Possible Maverick purchase - any advise ?

Hi all,

My wife and I have just acquired a horse and need something a little more robust (and larger) than the Toyota MR2 I sold last week.

We've been looking at the obvious Discos (shhhhh) but think that the Terrano and Maverick offer more, for less.

Anyway, I have taken the day off on Thursday to go and look at a 1997 Maverick TD GLS LWB with just 85k on the clock. The pictures look fine and it has tax and MOT for a while too. Also has side bars and an A bar. The only thing wrong is the aircon needs a re-gas (apparently). Oh, and it has really dodgy 3 spoke wheels, but I can live with those until we find some Terrano ones. It's up for under £1700.

As this is my first 4x4 is there anything major to look out for on the Maverick ?

I have read that they should stall when pulling away in 3rd... if they don't then the clutch is slipping and needs replacing which is a 7 hour job ??!

Is there anywhere I need to look for serious rust ?

Presumably the parts are all Nissan items... do you get them from Nissan, or Ford ?

Sorry for all the questions...


Kind regards,
Daniel.