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.
