…..or are they all abused dogs? I'm sure a few folk have thought about a 4×4 recently as they have been digging out their daily drive. But…for less than a grand… is it worth looking or is going to cost too much to keep running?

4L Jeep Cherokee. Cheap to keep running, unless you include fuel.

http://motors.shop.ebay.co.uk/Cars-/9801/i.html?_nkw=suzuki+sj&_frs=1&_sop=2&_trksid=p3286.c0.m359

4 Ltr. yes.. I think the fuel bill might sting a bit.

Rav4?

older 1.8 or 2.0 Impreza estate. Very untrendy, so less likely to have been abused.

SJ410 if you want something more hardcore.

Most 'proper' 4wd's at that price will be old enough that they would have been sold before 4wd became trendy ie used for intended purpose, so will probably have had a hard life.

An old Rav4 as long as you only need it for pootling around, they don't have low range but do have a centre diff lock, ours has been ace during this weather, we have decent thin off road tyres on it and it goes through everything.

The only thing that would stop it would be really deep snow as it would ground out earlier than say a Discovery.

Always bear in mind that although with 4 wheel drive its easier to get going, once you try to stop or steer, you have are in the same situation as a car with 2 wheel drive, so going along with not a care in the world thinking that 4 wheel drive does it all for you is not what happens.

i have a 96 2.7 diesel nissan terrano, MOT up 6th Feb, which it will fail. lots of niggly things wrong, ie one seatbelt clip, drivers electric window – that kind of thing. but engine and drive train are rock solid. it's waved it's willy at all road conditions so far. it ain't pretty, would sell for £300 and if you can tinker yourself it wouldn't take much to sort it.

500 notes gets you a "running" classic HiLux (like that one off top gear)

I ran one for 2 years while I was at uni. Nothing went wrong that couldnt be fixed with duct tape, a hammer or grease and it goes anywhere.

Extra benefit: during the summer you can use it to uplift things.

As above – go look for a Suzuki

There's better 4x4s around but if you want cheap & tough, you really can't beat them

Apparently the old vauxhall frontera's were very UNDER rated

Fiat Panda Sisley – not idea if you can find any, but they are the 'original' (I recall them appearing at around very early 90's but they may not have been the first ones) style Fiat Panda in 4×4 guise…apparently they are all over the Alps and are very good. Reviews suggest they are fine for road use (assuming you aren't looking for amazing performance as it's lugging 4×4 gear around with it so it will be heavier than a normal Panda and slower, plus it's got a small engine so won't be massive on speed) and they do a very good job offroad considering they aren't jacked up and beefed up for full-on offroad use.

I think (but can't remember) that the original's had a high/low gear range, I think the new models don't. Also I think the original's were only petrol and the new version can be had in petrol or diesel. Not found any on autotrader but I did find a LHD version on Ebay.

older 1.8 or 2.0 Impreza estate. Very untrendy, so less likely to have been abused.

SJ410 if you want something more hardcore.

Non turbo Impreza in a non-fashionable colour i.e. maroon etc. Otherwise they have all been thrashed.

SJ? Rare! Hilux's now command a premium due to topgear 🙁

Apparently the old vauxhall frontera's were very UNDER rated

THey were underated – they were rated as sh*te when in fact they were total sh*te 😉

TRy an old Mitsubishi pajero if you like but you could go onto Ebay and get some used snow tyres for your regular car. Much cheaper and just as useful in most circumstances. The amount of grip from your tyres is more important than how many wheels are driving.

Even better if you can get some cheap steel wheels to mount 'em or buy some already on a suitable wheel fitment.

Another vote for an older Suzuki SJ410 or SJ413.

My wide is actually running around in a Suzuki Ignis 4-Grip at the moment. You'd probably bag an older one of these for as little as £2k – if you could find one. It's been handy just having the extra grip while setting off and in snow/slushy conditions. Remember that it makes little difference when it ices up though.

Put the £1k towards a nice warm biking holiday & come back when the snows gone. 🙂

If you must have a 4×4…an older imported Pajero, but you'll be looking at closer to 20mpg than 30mpg. You can pick up an import Pajero for about that. Sensible folk get them for towing caravans. We on the other hand bought a Mondeo.

200 or 300 engined Disco without any electric bits. Huge amount of spares and back up out there. 30 mpg possible without too much care. Dead easy to fix

Something like a Diahatsu Sportrak/Fourtrak. They were never all that popular amongst the fashion set, but they were big on hill farms. Another decent one is the Izusu Trooper, you can pick them up for £800+ or there abouts, and they are very capable machines – the older ones are actually better in engine terms (the later diesel was a bit prone to going pop).

If you up it to 1.5k or so then you start getting into old Landcruisers/Shogun territory.

