buying a used 4x4, advice please!

[(RIP) PLANK]

Ok, here goes.

looking to replace one of our cars with a budget of £8-12 ish k cash.

want something with a reasonable towing capacity, reasonable fuel consumption and not too high mileage or old.

It will be for 'soft road' purposes

Don't mind looking outside the Nissan box, have seen a couple of nice Grand vitaras

what would you buy?

[Lazy-Ferret]

Originally Posted by PLANK

Ok, here goes.

looking to replace one of our cars with a budget of £8-12 ish k cash.

want something with a reasonable towing capacity, reasonable fuel consumption and not too high mileage or old.

It will be for 'soft road' purposes

Don't mind looking outside the Nissan box, have seen a couple of nice Grand vitaras

what would you buy?

Personally, we were looking for the same thing a few weeks back, just on a lower budget. I have had 2 Suzuki Vitaras in the past, one 1.6 16V LWB, and one 2.0TD Grand Vitara.

The 1600 was a great tow car, and between towing, Business and off roading, I did 240K miles in it, in 3.5 years. Loved it to pieces, and the only time it gave me any grief was ironically on a non-damaging soft road day arranged by Suzuki, where unknown to me until it was too late, the radiator got clogged wading through a muddy pond.

The Grand was also a company car, and was OK, but not as good as the older one. Pain to tow with, as it was badly underpowered until the turbo kicked in as 2000PRM, and would catch you out when trying to make a get away at a junction. Not only that, but Mine had to go when at only 60K, the cylinder head cracked, and the Suzuki mechanic told me that they were prone to it.

When we came to getting the Nissan, it was a big jump to make, but once we drove one, and found how much room they had, along with how nice it was to drive, there was no competition. Having towed our Caravan, which is heavier than the one I had with the Vitara, and felt how nicely the Terrano tows, I could not chose the Vitara over it now.

[(RIP) PLANK]

i have looked at a 2010 gv with 5k miles and a whopping 169 bhp! I have owned a lot of the older shaped ones, but never a TD i have we had a 53 plate 2.0 16v foryears and it towed very well. So undecided still

[Thomas-the-Terrano2]

what sort of gross trailer weight plank?

how many seats needed 5/7?

[(RIP) PLANK]

five seats will do and a decent caravan train weight say 1800k ish, not over worried about 85% "rule".

[iain.s]

Have A look at this at your trailer weight I would rule out an xtrail any going over 1400 seem to have problems , http://www.caravantrekker.nl/whattow...&serie=X-Trail

[ade01]

if you go for the vitra it has two disel engines to choose from a 90bhp or the 110bhp get the 110bhp my mum has this one and has never had a days bother with it now on 193.000 and still going strong also get the older shape not the new shape as the older ones are better

[(RIP) PLANK]

Originally Posted by ade01

if you go for the vitra it has two disel engines to choose from a 90bhp or the 110bhp get the 110bhp my mum has this one and has never had a days bother with it now on 193.000 and still going strong also get the older shape not the new shape as the older ones are better

trouble is the old ones are all a bit too old now, it is to replace a 2009 car and needs to be at least a little bit newer. do like suzuki though so may go down that route :-)

[ade01]

you can get the older shae up to 2006 i think maybe newer

[(RIP) PLANK]

Originally Posted by iain.s

Have A look at this at your trailer weight I would rule out an xtrail any going over 1400 seem to have problems , http://www.caravantrekker.nl/whattow...&serie=X-Trail

interesting read, not planning on doing and heay towing with whatever i buy, i have the T2 for that. but worth bearing in mind