Which old towcar?

[HomerS1]

We have a 4 month gap between delivery of our Abbey, MTLP 1460 kgs and change of car to new Hyundai Santa Fe. Thought we'd buy a cheap (c£2,000), old 4x4 to tide us over (hope to sell for same money so little or no cost). Short list seems to be Ford Maverick, Jeep, Disco, etc. Any advice as to the good, bad and ugly would be greatly appreciated.

 

[MikeP]

If it's only for 4 months, does it matter? If you're lucky you might find something with 10-12 months MOT. I would go for a local trusted dealer or friend/acquaintance rather than a specific model. If you're too choosy it makes it difficult to find what you want.

You could do a lot worse than picking up a very high mileage vehicle at auction or from Friday-Ad for about

 

[DavidW1]

Chris,

Two grand could buy you a reasonable 15 year old 4x4 but beware of old dogs. My experience of running such motors for the last decade or so says avoid LR's of any kind at that price and also Jeep Cherokee's. LR's are capable of running with many bits falling off but unless well maintained and even if they have been may suffer from, smoking engines, leaky transmissons and rusty chassis rails but will also breakdown relentlessly from electrical malladies of every description, cracked blocks, gearbox malfunctions, sagging self levelers, air system failures and blown cylinder head gaskets to name just a few.

 

[DavidW1]

sorry pressed the wron button!!

Jeeps are not much better - they suffer from two killer problems, back axle failure on all versions and cracked manifolds on the 4 litre version.

Shop carefully and buy Japanese is my advice - I have lots of faith in old Shoguns, Isuzus and Terranos having run all three types. Early ninties examples can be had for this kind of money with lots of life left in them if you shop around - don't be model specific or put off by high milers, these things will go to the moon and back if they are looked after. Indeed if you get a goodun it may well outlast your new Santa Fe!

 

[Angus1]

I would definately have a peek at a decent auction.

Our local one has a Tuesday night one that has mostly stuff direct from a dealer (Dixons, Hartwell Ford sort of stuff) much of it with service history, V5 present, even warranted mileage.

There is usually some very reasonable machinery going through at 1 to 1.5k.

Buy wisely, keep for 6 months and you could sell it for what you paid. There really are some nice cars going at daft money, mostly being bought by the trade. As a lot of the stock is off the showroom floor that hasn`t shifted, it is fully valeted.

You can also download a catalogue of whats going through so you aren`t wasting time, but its worth the trip to see how it`s done first.