Advice purchasing a 4x4 in Dubai!

[redonettii]

12 hours ago, Gaurav said:

Hi @redonettii welcome to Carnity and I hope to explain a bit about your shortlisted cars, so you can choose whatever fits the best based on my explanations.

• V6 Prado: Best combination of all the things that you expect from her, but minus the intermediate level off-roading in case you wish to do. It will be good for newbie to fewbie level, unless you trim or modify the front bumper. But it's adequately capable to reach to any decent level of off-roading (not extreme off course) in terms of power. For road it comes with comfy ride and features to check almost all the essential boxes.
   
• Y61 Patrol: Tiny bit lesser comfy for road, but super ready for off-road for any level in stock shape. And like Heisem mention super thirsty. I had older one 4.5 and on highway at 140 speed I could feel the fuel tank needle movement. Being 4.8 must be more of a fuel guzzler.
   
• Y62 Patrol: Best of all in terms of comfort and power but with limited off-road capabilities and unless you do serious bumper trimming, bash plates, lift kit etc. In stock state it's OK for newbie levels only if you drive it sensibly, the day miss the "sensibly" part front bumper will take a nasty hit. For fewbie level - I haven't seen any Y62 reaching there yet without breaking the bumpers, but recently seen 2020 Y62 model with very good clearance and they might survive better than the older shape.
   
• Land Cruiser: Same if not better than Y62 in terms of road comfort but with good off-road stance that can easily get you till fewbie drives without much headache. But again LC200 and Y62 are inherently heavy beast that require special skills to learn to offroad with such heavy cars.

If you are buying this 4x4 purely for off-roading then I would highly vote for Prado or Y61 Patrol, because no matter which type of offroading you will "eventually" like after few months (sand mostly), these two vehicles will scale to those needs perfectly.

Last but not least, if you don't have big family or big plans for visitors than SWB (short wheel base) Prado or Patrol will be more fun for off-roading in the long run. Short and nimble to go anywhere, light and powerful to scale to any off-road needs plus slightly lesser of fuel guzzler than LWB.

@Gaurav, what do you think about Land Rover Discovery Sport etc? I see some attractive offers on these cars for the new 2015+ shape,  the Land Rover Discovery Sport also has crawl and terrain response and terrain modes, it has no dedicated low range gear, but has a ultra low first gear for takeoff from difficult situations. Do you ever see these on the Carnity trips?

[Gaurav]

1 hour ago, redonettii said:

@Gaurav, what do you think about Land Rover Discovery Sport etc? I see some attractive offers on these cars for the new 2015+ shape,  the Land Rover Discovery Sport also has crawl and terrain response and terrain modes, it has no dedicated low range gear, but has a ultra low first gear for takeoff from difficult situations. Do you ever see these on the Carnity trips?

Too fancy with super low ground clearance made only for road and not off-road. Land Rover Discovery Sport can "BARELY" survive off-road till newbie level if you are super careful and cautious on every dune crossing.

@Pickey Singh has driven his Land Rover discovery, so far the maximum I guess 4 or 5 newbie drives and in the last drive he had slight frontal damage. Now he has bought FJ cruiser recently and will be resuming the off-roading from coming Friday.

[redonettii]

10 minutes ago, Gaurav said:

Too fancy with super low ground clearance made only for road and not off-road. Land Rover Discovery Sport can "BARELY" survive off-road till newbie level if you are super careful and cautious on every dune crossing.

@Pickey Singh has driven his Land Rover discovery, so far the maximum I guess 4 or 5 newbie drives and in the last drive he had slight frontal damage. Now he has bought FJ cruiser recently and will be resuming the off-roading from coming Friday.

@Gaurav, I think thats very clear, thank you. I was told by the JLR salesmen that the Discovery Sport is perfect off-road, so I guess it was more of a sales pitch then anything accurate! 

[Rahimdad]

If you're looking for a big luxurious car go for Infinity QX 56 or Lexus LX470 or GX470. Sure it will be a bit old depending on your budget, but capable off-roaders with ample of power and torque.

[redonettii]

5 hours ago, Rahimdad said:

If you're looking for a big luxurious car go for Infinity QX 56 or Lexus LX470 or GX470. Sure it will be a bit old depending on your budget, but capable off-roaders with ample of power and torque.

Thank you Rahim! I am now leaning towards Prado, Y61 Patrol - trying to find good clean examples. Are there V8 versions of the Y61 Patrol? I am not sure of the difference between the Safari and Super Safari?

[Gaurav]

Y61 has no V8 to best of my knowledge, but you might find some Y61 example in market with LS1 - Chevy small block V8 - purposely modified for higher performance and then discarded after 1 year of hard-core abuse. Stay away from those.

Safari and Super Safari has few cosmetic differences and external red stripes only. Focus on 4.8 VTEC models and not 4.5 older models, they had bad gearing for off-road use (I suffered with one for 2 years). 

[redonettii]

3 minutes ago, Gaurav said:

Y61 has no V8 to best of my knowledge, but you might find some Y61 example in market with LS1 - Chevy small block V8 - purposely modified for higher performance and then discarded after 1 year of hard-core abuse. Stay away from those.

Safari and Super Safari has few cosmetic differences and external red stripes only. Focus on 4.8 VTEC models and not 4.5 older models, they had bad gearing for off-road use (I suffered with one for 2 years). 

Thanks Gaurav. I was doing some research today about Nissans and discovered this model called the Armada, which was sold in the GCC with a 5.6L V8 and 4x4 - are you familiar with this model, would it be recommended? Prices are very reasonable, ranging from 45-60k for low mileage 2013-15 examples.

[Gaurav]

Nissan Armada is another animal, very capable for off-road but also little more than required complicated, computerized and luxurious for weekly off-roading. If you own one already then it's advisable to live with it and see how far you can take it, but buying one specially dedicated to weekly drives seems risky to me.

@desertdude any long term reviews on Armada with regular weekly off-roading?

[Sreejith Sreenivasan]

19 hours ago, Gaurav said:

Nissan Armada is another animal, very capable for off-road but also little more than required complicated, computerized and luxurious for weekly off-roading. If you own one already then it's advisable to live with it and see how far you can take it, but buying one specially dedicated to weekly drives seems risky to me.

@desertdude any long term reviews on Armada with regular weekly off-roading?

@Gaurav @desertdude, I would be interested to know more about Nissan Armada.. Looking to give some rest to my LR2 and in need of something better for future levels. Nissan Pathfinder 3.5L (Old model) is another one I'm eyeing at.. Waiting for the expert opinion..

Edited September 29, 2020 by Sreejith Sreenivasan

[Frederic]

20 minutes ago, Sreejith Sreenivasan said:

I would be interested to know more about Nissan Armada.. Looking to give some rest to my LR2 and in need of something better for future levels. Nissan Pathfinder 3.5L (Old model) is another one I'm eyeing at.. Waiting for the expert opinion..

Hi @Sreejith Sreenivasan big difference between the two. The Armada is pretty capable but very heavy and not so nimble. The older Pathfinder Series R50 are easy to fix, are smaller and more reliable as well.