Jump to content
  •  
Advertise here

Help me decide what car 4X4 to buy please


Shiroy Tarapor

Recommended Posts

Hi guys. 

I'm new to off roading and need some advice for you'll. I want to buy a 4X4 for some casual offroading especially in the desert. Definitely want to drive in the dunes on soft sand and want to have a vehicle that has good safety and has good technology to come out of being stuck. Safety is important as I'll be going with the family.

My choices are as per follows: 

1. Toyota Land Cruiser - 4L, V6

2. Toyota Land Cruiser - 4.6L, V8

3. Toyota Land Cruiser - 5.7L, V8

4. Nissan Patrol LE - 5.6L, V8

5. Nissan Safari/ super safari - 4.8L V6

ALL OF THE ABOVE ARE 2020 models may be even 2021 model. 

Please give me your professional advice. Will a V6 be enough or do I need a V8. I have also heard the toyotas come with crawl mode. What does Nissan have thats similar to that? 

Look forward to hearing back from you'll.

Cheers Roy

  • Like (+1) 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Roy, welcome to Carnity and it seems you have made some very good research in finding clear winner. Also your specific need is super clear to guide you in the right direction, so that you can enjoy the UAE desert with safety and confidence.

I would rate your choices as per below order:

  1. Toyota Land Cruiser - 5.7L, V8 (Powerful, comfy and super reliable)
  2. Toyota Land Cruiser - 4.6L, V8 (Reasonably powerful, comfy and super reliable)

Other choices that I am not favoring with the reasons below:

  1. Toyota Land Cruiser - 4L, V6 (Slight underpower for sand considering the weight)
  2. Nissan Safari/ super safari - 4.8L V6 (Not as comfy as above LC or Y62 for family, but very capable).
  3. Nissan Patrol LE - 5.6L, V8 (Older shape till 2019 has some bumpers and electronic failing issue in sand when you needed the most like diff-lock, LO gear etc. @Lorenzo Candelpergher can comment more if he recommends 2020 shape as he drives one).

 

@Probir Mukherjee @bassel el rafei @Nithin Vaidir can you share your experience with LC so far with regular desert drives?

  • Like (+1) 4
  • Totally Agree (+2) 1

Let's root for each other & watch each other grow.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you are going to use this vehicle mainly for off roading don't look any further than Patrol Super Safari. I guess i would go for Super Safari even for the daily drive. Get a nice plate number with it and put nice tint to the windows and enjoy being the King on the road. But this is me being me, Gaurav is right for the comfort level. 

  • Like (+1) 1
  • Haha (+1) 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

39 minutes ago, Shiroy Tarapor said:

has good technology to come out of being stuc

Cars you have shortlisted are good but remember once you start offroading regularly , family - unless your wife is off roading too will hate the sand you will carry back every week .Another issue being car heaviness if you want to do faster or extreme stuff once you progress in off roading. 

Nissans dont have crawl control modes , but you can do it manually. 

  • Like (+1) 1
  • Totally Agree (+2) 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Gaurav said:

Nissan Patrol LE - 5.6L, V8 (Older shape till 2019 has some bumpers and electronic failing issue in sand when you needed the most like diff-lock, LO gear etc. @Lorenzo Candelpergher can comment more if he recommends 2020 shape as he drives one).

I have a Nissan Patrol 2020 V8 5.6L. First and only SUV I drove in the desert. I learned off-roading with her from scratch, so no terms of comparison.

Nissan Patrol is a very heavy car to handle, and is certainly not the most agile one on the sand. The most frequent and nasty stucks are on flat areas, where the car sits on her belly and, being very heavy, is hard to move, especially when the spare wheel gets to tuch the sand (i.e. when you dig in with your rear wheels). As it is a long wheel base, it also requires a bit of learning in order not to get crested. In my early times I had a lot of issues with fishtailing as well, as the back is quite heavy. Having said all this, once you learn how to handle it, you can have great fun and the car definitely is a very very capable one. 

