4x4 or Estate? Advice please

WelshD

WelshD

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I am soon to be made redundant, I have a company car that is fully funded including fuel so will come down to earth with a bump pretty quickly!

I have fields and stables and find winter very hard going with having to get feed, bales of shavings and sometimes water to my various animals and birds. I live in a rural area that was cut off a few times during the snow and ice too so am toying with the idea of getting a 4x4 as it seems a more practical option for my lifestyle

My thoughts are all over the place though and this is where I hope people can help, my budget for a car is just £2000, I've seen a couple of real old Landrover pickups with the Ifor Williams cover which seem good my reasoning being they may be cheap to maintain if not to run, I've seem cheap Discos and Shoguns but am less sure of these as they seem less straightforward mechanically

The other option is an estate car or car type van which would be cheaper on fuel though less good in the ice, snow and mud!

I can set aside money from my redundnacy for emergency repairs etc..

I only need two seats really - one for me and one for the dog!

If anyone has any advice on pros and cons on fuel, insurance, repairs etc I'd appreciate it

Obviously I can get official fuel economy figures but nothing beats real life experiences

Thanks for reading :-)
 
What about something like an Izuzu trooper or Denman?
You kind of cross the 4x4 with a car...plenty of room for bales of hay/straw/water ....diesel too;)
 
I think you need to base it on how many miles a week you do as a bigger 4x4 disco etc will be around 25mpg on short runs and not much more on a run do you need to tow?? if not a toyota rav 4 , suzuki vitara or a renault kangoo fiat panda would do perhaps.. then there is the subaru forerster and other 4x4 estates all the older stuff is around
£200 tax and insurance would depend on ncd and age etc I would avoid landrovers unless you have a mecanic in the family....
 
AH, you're where I was some years ago. I bought a diesel Skoda OCtavia estate and a cheap 750Kg open trailer. Skoda could be picked up for under 2K, costs 115 pounds for road tax, I can insure for 194 and returns 53mpg doing the drives we do. I paid basic servicing and running costs on the car which are pretty low. I did get it badly stuck twice over the years, once in 8inches of mud on our track in just reezing temps with 3 tonnes of muck in the trailer (naughty). It has had sheep and pigs in the back, and has a large boot space for feed and bales. It was ultra reliable, never let us down until my daughter wrote it off last week and even then it performed well in protecting her when she was hit at 60mph+. It had done 160K and we expected it would go another 100K. Certainly the fleet my vet practice runs manage in all weather and do a quarter of a million miles.

However, two years ago we decided that as we had a little more money (and we'd invested in a cattle trailer and a 250 gallon water bowser) we'd try a 110 Defender. That cost me twice as much as the Skoda to buy, IIRC road tax is 195 and it costs me over twice as much to insure. I don't even want to think what the fuel consumption is. It was checked by a Landy specialist who described it as very good condition, body, running gear and engine-wise and a bargain for what I had bought. Year one we had no issues. Since then it's had a new head, following that it cracked the block and has had to have a replacement engine. It dumped me by the side of the road with a big trailer on for 4 hours in minus 8. You don't want to know what it has cost me in repairs. They're fine if you can fix them yourself but they DO go wrong and even then the parts can be expensive.

Until you know what you can't manage with a cheap to run estate I'd be inclined to buy one and find out which bits of your life it really can't manage. If you play safe, buy one like mine before my DD wrote the damned thing off with few owners, high mileage, full service history and those little giveaways that a car has been kept by someone concerned for vehicle safety like expensive tyres not rubbish then you are unlikely to lose money if you need to change it.
 
If you are fairly mechanicaly minded Go for a Land Rover Defender if not see if you can find Daihatsu Fieldman absolutly bulletproof or a pre 1990 Hi-Lux also Bulletproof.
 
Thank you all for taking the trouble to reply :-)

I drive a fair amount of miles as I show my poultry and many of the shows are in Yorkshire so much as my heart really wants a 'proper' 4x4 I dont think I could afford to run one now I have done some sums

I've seen a few rugged chunky looking Renault Scenics which at 1.9l are a little less hard on the fuel so many be an option and will do a search for the other cars mentioned

I'd like to be able to tow a livestock trailer but as long as there is room in the back of the car for a pig or sheep I should be ok if it cant tow (I'd get the back properly boxed out to carry an animal)

Thanks again and if anyone has anything to add that would be great
 
Echo the above really, the 4x4s are quite a lot heavier on fuel than a similar estate and the repairs are higher too.
If your after an estate though, the Renault lagoona 1.9 is fab. The boot is huge and also pulls around 55-60mpg. U can pick a decent one up in ur price range. If you get an older one, (not sure of the year) think the tax ranges and some are only £60ish for 6months which is good seeing as my 206 1.4 is 85 for 6months!!
 
What about a small van?
4X4s are very much a British thing. I live in rural France, the farmers here don't use 4X4s. They all get around and across fields in small vans. I have a Discovery (actually two) and can count on one hand how may times I've had to use the dif-lock; 99 time out of a 100 you don't need 4X4. If you don't know how to pick a spanner up a 4X4 is a liability and will cost a fortune to keep on top of. The 300tdi and Td5 Land Rover engines are high maintenance money pits. Especially on your 2k budget. One of the most popular small vans here is the Citroen C15 diesel.

A small van would be perfect for throwing all sorts in the back from bales to poultry cages and be cheap to buy and run.
 
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