Looking to replace our ageing L200 this year (2002/120k) and wondering what people have got/thoughts and what you’d recommend.*

Looking to spend around £7.5k and ideally something around 2010 (or newer) with as low a mileage as possible. Will be used as a work horse, towing multiple times a week and as a daily driver for my other half.

Newer L200 – expensive, mixed views on reliability
D40 Navara – nice to drive but horror stories about rotten chassis
Ford Ranger – agricultural but reliable
Isuzu Rodeo – agricultural but reliable
Hilux – pay a premium

Any thoughts or recommendations much appreciated.

*Yes, I do really need a pickup. I know you can fit more stuff in a van, a proper 4×4 will be better off road and an estate car will be nicer to drive.

What?
It’s a more sensible suggestion than the inevitable MX-5.

In all fairness if I could somehow convince the missus it was a good idea it’d be low, rear wheel drive and have a V8. Unfortunately that may have to be personal project at some point 😉

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMC_Syclone

for those interested.
0-60 would out accelerate a Porsche 911 of the day. 8)

Mx5 😀

Have had s 2013 Ranger and it was very unreliable and tractor like to drive.

I’ve a 2012 L200 now and it is a much nicer drive, still agricultural though.

Isuzu seem popular around that age and what I’d be going for. The 2.5 in particular would be my choice if I wanted another pickup a few friends have them/ had them and they were good.

Ranger is useful and generally reliable but not sexy and sold in volumes to fleets so always a bargain. The clutches on the Mk 3 were often abused if doing a lot of towing as the gear ratios were higher than the mk 2.

My mk 2 ranger has been a cheap reliable workhorse if a bit agricultural.

Stay away from Navarra before the really boxy popular one as they ate engines through some fault.

Isuzu to max out the towing capacity, they’re all much the same thing otherwise. L200 has ridiculous overhang.

Land Rover 130 if it is mostly a work thing. The back is bigger, it pulls more and has better traction. It’s what I use for work, even though there’s a pair of hilux in the yard, they only beat it for driver space.

My landscape contractor mate has been through most of them, I like the Amarok a lot. He’s not had any problems with it and it’s a great drive when it’s not working.

No low range box on amarok and too nice to destroy off rd!

Amarok is a fake pickup for posers.

If you want to tow then Isuzu would get my vote. Initially the new D-max was rated at 3T but was then uprated to 3.5T. Might be a bit agricultural with no load but it would be my choice.

The old Ford Ranger is not too bad and the Mazda is the same vehicle.

Seems crazy that Dacia haven’t made a pickup/wagon version of the Duster, it would sell loads to farmers, builders etc

Thanks for the replies – surprisingly helpful and sensible for STW 😉

Sounds like the Isuzu and Ranger are probably the ones to be looking at then, I had one of the early Rangers (2000ish) and although it felt like a Mondeo crossed with a tractor it was bullet proof and towed well.

Are some of the 2.5 Isuzus really only 100bhp? Seen a few adverts stating that which sounds a bit gutless.

110/130 Defender though a better as a workhorse I couldn’t live with every day, have got through enough of them over the years!

Seems crazy that Dacia haven’t made a pickup/wagon version of the Duster, it would sell loads to farmers, builders etc

Not sure the Duster would be a big enough platform to make usable pickup, there is some Chinese truck (Great Wall maybe?) that keeps coming up but don’t think that’s a gamble I’m willing to take…

Bloke at the gym swears by his Isuzu. I think he had a Ranger before that and said it wasn’t bad either.

Found this saying that Dacia had made 500 of these for a Romanian gas company:

http://www.carscoops.com/2014/10/new-dacia-duster-pick-up-is-real-but.html

I would bite their arm off if they came in at around the same price as a Duster

Learn something new every day!

Deffo a market for a small 4×4 pickup I’d have thought, though as it’s a single cab I’m out.

On our second L200 now, a 2006 high mileage example we’ve taken a gamble on based on having cheap independent garages around us, living in an agricultural area and it coming with FSH and documented cam belt change….you can’t move for them around here, it just seemed logical.
That said there does seem to be lots of Isuzus appearing more recently so maybe something in that too?
Rarely see a Hilux but they are hobbled with a premium to buy.
See some Rangers, I understand parts are cheap and they’re easy to work on.

Rarely see Navaras for reasons already mentioned, early ones had a crank shaft problem that lunched the engine and went down as far as the Micra in Nissan’s range at the time but they never admitted it as I suspect the world wide recall would have bankrupted them.
Later ones have the hilarious habit of snapping the chassis where the flat bed joins the cab.

Amoroks are too new to judge although there are a few about but then there’s also a VW garage locally so it could just be that?

Our first L200 was an older shape 2003 model, absolutely fine, gave years of service without bother and then my other half decided to drive it through bonnet deep water without a snorkel fitted and hydro locked the engine….thankfully the insurance agreed it was flood damage or we’d have been stuffed….she repeated the trick in the subsequent Audi A4 a few years later only that wasn’t terminal and her dad (retired mechanic) managed to get it running again… i can only pray she’s learnt her lesson.

A small pickup with a double/twin cab wouldn’t leave much load space. On that picture above, you’d be lucky to get as much space as you do in a Focus.

Thanks for that Deviant, be interested to hear how you get on with the L200 and what you think of it.

Our current L200 has been great* and served well for the last 6 years but it’s starting to show its age. I shouldn’t have to worry about my other half drowning it as she has never let me live down ditching my old Alfa in a flood a good few years ago.

