Ping Steve Firth. Ford Explorer info.

I had a 4x4 one on hire in '08 which was surprisingly capable[1] when it came to doing what a 4x4 needs to do - other than that though it was all- round average; not bad but not particularly good, either.

cheers

Jules

I think that only happened in a crash, Exploders do it while driving along on your own.

Are you going to post much more, only I need to decide if it's worth killfiling you?

He wants a petrol (will be LPG'd) 4x4 to replace a diesel 110.

He had one of these in a previous life. A Grand Cherokee is also being considered.

So you have a collection of Fords, presumably?

Or maybe an easy excuse for avoiding the harpy at home?!

He had a Cherokee a while ago, and (given the right tyres) it was great off-road. But yeah, as you say, not so great on.

no they don't. And there's no connection between a pickup truck fuel tank catching fire and a cruise control failure on a different vehicle. You're talking crap, again.

Which is one of the reasons I hang on to mine. I cross the Alps, Jura and Vosges mountains in Winter and relatively often. The Ford trundles on and I've passed stranded Range Rivers, crashed out snow ploughs and even taken detours through fields to avoid blocked sections of road. The Ford handles the lot without drama.

Thanks for the feedback, Steve.

Don't suppose you know much about this gearbox, do you? He used to have an F250 which had a similar problem - wonder if it is the same unit?

Definately a high ground clearance 4x4 rather than say a 4x4 Audi Avant... was there an Audi A6 Quattro Avant?

Is the Grand a V8? A V8 other than recent German tends to be thirsty, even on LPG.

All vehicles rust - inside to outside. Beware the illusion of it looking ok. When you can see 1" of rust on the outside whatever is rusting will be about 36x2" or 6x6" and no I am not kidding. German, Japan, USA, anyone. Mercedes suffered endemic rot, one Mark (V?) of the Golf is near perforating in under 4yrs, so beware assumptions and it will cripple resale if buying high.

There are a range of options here...

- Subaru Forrester, I think that is the right name, is a well regarded

- Audi Avant Quattro is big enough for anything, A6, the later big- tank etc

- Nissan Quashedit

- BMW X3 X4? X5

- Kia Sportage is a proper 4x4

Cherokee is unique amongst 4x4 re more car than truck. Most 4x4 ride on the easier truck crash / fuel economy / reliability data than direct competitors in the USA market.

Is the person going proper 4x4 off-road or wet weather car tyres for wet tarmac use? If it is just 4x4 for a district nurse then 1) snow tyres will run rings around a plain 4x4 and 2) car 4x4 will do fine.

Audi Quattro do fine all over snow bound Europe in miserable conditions with real snow tyres, but realise a good non-main-dealer mechanic is important (as in =A345/hr labour rather than =A3100/hr+ labour which is just silly for a thick laptop & TSB reading & parts changing monkey which sadly most are).

I once had one for a while in the aussie outback - but that was ten years ago now and I don't know if they've been through a billion iterations since then! It really was excellent, though. Handled the serious stuff quite capably, yet still sure-footed even at 70 or 80 on the dirt roads.

cheers

Jules

Dunno, but he's looking for cheap & easy to fix with a hammer.

Yup.

Hmm, maybe, but might not have the junk-capacity needed.

Too small, really, not to mention probably a bit pricey.

I've had experience of those, the first gen, I think. Not really what was in mind.

It'll be used off-road on the hills where wild haggis roam, and also need to be able to cope with the snow. He has chains though, so no great shakes.

Yes, same unit on the Explorer, F150 and F250 also used on some Rangers ( not UK spec ones) and at least one Mazda pickup truck.

On the good side you can run to very high miles without fixing it and it was fixed on the later Explorers (1999 onwards).

David Paste wrote: [snip]

No need for chains, just put mud and snow tyres on.

You asked about LandCruisers I would have one of those in preference to an Explorer, however the cost will be amusing. A good Explorer with 80 k miles will cost around £2k, a VX Amazon LandCruiser will cost about £10k for same age/mileage. There are cheaper LandCruisers but they are much smaller than the Explorer or the Amazon.

Subaru Forrester is expensive maintenance and has to be done by Subaru is my understanding.

No, the Forrester has poor fuel economy and is only available with a flat-4 petrol motor (some turbocharged, but not powerful) in the older versions. There is a flat-4 diesel motor available in later versions, but it's s**te and rough as a bag of spanners.

This is true. I want another off-roady type thing, simply because I can. I don't actually need one, but I want one. Had a look around and found Landcruisers are silly money. Mid 90s diesels are going for =A34000 with 160,000 or more miles on them. Exploders of the same vintage are less than a grand, Cherokheaps the same. I quite like the Grand Cherokee as you know. They are s**te, but still, I like them. Don't really know why.

There are plenty of non-dealer specialists around that are helpful and friendly. Most jobs can be done by any garage anyway, there's only the engine and 'box jobs that might befuddle them.