Best of the bunch , Lada Niva. Idiot proof. Wonderful off road. Warm.

I think (but can't remember) that the original's had a high/low gear range, I think the new models don't. Also I think the original's were only petrol and the new version can be had in petrol or diesel

The original had selectable 4wd. It had no centre diff, so you had to disengage the 4wd for road use, but of course it didn't need a diff lock off road. Nice and simple! They were and are still very good light off road cars. Lots of grip, skinny tyres, very light and easy to dig/push out. Very reliable engines and simple mechanicals too. If you could find one that wasn't a pile of rust it would be a very decent buy.

EDIT
Look what Google found! I was right…. 🙂

The Panda 4×4 was launched in June 1983, it was powered by a 965 cc engine with 48 bhp (36 kW) derived from that in the Autobianchi A112. Known simply as the Panda 4×4, this model was the first small, transverse-engined production car to have a 4WD system. The system itself was manually selectable, with an ultra-low first gear. Under normal conditions starting was from second, with the fifth having the same ratio as fourth in the normal Panda. Austrian company Steyr-Puch supplied the entire drivetrain (clutch, gearbox, power take-off, three-piece propshaft, rear axle including differential and brakes)

The Fiat Panda 4×4 that are left are probably the ones that WERENT used in the snow tbh.

Mitsubishi pajero- serious?

2 good ones that we have had in the past were an old 4lD Landcruiser if you want big or Suzuki for leightwt.
Both very capable off road.

found this on pistonheads if you are in the scotland area

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/sales/1397362.htm

might need a bit of work though by the sounds of it
Loads of Suzuki SJ's on there too.

An older Subaru Legacy woudl be a good bet, lots of room for bikes in estate version and pretty solid cars – had one on LPG for a few years

Will

Winter tyres will allow your humble FWD hatch to cruise past 4x4s on summer tyres for somewhat less cash. It'll stop and steer better too.

Lada Nivas were pretty good, whatever happened to them?

Seriously though in a week or so's time you will be stuck with a kak old 4×4 until the next big freeze in 30 years time 😀

Its a few inches of snow… not a new ice age!

I have a Honda HRV it's been great and when the snows over it's a decent car.

1.6 Vtec about 35mpg driving normally and loads of room.

To be honest in this weather it's all about tyres and knowing how to drive in snow, I leave that to the missus as her 4 years as a ski chalet person means she actually knows what she is doing unlike me!

Great little car though.

just get snow/winter tyres, they're not even that bad for fuel when you hit the tarmac.

they've got a chunkier tread pattern, and a softer compound that stays grippy when it's cold.

We've got two 4x4s so I obviously see the benefits, but the suggestion of winter tyres is a good one. Go to Sweden and you'll see fewer 4x4s than you do here. Snow tyres and a fwd car will do just as well on compacted snow / ice as a 4×4. It's only when there's so much snow that you can't tell if there's a road there or not that a 4×4 comes into its own.

A new type of "What tyre?" thread needed then 😉

Lada Nivas were pretty good, whatever happened to them?

They werent 'cool' like Defenders so when things went wrong with them the service schedules were left to slide and they cacked up.

Whereas Defenders have money thrown at them with allsorts of bits renewed as people 'identify' with them and see them as cool, an 'entity' that says something about ownership to their neighbours the Jones's.

Daihatsu Fourtak bombproof. Last one cost me £600 and ran for 2 years for free then sold for £450.

got a toyota estima 4×4 ace in snow ,7 seater, fold seats up and you can get 4 bikes in what more do you need

What type of shoes are your horses running on?

Scooby Doo Legacy Estate – as long as you don't mind 30mpg there a terrific motor

For really cheap I'd go with a Suzuki SJ413. Me and a mate drove one of these across the desert in Australia – they're mechanically very agricultural and easliy serviceable. For a bit more cash maybe look at a Mitsubishi Shogun Pinin – we've got one of these, it's a proper little 4WD with hi/low ratios and central diff lock.

Sweden and you'll see fewer 4x4s than you do here.

Theres a better reason, theres very few manufacturers that build cars that'll work in the serious cold, Merc are one of them. You need all sorts of heaters to keep them alive, that's the reason you never see a landrover north of the artic circle, they just freeze up and die.

You need all sorts of heaters to keep them alive, that's the reason you never see a landrover north of the artic circle, they just freeze up and die.

You mean a winter kit? Available for pretty much any car and definitely Land Rovers.

I've seen Land Rovers on the glaciers in Iceland in February. In a traffic jam oddly.

The main reason you don't see Land Rovers in extreme places is you tend to die if (when) they breakdown.

You ain't gonna get anything 'cheap' now. Wait till the summer.