Small 4x4 recommendations

jack77

Does anyone on here have a small 4x4, something with 5 seats and a smaller engine 2.2 or below, bit of power to pull a trailer but not very heavy mpg, could ye make any recommendations or ye're experiences , would be doing some general farm work with it pulling trailers, cow box etc. but go to work as well so need a reasonable mpg, commercial not an option unfortunately, smallish money 5/6k max id say

JohnBoy

I bought a 2.2 rav4 before christmas and I'm relatively happy with it so far, havent pulled much more than a tonne with it yet, but it pulled that much with ease and is rated to pull 2 tonnes.

Have had it in some wet ground a few weeks ago and it managed to come back out of it under it's own steam.

Only done around 4000 miles so far, averaging mid-high thirties MPG, boot is capable of swallowing a fair amount of stuff and the rear seats can slide forward/back a bit helping even more.

only issues thus far have been that tyres are expensive, and being an odd size there's very little choice in any sort of all terrain tyres for the standard wheel size. Also the wheels are probably a bit wide for it's weight offroad. if I could go back again I'd source some 16 inch steels and run a narrower tyre.

That and the dims are pretty poor. you get used to em, and they're not dangerously bad, but the disco it replaced had awesome dims.

darrencan1

I have a little pajero junior 1.1l enough power to pull a trailer not to big but handy little run around

Cran

I run a jeep and cheap car run around, find it impossible to keep the jeep clean and car is so handy rather than trying to take stuff out when going somewhere. Slight be extra cost but you d be surprised how having the car reduces maintainence cost on the jeep etc. Must say herself has the main car though, which all heavy driving is done in... its an option to think about

As for small Jeep old man has a freelander, he down scaled couple of years ago from a Disco. Have to say lovely to drive, decent in the field (on off road tyres) and pretty decent with trailer anytime I've used it with 20 lambs or so.....

dave747

Have a five seater 2l turbo grand vitara here. no problem pulling trailer with couple of cattle or full of sheep and does be in the field aswell, got 2 half road/off road tyres on the back and never got stuck anywhere yet anyway. find it light enough on fuel and has given me very little so far

RoscommonTom

The pajerio is decent,would a pick up suit either like a Nissan, I dont think a rav 4 would be good at pulling loads

jack77

no wouldn't bother with a pickup, it'd break me going to work ever day and i'd need booth space too, any ideas of mpg ye're getting on the suzuki and the freelander, was thinking x trail anyone use them? any reliability issues so far, i take it there all rated to pull trailers so i can do the trailer test with anyone of them.

yellow50HX

Was driving an x trail for a bit, was grand to drive and nice and solid on the road, good to pull ok sized loads and nice and stable. However despite a 6 speed box it was very heavy in juice was only able to get about 30 mpg, reckoned there was something not quite right, also had a few problems with the fly-by-wire trottle. Was using a friends Santa Fe a few times, fine on the road and was good to throw stuff in the back but didn't like towing, wasn't much better then the focus pulling wise.

Would think about the rav4 if I got hold of one, haven't tried the Mazda or Honda ones. Don't know much about the freelancers they are supposed to be good off road but heard mixed reports on them

epfff

jack77 wrote: »

no wouldn't bother with a pickup, it'd break me going to work ever day and i'd need booth space too, any ideas of mpg ye're getting on the suzuki and the freelander, was thinking x trail anyone use them? any reliability issues so far, i take it there all rated to pull trailers so i can do the trailer test with anyone of them.

I Had xtrail
lovely drive
Very economical
Great pulling power
Not great Off road
put two fly wheels and cluches in it in 5 yrs and 200k km
costing a small farm each
Have Kia Sorrento now little harder on juice not as nice of drive better off road simular pulling power but still going after 130k km

P_Cash

2.2ltr Xtrail

nice machine so far, will be pulling an 8x5
its a 5 seater,

only negative thanks to government. . . 950 tax

directors at work with 2013 4*4s paying around 100-200

sickening

yellow50HX

Seen a few outlanders, what are they like? Come from a good stable.

Markcheese

What would a Subaru forester be like ??

I suppose with most 4x4s it's the tires that'll be the difference good off road/sh1te on and vice versa...

just do it

Skoda octavia scout. Popular in north England so a friend of mine tells me.

nhg

We have an 07 Rav 4 - 2.2 d4d sol with 160K on the clock since new, well able to pull a trailer, we will buy another one when changing, hard enough on tyres, we put yokahamas on it as that was what was on it when we bought it new.

Muckit

nhg wrote: »

We have an 07 Rav 4 - 2.2 d4d sol with 160K on the clock since new, well able to pull a trailer, we will buy another one when changing, hard enough on tyres, we put yokahamas on it as that was what was on it when we bought it new.