Further comments on the V8 5.6L 2020 version:

1. Engine is great, very generous with 400HP and 560 Nm torque. Probably more power than needed in 95% of off-road driving conditions, to be honest. But, boy, when you floor the throttle, she sky rockets (or she digs herself down to hell, if you exaggerate!!).

2. For proper off-roading the front bumper needs to be:
a) the stock "off-road" and not the "city" version
b) protected with a proper, very solid and well designed skid plate
c) cut when you reach a level where you attack slip-faces, with the bottom protected with a steel rod
or replaced entirely with an off-roading bumper (which is crazy expensive if you want it light in aluminum or crazy heavy if you want it cheap in steel).

3. The back bumper is OK, but needs protection with a light skid plate to avoid having it ripped apart by scooping the sand when the dune entry/exit exceeds the departure angle.

4. Rear mudguards need to be removed or they will suicide soon by breaking just below the bumper connection, but with that they will very likely rip apart your bumper from the side, which is quite a painful experience.

5. You will also need 18" rims with all terrain high profile tires (I have the Kumho 275/75R18 AT51) and as you learn how to handle the beast you can deflate them down as low as to 10.5psi (but usually 12psi is enough). The learning curve, however, implies a good deal of pop-outs before you get there with confidence.. The good part of this is that you will master pop-out recoveries like no-one else..

6. Don't trust the stock hooks in the trunk to hold down your off-roading gear. They will be soon gone and Nissan seems to have a thing against replenishing their stocks. Best solution is to order a good number of spare ones, so you can replace them by yourself when they will inevitably fail. 

6. About electronics... After approx 65 drives I had an issue with the electric motor starter which had to be overhauled because of some sand infiltrations which made it fail. Approx at the same time I also had to replace the crankshaft position sensor, which turned out to have a manufacturing defect. In both cases repairs were done under warranty. I also had issues with the steering wheel button to engage the cruise control, as it was stuck due to some sand having gone deep inside. I had the steering wheel disassembled, air-blown and reassembled and learned to keep the windows up when I do side slopes or attempt self recoveries to avoid sand showering the whole car inside.. 

7. The rear diff lock takes a bit to engage/disengage. In one occasion, which @Gaurav probably remembers, I was royally stuck during an Advisors' drive, and was unable to get it to work. Other than in that occasion, it always did what it was supposed to do. 

8. No crawling mode on Nissan Patrol. But that will give you the pleasure to listen to @Gaurav teaching you the famous (or infamous.. it depends) "blip-blip" technique, which actually got me out of trouble numerous times and ultimately works with any non-Toyota cars..

Overall, I think the car is great on the sand if you are geared for riding a big whale on desert waves.
 

Edited by Lorenzo Candelpergher
  • Like (+1) 5
  • Thanks (+1) 1
  • WOW (+2) 2
  • Totally Agree (+2) 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am in no way as credible as the folks above - however if you have the option, do consider a plan B - purchase 2 cars?  One comfy family cruiser that can take you to a beach or gentle camping spots (casual drives as you mention) and then a smaller more agile desert toy.  The price range between a V6 LC and V8 5.7 is near 80K AED (that could get you a very capable offroad car and one that would not leave you driving with hesitation). 

I owned a single LR4 from new and never took it to the desert even though i always wanted to commit to the hobby - it was our sole car and i always had to ensure it was ready for a school drop etc.. recently i picked up a FJ Cruiser (in no way endorsing that as its hardly a family car ,,, thought the family do love it) - knowing i have it as the desert toy (hobby) i drive with a sense of freedom/ease/comfort. 

just my 2 cents worth - feel free to ignore :) and look forward to welcoming you to the community on an actual ride. 

Good luck and there are a LOT of wise, experienced and trust worthy folks here giving advice that you may struggle to get elsewhere (independent and unbiased) .. 