*apart form when I had to replace the head gasket twice in 2 weeks but the less said about that the better!

Have you looked at Great Wall Steed? 6 yr 125k warranty, cheap as chips and half decent reviews.

Plenty within your budget

Autotrader Great Wall Steed

Mate of mine has one for forestry work.

Yeah, I had spotted those. You get a lot for your money, I’m just a bit weary about their lack of long term reviews/owners knowledge available versus more well known trucks. Saying that parts/spares seem to be available and in theory they’d be a fairly basic thing to work on.

Alot of truck for the money…

A mate of mine has one. He’s a farmer and swears by it.

Interesting, a bit of reading says the earlier Euro 4 rated cars aren’t to be touched with a barge pole but the Euro 5 cars were a big improvement.

Maybe worth a test drive just to have a look at them.

I ran an L200 for 3 years before changing to the Vito, so it would have been about the age you are looking at. It wasn’t bad once I got rid of the Bridgestone Deathmax tyres 😉

Previously ran a Navara for a bit, which was nice to drive, but broke down a lot. My Dad had the Isuzu and that was a much nicer place to be than the L200, though the turning circle on the Mitsubishi made it much easier to live with.

After this brief dalliance with a van I will be back to pickups I think. Like that Dacia above to be honest – that would be a cracking vehicle for my work! I have about 18 months until change over time though so I will be watching what comes along over the coming year or so with a lot of interest.

Rumours of a Wrangler pickup with a 3.0 V6 petrol engine in it are getting me a little excited at the moment 😉 Realistically it will probably be the Nissan/Renault/Mercedes family but there are a few wildcards that may come along before then to sway me (Tesla/Landrover/something else I don’t know about yet….)

I’d personally say a mk3 Ranger for that money. I had a ‘Thunder’, 150bhp rwd with no traction control or abs. Was a proper drifting rig. As mentioned it is effectively a Mazda and the gear ratios are odd but you soon adapt to them.

Currently have an Amarok which wipes the floor with anything pickup wise I’ve ran in the past, it just does everything. Makes my old mk7 Hilux feel agricultural.

There seems to be a lot of fuss over the Navara chassis up to around 15 reg, not sure if the exact details but I’m sure someone on here will know the ins and outs.

No low range box on amarok

Errrm. Mine has one along with the (optional) diff lock.

There is such a thing as a double cab Duster, but you’d have to nip over to South America to get one.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Duster_Oroch

I’ bought a 64 plate L200 for myself when I went self employed.
So far, so good imho.
It’s got me to every (Mobile phone) site I’ve ever had to visit, so it’s spotty dog imho.
Gets around 41mpg so can’t complain at that either..

Issue with navara is they forgot to do the corrosion prevention treatment on chassis internals so a bunch are rusting from the inside out and snapping mid-point. I think it was related to a specific factory in Spain or somewhere. Nissan doing inspections of certain aged vehicles and buying back at market value if they fail. Bit vague but that’s the general gist of it!

I’ve just gone for the new Navara after test driving most things on the market, but in the Op’s position I’d have gone DMax without doubt.

Good going that Teetosugars, I average around 28-30mpg but drive like I’m on fire and regularly tow nearly 3 tons.

Thought it was something like that dashed, heard of a few being bought back by Nissan. Would be interesting to know if they were giving decent money for them.

Yeah – I was around 28ish MPG in the old L200 too, but I cart about 3/4 ton of gear most of the time. I did see 34mpg once…..

To be fair, all I’m carrying in mine, is climbing equipment, and tools.
Oh and all my survey kit.

Aside from the 4×4 aspect, could you really not make do with a van?

I believe that all pickups except the new Navara still have leaf springs on the rear. So unless the bed is loaded it’ll never be a great ride, and the new Nav will be over your budget.

Yeah – I was around 28ish MPG in the old L200 too, but I cart about 3/4 ton of gear most of the time. I did see 34mpg once….

I get 40-41 out of mine cruise control on motorway ….just plods along best I ever got was 56 to Skegness it’s a new one though Euro 6 I liked the hilux it has a hot sandwich box and a cold box in the glove box …. this alone blew my mind but the sales guy just punted his extraordinary discount from one free thing to the next either way it was 30k no matter what he did to manipulate the figures . Tried a Navara drove like a boat if I’m honest

Swear by our Isuzu. It’s leaf-sprung at the back but not a bad ride.

No low range box on amarok and too nice to destroy off rd!

Amarok is a fake pickup for posers.

It does have a low range box and it’s hardly a fake pickup whatever that is.

Tows 3tonnes and is by far the nicer vehicle when not ‘working’ over a Hilux, L200 or Ranger.

Your choice of cours but be aware that those ^ comments are utter tripe.

Aside from the 4×4 aspect, could you really not make do with a van?

Yeah, aside from needing 4×4 a van would be great – saying that nothing looks more pikey than a van towing a horse box 😉

I can only go on what i see all the time, i live in a rural area (North Norfolk) and the Ford Ranger really is the most common round here, nearly every pick up that is less than 5 years old is a Range and they speak highly of them for reliability and taking abuse.

There are hundreds of wind-turbines off the coast and the Japanese-Norwegian company building them had to run power lines across our part of the county up to them, meaning that they closed roads and paid farmers access to do so underground,many had fields unusable for 18 months, must of paid well though as i see a number of have Range Rovers as well as Ford Rangers now!