Car choice, talk me out of buying a Navara

I get 34mpg driving like a granny just on flat dual carriageway (not towing the boat). This is working it out with actual fuel and mileage, with a calculator, the onboard computer lies, big time.

Nothing negative BA Nana just laughing at myself that I discounted the Navara pickup as the load bay is 5ft and my rod bag is over 6 foot , I didn’t know about the tax being cheaper and it was the reason I binned the pathfinder, they are cheaper to buy too so I’m just here kicking myself 😀

http://jalopnik.com/5426122/6+wheel-range-rover-pickup-perfect-for-hauling-hot-air-balloons

Comfort and load space

Toyota Hilux, go for the HL3 2.5 crew cab, will do all and not break down

Talk you out of a Navara you say?

3. Family days out/camping holidays.

How about this?

I cant offer any sensible suggestions as I drive a Defender so clearly have no ability to make rational decisions about vehicles, but If only …

Nice. We also had the “strangerover” v8 vogue pick up at the local blacksmiths for a while. Perfect vehicle. Went for 5.5k in the end.

Hi, I had a 56 navarra extended cab (small backseats rather than the full double cab) for a couple of years.

Upsides, i was impressed with the economy (30-35mpg) and performance. Went for the extended cab to get the longer load bay to carry a demountable camper (briliant but alas this one was too rotten) and the truck coped with the weight without any problems.

Downsides, back seat was very upright and not a lot of room for adults. Safety rating – appalling. One of the reasons I sold it. Handling when empty was not car like but then it’s a pickup truck with leaf springs.

We have a volvo estate for the family car and regular things and to be blunt for 99% of the time it’s perfect for us. Winter tyres have been fantastic in snow and ice.

Unless you are carrying a lot of building supplies or wood regularly or can afford the running costs for a discovery type suv, then, I’d have to say that a pick-up truck as a family car is a compromise I personaly wouldn’t make.

Be different if I lived in the states or canada where an F150 would be my car of choice. I had an F250 for a while which was a childhood dream (who didn’t want a tonka toy for real?). It was massive, heavy, left hand drive and I just couldn’t use it enough to justify keeping it. Again, bought it to carry a demountable camper. Incredibly powerful but the only time I off-roaded it sank in a water soaked field.

Sorry, I wandered off. Me, if I were you I’d get a second hand modern estate car for all the family duties and an older hilux or other pick up for the rough stuff. Best thing I guess is to take a navarra for along test drive with the whole family. A friend had a double cab navarra double cab for towing a boat and supposedly for the family car but it’s telling that he sold the truck when he sold the boat.

Blackmount – we pick the driest months to build, and that was in the middle of a drought. No water has been abstracted from that part of the river. Allt a’Choire Chais, about six kilometres east of Dalwhinnie.

Buying new or used ?

New go look at a new ranger i am in love with the 3.2v6 diesel with allison box drives stottingly

Used- which end of the market<4000 conditions more important than the badge

If < 4000 i sugest lookig at isuzu tf pick ups.

Think carefully about what your doing with it though leaf springs are bollocks and crashy and only trucks i know of with coils and new are the landies and the walkinshaw l200s

Id avoid the souped up ( 160 and 180bhp) in both navara an l200 they lunch diffs and half shalfs like mad- they upped power and left drive train the same.

Quite a bit of bollox spouted on this thread, but sorry to pick your post out trailrat, however…

The Ranger is 5cyl, not a V6 – think that will be my next choice of truck though. Nissan do a V6 3.0l auto Navara though.

Not sure what BHP the L200 is, but the standard Nav is 190bhp (not ‘souped up’). I’ve had the odd look on a Navara forum and no-one I’m aware of has destroyed a diff, or half shaft – this was a problem with very early D40’s, but has been resolved long since. I drive mine over the Cat and Fiddle most days and don’t find leaf springs a major discomfort to be honest.

I’m at 60k and the only problem I’ve had was an ECU software problem causing limp mode occasionally – now sorted. I’m not overly careful with mine and consistently get over 30mpg (real, not computer) 40k+ from rear tyres, 50k+ from fronts, servicing every 18k.

Not sure where comments from others about Navs/Pathfinders being plasticky come from – no more plastic than any other car and acres of leather and more toys/gadgets than most mid-range family motors. Isuzus – now they are plasticky, L200’s aren’t much better and are built for hairdressers. Toyotas are good vehicles, but horribly underpowered.

As per usual, estate cars always get mentioned and pick-ups slated for load space – put 5 adults in your estate car and a tonne in the load bay, a 3.5 tonne trailer on the back and see how you get on – oh and good luck hosing the inside out when it’s full of mud.

Pick-up’s are brill – they have some limitations, but I’ve had 2 now and will have another one in a years time. As for the 4×4 – it’s only designed to be used when required and does a decent enough job in mud and snow.

Somebody has built a hybrid disco/L200 😯

and you can buy it.

Tricky Disco

My god, what an abomination 🙄

I’ve just bought a Discovery 3 down here in Oz, lovely bit of kit and far nicer than the D2 it’s replaced. If you can get hold of a commercial one of those the it would fit the bill I think. I’ve always found defenders a bit too cramped, even though I love them, I couldn’t live with one as an only vehicle, if you can live with one then Surely a double cab 110 is the way to go?

Check out disco3.co.uk for what to look out for there always appears to be a lot going wrong when looking at forums, but no one ever posts about a car going well and the parts prices are coming down to a reasonable level now.

Navara, probably lacking winter tyres!

As per usual, estate cars always get mentioned and pick-ups slated for load space – put 5 adults in your estate car and a tonne in the load bay, a 3.5 tonne trailer on the back and see how you get on

Pickups obviously carry more than estate cars, but less than vans which is why they lose. I reckon pickups are only good if you need both off-roading ability AND load space. Otherwise other options are better imo.

Be different if I lived in the states or canada where an F150 would be my car of choice

Just as rubbish over there, in fact more so. Single figures mpg. Ok petrol’s cheap, but it’s not THAT cheap!

I think its about $3.50 = US gallon > 0.832674 UK gallon > 3.77 litres

$3.50 = £1.86 = 0.49p a litre 😯

So a 10mpg F350 would be equiv to one of our 30mpg pickups.

Then drive it across the country… soon adds up!

Or if you need a tow capacity molgrips.

10k to spend?

Subaru Forester. Unless you are aredneck builder done good who hangs out at Llandegla

ive got a new defender 110 utility, and it would do all you are asking of it

commercial so £220 tax a year

but they have only done them for the last 5 years, first few years models were £550 yr tax, so i bought a new one, as there a re great deals about

I had about the same budget as you availbale, chucked it down as a deposit and then 0% apr the rest kind off

if you dont fancy that get a disco commericial that has a rear seat conversion for the weekends