Edited by Niki Patel
  • Like (+1) 4
  • Totally Agree (+2) 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, Niki Patel said:

I am in no way as credible as the folks above - however if you have the option, do consider a plan B - purchase 2 cars?  One comfy family cruiser that can take you to a beach or gentle camping spots (casual drives as you mention) and then a smaller more agile desert toy.  The price range between a V6 LC and V8 5.7 is near 80K AED (that could get you a very capable offroad car and one that would not leave you driving with hesitation). 

I owned a single LR4 from new and never took it to the desert even though i always wanted to commit to the hobby - it was our sole car and i always had to ensure it was ready for a school drop etc.. recently i picked up a FJ Cruiser (in no way endorsing that as its hardly a family car ,,, thought the family do love it) - knowing i have it as the desert toy (hobby) i drive with a sense of freedom/ease/comfort. 

just my 2 cents worth - feel free to ignore :) and look forward to welcoming you to the community on an actual ride. 

Good luck and there are a LOT of wise, experienced and trust worthy folks here giving advice that you may struggle to get elsewhere (independent and unbiased) .. 

Actually this is the best advice. It is definitely not advisable to bring your brand new expensive SUV to the desert where it will get damage sooner or later. Always having the comfy car for the family and getting your own off road toy is the best choice. 

  • Like (+1) 5
  • Thanks (+1) 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, Niki Patel said:

I am in no way as credible as the folks above - however if you have the option, do consider a plan B - purchase 2 cars?  One comfy family cruiser that can take you to a beach or gentle camping spots (casual drives as you mention) and then a smaller more agile desert toy.  The price range between a V6 LC and V8 5.7 is near 80K AED (that could get you a very capable offroad car and one that would not leave you driving with hesitation). 

I owned a single LR4 from new and never took it to the desert even though i always wanted to commit to the hobby - it was our sole car and i always had to ensure it was ready for a school drop etc.. recently i picked up a FJ Cruiser (in no way endorsing that as its hardly a family car ,,, thought the family do love it) - knowing i have it as the desert toy (hobby) i drive with a sense of freedom/ease/comfort. 

just my 2 cents worth - feel free to ignore :) and look forward to welcoming you to the community on an actual ride. 

Good luck and there are a LOT of wise, experienced and trust worthy folks here giving advice that you may struggle to get elsewhere (independent and unbiased) .. 

I totally echo this approach. It is relatively headache free to keep the family/school run car separate from the hobby/fun car. I adopt the same approach and there is so much more flexibility. I may not even clean out the sand if I know I will go again the following week.

  • Like (+1) 2
  • Haha (+1) 2
  • Totally Agree (+2) 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok. So I must mention I already have a daily ride so this is just my offroading car but will definitely go with the family as they are keen too. For how long they are keen is uncertain. That said after reviewing my options it looks like if I was to spend less than 200K my only option is the Nissan Safari/Super safari. Is this a good car to buy? How sturdy is it? What about parts and maintenance? How easy is it to drive on sand with? Will it get stuck or will it come out easily? Is the 4800cc engine powerful enough considering its a V6?

  • Like (+1) 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Shiroy Tarapor said:

Ok. So I must mention I already have a daily ride so this is just my offroading car but will definitely go with the family as they are keen too. For how long they are keen is uncertain. That said after reviewing my options it looks like if I was to spend less than 200K my only option is the Nissan Safari/Super safari. Is this a good car to buy? How sturdy is it? What about parts and maintenance? How easy is it to drive on sand with? Will it get stuck or will it come out easily? Is the 4800cc engine powerful enough considering its a V6?

The Nissan Super Safari is an amazing offroad vehicle, @Mario Cornejo has one and can probably tell you all the ins and outs about it.

Any 4x4 will need practice to drive on sand, this is entirely up to driver skills. Getting stuck / coming out easily same thing.

The 4800cc is plenty powerful for offroading (i drive a Pajero 3.0 V6 from 1999 🤣)

  • Like (+1) 1
  • Haha (+1) 1
  • Totally Agree (+2) 1

"Go as far as you can see; once you get there, you'll be able to see further."

Link to comment
Share on other sites


×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of use