performance and a car that has real character and mechanical simplicity I think it's hard to beat.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond.

Edited by Ecosseven on Sunday 2nd July 16:27