looking for a cheap reliable 4×4 to tow a small trailer at the moment considering freelander, honda crv, nissan terrano, or am i crazy definitely not Discovery or Defender money prefer diesel but not scarred of the crv petrol

any thoughts?

Toyota land Cruiser?

Discoveries are considered unreliable and devalue fast

Defenders are considered more reliable so are more expensive to buy used

The landrovers are full time full 4WD which is a big benefit on road if you really need the grip. But with a small trailer then that probably isn’t the case

land cruiser even more to buy than discovery…..

I would buy and have done in the past a mk2 2.2 diesel frontera…..

cheap as dirt no one likes them…… capable vehicles – runs rings round the 4×4 pick up brigade and really cheap parts.

would recommend a 5 door for towing.

what is the trailer weight and do you really need to go proper off-road?

For a heavy trailer (3500kg) you are pretty much limited to a land rover or a VW toureg (if you don’t need to go off road).

For you it sounds like a SWB Shogun, Foutrack, Frontera etc might fit the bill. Discovery 1 and 2’s can be had for peanuts but are often rust buckets and you don’t need the tow capacity.

We have a TD4 Freelander and it does very well with our twin axle sheep trailer (Max weight 2000kg, normally about 1700kg). It copes very well with the trailer off road and I trust it to get us up tight and steep bits. I did nearly get it stuck the other day when the OH told me the field was fine to drive into but it turned out to be very soggy and the road (M&S rated) tyres were not cutting it. I realised when to call it quits and stopped to chuck the sheep out before reversing back down the slope and out of the field. With AT tyres I would nave absolutely no concerns over it’s ability, apart from all out towing power, over a larger land rover. But they do have a bad rep as the VCU is a consumable (£300) which people don’t replace and then it takes out the rest of the transmission.

I wouldnt go with the honda for lots of off-road towing as they are not a true 4×4. But for single horse boxes etc on road and decent tracks they are fine.

If you are not going off road then don’t bother with a 4×4. Just make sure the car is plenty heavy enough so that the trailer doesnt exceed 85% of the towing vehicle weight. When you see FWD cars spinning wheels towing it’s normally because the nose weight of the trailer has been exceeded.

oh another thing to check is your licence for your towing limits if you passed after Jan 1997.

You may well be limited to a 3500kg vehicle with a 750kg trailer or a heavier trailer provided the gross train weight does not exceed 3500kg (eg you could have a 2000kg max weight car and a 1500 kg trailer).

trailer no more than 2000kg and no serious offroading had the L200 and hated it thirsty noisy and impracticable as a car.

trail_rat – Member
land cruiser even more to buy than discovery…..

I would buy and have done in the passed a mk2 2.2 diesel frontera…..

I seem to remember the Frontera coming last in a JD Power reliability survey. Possibly why theyre so unloved.

yup the petrol was terrible.

the 2.2 diesel is an Isuzu engine and the rest of the car is solid. I ran a 99 for 2 years recently and beat shit out of it …. including my mrs driving it into a bus – I reversed it out and drove it home before replacing the wishbones and a wing…..

but that doesn’t stop those that have never owned one hating…..

would have kept it but it was only a stopgap 4×4 till my90 restoration was finished.

Evening campers, 2.0 NA Forester

Don’t bother with the petrol CRV. Mine was awful on fuel….and not cool/fast/fun enough to justify its thirst.

something like this? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2001-MITSUBISHI-SHOGUN-DI-D-CLASSIC-SWB-SILVER-/321962468734?hash=item4af675657e:g:x44AAOSwYaFWg~Vv

Or if you want to waft around and dont care about fuel and have a suitable licence: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1997-LAND-ROVER-RANGE-ROVER-4-6-HSE-AUTO-CLASSIC-P38-MODEL-REMARKABLE-CONDITION-/231802111875?hash=item35f87b8783:g:m~cAAOSwJkJWiU-~

just spotted this, if you are collecting fire wood and need to go off-road in comfort then it looks perfect 😀 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DIESEL-RANGE-ROVER/272095234004?_trksid=p2047675.c100009.m1982&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140328180637%26meid%3Dc2efaa7462f74d20bb18bcd8020d33ae%26pid%3D100009%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D10%26sd%3D231802111875

Unimog.

My mate says the best towing vehicle he’s had is his van, certainly much better than the 4wd pick-up he had (ref L200)

From what you’ve said I would suggest something like an A6 (or even an A4) quattro diesel.

Most cars are limited to 1500-1900kg. A6 Allroad was on my list of cars as I figured it would have a decent tow capacity. As it turns out the Freelander is still better so probably just going to get a TDV8 Range Rover so I can get a bigger trailer (3500 kg) and a cheap POS run-around. VW tiguan is about 2200 kg as there was a bit of a mid range tow capacity war recently with manufacturer trying to get the caravan market. The new Disco sport was upped to 2200 kg to match.

If my experience is anything to go by, do not buy an original shape Freelander.
Not that it’s a real perk any more, but I’m lucky enough to get company cars.
In 2000 I had a brand new Freelander. Cars at that time were changed at 100,000 miles in our firm. I was doing stupidly big miles and it got to 110000 in two years.
I have never had a car which was broken down so much.
Out of the 103 weeks we had it, it spent 11 in the dealers. Head gaskets x3, steering box, every door lock ( they’d just fail when locked and the alarm would go off till it was unlocked) , wheel bearings, suspension drop links ( those would last about 7000 miles. Local and not so local dealers had no parts stock and getting them to them seemed to take an age. Oh, and it ate rear tyres for fun.
When it was running right ( 1.8 petrol) it was actually a very capable 4×4, very good in ice and snow particularly.
I’m not harsh on cars either, and apart from a turbo on a Saab and a Golf clutch, never had a car fail on me apart from the F***lander, in about 30 years of driving and literally a million miles.

the 1.8 k series freelander was a nail from new.

the 2.0 TD4 was a beut –

freelander is another car where a crappy petrol engine ruined their reputation……

get a trooper, reliable, cheap to buy, built well

Ford Raptor! 😀

If reliable is high on your list then definitely consider the CRV. We had ours for nearly 13 years (2003 petrol) and although we only did low miles it never cost us a penny in breakdowns or repairs other than the usual wear and tear. We eventually replaced it with a newer model.