When you say hard on tyres, is she wearing them unevenly or quickly?

bikes

I have a Suzuki Grand vitara xl7 , they have a 2.0 Peugeot hdi engine,which are a good engine. I pull a 12 ft cattle trailer with it and its good off road with selectable 4x4 and low box. Mine is 06 which I paid 3.5k for. The newer model have a Renault engine and aren't great.

JohnBoy

RoscommonTom wrote: »

The pajerio is decent,would a pick up suit either like a Nissan, I dont think a rav 4 would be good at pulling loads

Depends which one you get, the 06 on is rated to pull 2 tonnes and I'd well believe it able from what I've seen so far of it. The previous model was only rated to pull 1500.


Generally in soft roaders you need to be buying the 2006ish on generations of most of em, towing capacities generally took a jump at that time or in the case of landrover and nissan quality took a major jump upwards.

Some towing capacities off the top of my head from my recent research.....

rav4 2.0 1500
rav4 2.2 2000
vitara 2.0 1850
vitara 1.9 1500
santa fe 2.0 1870
santa fe 2.2 2200
freelander 2.0 or 2.2 2000
outlander, peugeot 4007, citroen c-crosser (all the one car) 2.0 or 2.2 2000
xtrail 2.0 or 2.2 2000


at 5-6k you're pretty tight on budget, generally you're limited to the lesser options on that list. if you could stretch to 7 it opens up much more options.

I went with the rav4 on the basis that I could buy a clean, relatively low mileage one for the same money as a high mileage outlander, santa fe 2 or freelander 2.

My next one will probably be a freelander 2, just cos they're lovely

nhg

Muckit wrote: »

When you say hard on tyres, is she wearing them unevenly or quickly?

Quickly, we always get it tracked and balanced when getting new tyres and we also cross them (right front to left back etc). We put bridgestone on it about 2/3 yrs ago and only got 16000 KM out of them (we weren't even farming then) but it was the year that we had the bad frost and snow! Went back to Yokahama's again, put a set of them on end of last march, 25391 KM on them since - back very bad, did cross them, front ok but must check depth

bbam

Have an 06 2.2 Xtrail here..
Bought it two years ago, have done 140K km's since. Good to pull a load up to 2000kg and then its at its best, could do with a low range box.

Not pulling about 38mpg, pulling about 30mpg

Nothing done except regular servicing...

Tax is a killer but its a nice daily drive.

yellow50HX

bbam wrote: »

Have an 06 2.2 Xtrail here..
Bought it two years ago, have done 140K km's since. Good to pull a load up to 2000kg and then its at its best, could do with a low range box.

Not pulling about 38mpg, pulling about 30mpg

Nothing done except regular servicing...

Tax is a killer but its a nice daily drive.

If the one I had would do that mpg I'd have kept it. It was 04 so maybe the older engine was iffy. Really liked driving it and was good in through the gaps. What did you think of the plastic wings?

monseiur

jack77 wrote: »

Does anyone on here have a small 4x4, something with 5 seats and a smaller engine 2.2 or below, bit of power to pull a trailer but not very heavy mpg, could ye make any recommendations or ye're experiences , would be doing some general farm work with it pulling trailers, cow box etc. but go to work as well so need a reasonable mpg, commercial not an option unfortunately, smallish money 5/6k max id say

Just be very careful when buying second hand. I was in the same position as you - came across a Mitsubishi Pajero 2.5 for sale by a dealer/garage in Dublin. It was 2001, with 87,000 miles and in good condition for age etc.
As the mileage looked suspiciously low I had it checked out by Motorcheck.ie, their report showed that on 8/10/2010 the actual mileage was 116,000 miles ! ! in other words the vehicle was clocked. The correct mileage now should be over 175,000
It cost me €35 to find that it was clocked :eek: but I guess worth it
So the message is buyer beware

M.

bbam

yellow50HX wrote: »

If the one I had would do that mpg I'd have kept it. It was 04 so maybe the older engine was iffy. Really liked driving it and was good in through the gaps. What did you think of the plastic wings?

I don't have a problem with them.
It does the job well. I'm inclined to think of another one in the future. The new models are good looking yokes.

Pm1e

darrencan1 wrote: »

I have a little pajero junior 1.1l enough power to pull a trailer not to big but handy little run around

You dont fancy selling her do you?

djmc

Brought a 06 KIA sportage a few weeks ago nice family car haven't towed anything yet but there is good pep in it 136bhp and full leather seats not bad on diesel either
The Hyundai Tuscan are same jeep with a different body and are a bit cheaper
2.0 diesel and 710 to tax