Advice on buying new SUV for off-road

[Nilakantan Erode]

@Stumpy PajAwesome post indeed. Was a good read and a Fun ride (read) by itself with some hidden (or more obvious ) pearls of wisdom. And..i second @Fredericfor the award. If i end up buying the Mall crawler (!)...the Vox ticket is on me (MI - dead Reckoning is releasing soon!!). Like you said ..all have pros and cons and sooner or later ...will feel the urge to change the car / upgrade / modify...and contribute to the economy. or some lucky Carnity person may get an opportunity to try out a preowned car (at my expense)...when the next such post is released!!!

@Bravoechoyes..Can now understand the shortlist well. I am also a compulsive Excel person...though that is only confusing me. Easier to read the posts here and go for the test drives and make some dealer salesperson frustrated (or see preowned cars and wonder what is going on with the prices!)

@FredericLike your segmentation...would add more ...but that would only confuse everyone more...starting with me! Problem is the cost of moving from one segment to other with the investments involved in time and $s. Need some zen thinking and clear my mind. And for that i need to go deep into the desert and need a good Off roader (to come back).

The  off road vehicle search continues..or should say..going to start!!

[Pavel Pashkovskiy]

Still not clear what you are expecting from buying the car? Balance between overlanding and offroad? Impossible at all. You must have separate cars for it. And this is not only technical capability related, but life style too. Everytime you are changing the car, you are feeling something new. Driving everyday for every needs same car, most boring thing in the world. All what people advicing you here, absolutely not related to offroad lifestyle. Cost of petrol, garage expenses, performance are absolutely nothing in compare to what we called offroad life style. Your choice which car to choose, but remember no one car from your list will bring you closer to the nature better than Wrangler. Which other car you can drive without roof and doors? Breathing fresh air and have open 360deg view? Think in a different way. Otherwise one day you will find yourself driving Tesla and drinking non-alcohol beer...

But i agreed about FJ somehow... This car will bring you a bit of personal freedom... You will be driving alone, without any "supporters and advisors", simply because they will not fit inside...

[Nilakantan Erode]

@Pavel Pashkovskiy Getting a  bit clearer now. Want more off-road capability as my other car is a good city car. Like your point related to FJ (should also apply to couple of other dedicated 3 door off-road  vehicles i guess) on having no supporters or more importantly...no advisors!!

[Krishna R]

12 hours ago, Nilakantan Erode said:

Thanks Folks. Appreciate the feedback. Very useful. Lots to think about. Feels great to get these views and be part of the community already.

@Krishna RThis is my 2nd car. I work from home... so whereas city driving will be there this should be a good off road vehicle especially when i wont have access to my primary vehicle (often used by my wife). I like the Y62 but as stated above...have concerns on the heaviness). 

@Frederic Pajero does look like a good option. Used to own this late 90s (when i used  to live and work in Dubai in a different / simpler times) but that time i was  a light / casual off roader. Don't think Carnity existed that time. Not sure of support / spare parts for Pajero with Mitsubishi deciding to stop production. should be okay for a few years...i guess! The Wrangler is good...but is not passing the wife approval test (critical stakeholder) for city driving!. Nissan V6 VTC..is of course very popular and proven off-road but if i start using this for city  ...not that comfortable. And ..again ...not something that would pass the wife test easily. Titanium V6..seems good for city ...even my wife likes it...but therein lies the catch..as i do feel that stock car may not do for dune bashing. Tough choices!

@Benjaminyes...doing some scenarios on city / off road usage. this is the key. Wrangler is good...just have to get some critical stakeholder across the line.  

@Rizwanm2Am on the look out for good used Prado / LC. not been easy to spot. Not surprised...but search will continue.

@Gaurav Rubicon does sound attractive...but i don't want to be overambitious. maybe can start with Sport / Sahara and have off some $s.  Will think about Patrol SWB. FJ sounds interesting. No new stcok though and will need to looout for used / preowned. Don't understand the visibility issue but will check out. I do like the Prado / LC options but . need to wait for a good one. New ones are anyway 2-3 months away at least.

@Hisham MasaadWill check FJC. Prado ...need to search more...new ones not avalbl readily and need to search more thoroughly for a good used one.

At his point of time...Pajero is one option ...relatively new and lowest cost option in my set.  Wrangler Sahara is another one...off road credentials are good ignoring relatively less city comfort and resale later . Will try to understand Y62 limitations and costs to make it fully off-road capable (cant believe i am saying this about a Patrol). City / casual off-road is fine for the stock vehicle i guess... ignoring fuel efficiency! And not sure i should be locking in this much in a new vehicle.

Need to also explore used vehicle options further. But some of the above feedback and other views in the forum provides a good starting point. Am certainly better off than i was a couple of days back when i was wondering how to start my off-road vehicle buying journey.

Again...lots of things to explore. The forum has given some good points to think about. A week back...I was not sure how / where i should start in my off road vehicle hunt. Feeling much better now!

No No. Never Y62 V6. You will hate the car and it cant do anything in the desert. Maybe newbie drives.

[Krishna R]

2 hours ago, Frederic said:

@Nilakantan Erodewe also need to clarify a little bit with what we define as offroading in the UAE. We generally see two types of Offroaders here in the UAE:

1. The occasional weekend explorer

Any Newbie or Fewbie level drive has enough excitement for you, and you bring your daily ride to the game, so you don't want to get your bumpers damaged. You prefer the easy calm stuff and prefers camping and doing gentle drives with existing farm tracks. You couldn't care less if your car cannot climb Faya from the front.

