Friend is looking for a beater 4x4. £1000 budget. Anything?

[lewd lude lover]

Hey guys. Shane, my mate who helped out at the national meet, is looking for a 4x4 over the winter. I just wanted to ask if anyone had any leads or anything for sale just now~? You never know

he is looking for something along the line of an ISUZU Trooper 3.1 td. That would be the choice. Or a hilux etc.

NO landies (hates them)
NO cruisers (cant afford them)
NO rav4/vitara (not a real 4x4)

You get the idea. A solid workhorse vehicle with ticket and no serious faults for a grand or under.


Let me know what you have or turn up in the course of your daily mooching guys

[wurlycorner]

Just don't ask me for advice on buying 4x4s and you'll be fine...!

[Confused]

I'd be looking at a Mk2 Shogun, the 3.0 or 3.5 V6 petrol.

Find one with LPG, and you've got the equivalent of ~40-50mpg, depending on how much you can find LPG for.

[Donald]

How does the price of the fuel affect its efficiency?

[wurlycorner]

Actually, all joking aside, Nissan Navarra's are excellent. Not many available within that budget by the looks, but if you find one go and have a look.

I can advise against Hilux Surf's. The absolute crappest interior of any 4x4 I've ever been in - and I don't just mean the fact that when you get in you think you've stepped back into a 1980's Jap vehicle, but more importantly the seats are absolutely appalling. Small, pathetically squashy and un-supportive.
They roll about like a bitch and are noisy too.

[lewd lude lover]

I always saw the hilux as the landrover to the landcruisers rangerover. A working vehicle. They dress them up a bit but not really what I would want..

I will probs be going for an ISUZU rodeo or ford ranger etc when I go 4x4 simply because they have the extra bracing to support much heavier towing. Also a pick up will be useful for what we are up to no doubt.

My mate shane decided to get a little more money. £1500 seems to be a good starting budget for thisa kinda thing. I would enter the market at about 3500 if I wsas looking though. That seems the balance between older highly maintained and younger used a bit.

[jjmartin349571]

He should be able to get in to an Isuzu Trooper/Bighorn/Monterey 3.1td for that money, and although I'm biased of course I'd say that's probably your best 'beater' 4x4. Mine's coming up to 200,000Km with no service history, and bar needing the auto locking hubs to be re-greased and a lower balljoint to replace it's doing great. The 3.1 engine has a rep for being very hard wearing, the later 3.0 was definitely a step back in reliability.

If he's looking at the Toyota's I'd say steer clear of the 2.4 Hilux. I was looking at getting a 2.4 Surf a while back, but my commercial vehicle mechanic friend swerved me away from them as they have a tendency to crack cylinder heads and he told me he wouldn't help when it all ended in tears The larger engines are ok though apparently, in the older Hilux Surfs I believe you could get a 3 litre petrol V6 which would be nice.

I'm heading out shortly, but down the road from me is the place I picked up my Isuzu and he's had several for sale since so I'll poke my head in and see if he's got any. The bloke I used or moving my cars mentioned he was due a couple back when he delivered my Legacy so I'll drop him a text too.

[Confused]

How does the price of the fuel affect its efficiency?

Simply because the price of LPG varies wildly compared to the price of petrol/diesel

[Donald]

Are you trolling me?

[Confused]

No.

Did you notice the word "equivalent"? If you have a vehicle that does 20mpg on petrol costing £1.20 per litre, then running it on LPG that costs £0.60 per litre will give you an equivalent of 40mpg. If you can find LPG for £0.50 per litre, then you get an equivalent of 48mpg.