2000kg needs a 2200kg+ tow vehicle ideally.
An A6 estate is way short of that.

Bargain basement: Frontera.
Few grand: XC90 ?

Or, having seen what they put them through on Long Way Round, just get a Shogun.

Any opinions on the Nissan x-trail?

Volvo XC60 … cheap to run and quick

About to sell a petrol 2004 crv if you are after a bargain and near Newark? I agree with the prev fuel comments but fantastic for transporting a bike, with wheels, and it it’s the executive model with DVD built in so your bike can watch a film while being transported 🙂

Land cruiser or patrol. Do it properly, they’re reliable, good towing capacity and if you buy properly they’re pretty depreciation proof.

All those militia can’t be wrong.

Any opinions on the Nissan x-trail?

Had one for just over a year.
Very pleased with it. I use it off road most weekends, and it’s been fine. Good on road as well.

Kangoo Trekka or Honda HRV.
Inexpensive and well engineered.
Heavier vehicle Kia Sorento. For towing auto is the more favourable.

I’ve had two Fronteras, both LWB, an early 2.4 petrol & a later 3.2 V6 petrol. Both were totally reliable and that definitely wasn’t through molly-coddling them ! Definitely a good shout if you need a cheap 4×4 IMO.

And if you don’t need a 4×4 (either for the off-road or for the max towing capacity) then look at large-ish estates as they will likely be nicer to drive and a lot more economical.

Depends on what you class a small trailer and where you want to tow.

Most eco variants have low towing capacities, something to do with hill test results or something.

Old TD4 Freelander would be fairly capable and cheap as mentioned above. If a really small trailer, Panda 4×4 are surprisingly good off road.

If you want to tow, Discovery 2 is unbeatable, we towed a fully loaded artic lorry up an icy hill (I have a video to prove it), can be had dead cheap, though the reliability can be suspect, if you get a good one it should be fine with regular services.

Do you need to carry more than 3 people?
Look at the commercial variants of the vehicles mentioned above, could throw up a bargain?

Looking around I can probably find an early x-trail or diesel CRV for my budget 4/5 k or a much newer jeep Patriot they seam to get positive reviews normally i would not consider a jeep but its a VW 2.0 engine and apparently 40 ish to the galon.

I had an 07 X-Trail 2.2dci (T30) for four years or so, used as everything from being my work vehicle (carpentry, oak framing, boats) for carrying tools, equipment, materials in, on and behind with a twin axle plant trailer, to weekend family duties.

It performed everything I asked of it easily and economically (relative I know). Reasonable fuel economy, mid thirties, servicing was reasonable, about £200 for the major M3 service. It did like to get through front brakes though. Towing with it was a breeze and the two 4wd modes of auto or permanent worked well through some boggy stuff.

Interior nothing plush, but I liked the utilitarian feel and also hard wearing.

The early ones are quite cheap now too. And it’s a Nissan with a timing chain and good old Japanese reliability. Yes, the diesel has French connections, but quite honestly, it always started and ran fine.

If ground clearance isnt an issue you could go for something like a subaru legacy. Can be cheap to buy and insure and I must say I like my one…

2.7 Nissan Terrano tough as old boots very reliable nothing comes close in my view.

Found a full service history CR*V sport petrol on an 04 French registered and immaculate inside and out with nearly new boots for 2295 happy bunny

dbukdbuk – Member

Unimog.
Posted 3 weeks ago # Report-Post

This… 🙂

Nissan x-Trails…Be very careful. Don’t buy anything that anyone has done any DIY wiring in (INCLUDING STEREOS!!!). Watch out for outrageously expensive to fix problems with fuel pumps that will leave you in limp-home mode until you have many hundreds of pounds to throw at fixing the issue. Having been involved with X-Trails before, I’d not go there again…

the 2.2 xtrail engine is not french newer diesels may be.

fuel pumps can be a problem, we got to 180k before it went horribly wrong

t30 petrol ones are v reliable

nissan parts are horribly expensive

avoid 1st two years of the T30 as the diagnosics port is a proprietary nissan protocol…. + as above avoid anything that’s had the electric molested by a diyer…

+1 for the Terrano had one for 10 years only needed servicing tyres and brakes. Still miss the old girl, should have kept it just in case.

Someone above suggested a Jeep Patriot.

I bought one with 70k miles on the clock and was the most expensive car to maintain that I have ever owned. Over the next 35k miles it had over £2k spent on it with a clutch, cam belt change, wheel bearing and every single suspension linkage bar you could get.

Even at that point it had loads of advisory points on the MOT and looked like it might start to cost even more to run.

However I thought it was nice car to drive, had loads of equipment and a great sound system although the dropdown speaker unit in the tailgate used to drop down and hit me in the head until I permanently fixed it into position.

The drivers heated seat also stopped working and the leather trim is only real leather in very small parts of the seat centre sections. The headlights were also poor with no way to really upgrade them without fitting illegal higher wattage bulbs and relays.

To sum up I would say they look better than they really are although a genuine 38mpg average is possible.