2. The addicted dune basher

After having done a few Newbie or Fewbie drives, the sand addiction kicks in hard and the entire week you are looking forward to deflating your tyres and heading out to find new tracks and up your level. You research a lot and do everything to master your skills and climb higher (not just on the dune but also in your skills). You love the thrill of ridge riding, criss crossing, and high paced drives.

Congratulations you are now an addict and will justify any expenditure  to remove your inhibitions.

 

The thing is, if you know that you will be staying in category 1, get yourself a reliable 4x4 with few creature comforts, plenty of space for the kids / camping gear / others, and enjoy the hobby. The Nissan Patrol Y62 falls into that category but many options are there.

BUT most people don't know if they will become that category 2 person. In that case everything changes, and you might become very disappointed, since you have bought a category 1 car and now you need to turn it into a category 2 car which will cost you a bit and will never do what you want it to do.

For that reason, you need to find the sweet spot of understanding what you want to do and finding the right tool (4x4) to do it. After offroading for about 5yrs with older dedicated offroad toy, i purchased a Patrol Safari which i use more for overlanding/camping and less for dune bashing adventures. I absolutely love it and yes it is underpowered in stock version but gets me anywhere and i found peace with what it is. I happily take out my Trooper for the more challenging stuff where i can rev out the engine to my heart's desire.

Long story short: Buy yourself a 4x4 that can master both categories:

* Prado or FJ. FJ needs no mods, Prado needs bash plate and bumper trim.

* Jeep Wrangler. no mods needed.

* Pajero. Needs bash plate and rear skid plate.

* Xterra second hand (up to 2015 model). no mods needed

 

 

 

 @Frederic You are giving me PTSD. Its just Tuesday still  

Fred has a very good point here (Occasional Vs Addicted)

I started offroading with an infiniti QX (similar to patrol). I bought the car due to guests coming from India for vacation and then realized its a 4x4  and took it for a newbie drive. ADDICTED and pushed it till fewbie. Realized early that offroading that car in higher levels would make me a pauper, hence bought a dedicated offroading toy. I spend quite a bit on that as well which is a part of the hobby.

So, getting a car higher up the offroading capability curve (Xterra, FJ, Prado, Y61, Pajero 3.8 SWB) would see you spending less on mods and maintenance. Would also give you peace of mind as it wont be your daily.

Popular hybrid cars (on road and occasional offroad) are Y62, Land cruiser stock, Pajero LWB 3.8, Grand Cherokee, Fortuner 4.0, and any other car with 4X4 and 8-9 inches clearance. However, stay away from bringing Range rovers(except defender), cayennes, Q7s into the desert just because they are 4x4s. You will regret it. 

 

[Krishna R]

1 hour ago, Nilakantan Erode said:

@Pavel Pashkovskiy Getting a  bit clearer now. Want more off-road capability as my other car is a good city car. Like your point related to FJ (should also apply to couple of other dedicated 3 door off-road  vehicles i guess) on having no supporters or more importantly...no advisors!!

Ok. More clarity now.

Your budget needs to be considered big time here. Based on that, you can decide new cars + mods/ used cars / abused cars etc.

I know people buying a brand new FJ and dropping 100K immediately on mods and others that get one for 20K and spend 10K on mods and happy with it.

[Looper]

a couple of charts from me:

This is the chart that shows the last car used by approx. 433 members with whom I have driven since I joined the club. It's 183 drives for you. As you can see the big four are Jeep, Toyota, Nissan, and Mitsubishi. 

This one is a bit more comprehensive chart. where i have listed models. There are a total of 118 Wranglers in the mix. 

And the winner is Pajero LWB with 57 driving it currently. followed by Wrangler JL LWB (44) and FJ (41) Cruiser and Xterra (38). of these four only JL is currently available, and the rest have been phased out.

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There are 118 Wranglers in the mix.

[Pavel Pashkovskiy]

1 hour ago, Looper said:

a couple of charts from me:

This is the chart that shows the last car used by approx. 433 members with whom I have driven since I joined the club. It's 183 drives for you. As you can see the big four are Jeep, Toyota, Nissan, and Mitsubishi. 

This one is a bit more comprehensive chart. where i have listed models. There are a total of 118 Wranglers in the mix. 

And the winner is Pajero LWB with 57 driving it currently. followed by Wrangler JL LWB (44) and FJ (41) Cruiser and Xterra (38). of these four only JL is currently available, and the rest have been phased out.

---

There are 118 Wranglers in the mix.

Jeeps forever! I will buy Isuzu next time to bring statistic higher 🙃🙃🙃

[Frederic]

6 minutes ago, Pavel Pashkovskiy said:

Jeeps forever! I will buy Isuzu next time to bring statistic higher 🙃🙃🙃

Happy to see my Isuzu in the list 😜

[Nilakantan Erode]

@Krishna R Yes. I hear you! Y62 v6 dropped out of my picks! And...valid points on popular hybrid cars and getting higher on offload capability curve (nice terminology!) and sticking to a budget!! No end to mods!!

@LooperAwesome statistics. The Big4 and the long tail (poor Isuzu...barely hanging on!). Nice to see the Merc. Time to get my BMW on the chart as well (wont tell my wife!). But..Yes..Can see a clear topper in  wranglers (okay i am having my eyes on one now..so the bias ) and surprisingly (actually maybe not) ...Pajeros. lots of references made earlier on Pajero and XTerra having their proof here. Couple  of more drives and FJ will take the pole!!