Looking forward to fulfilling my dream and need some buying advice.

Posted by Mysterious_Cook8785@reddit | overlanding | View on Reddit | 9 comments

Hey there,

I am about to fulfill my dream and buy my first and hopefully last overland vehicle. And now i cant decide / need help, advice choosing the right vehicle. I am planning on doing long and intense overland adventures as a two person crew. Including crossing the sahara desert and going through whole russia in winter. So i need a pretty reliable and fitting vehicle. Beforehand i am easily capable of doing all kind of repairs but wish to do very few after i completly overhaul my car. After all i am a master car technican who doesnt work in this field anymore. What are my preferences :i am looking for a very capable off road vehicle nothing too big (no unimog etc.), diesel engine ( prefered inline 4 or 5 for good fuel eco), manual transmission, awd/4x4, nothing to new due to electronics and other stuff. Furthermore i would. Probably prefere to sleep inside the car and no rooftent bc of the height of much weight. The Cars i am thinking about are a defender 110 with the td4 engine, nissan patrol y61, land cruiser, cherokee xj and a land rover discovery. But i am unsure on all off those either bc of space or mainly reliablity. I have many friends who worked on multiple of those car and i literally only heard negative stuff. To be fair tho, These car are quite rare to work on where i life (central europe). So i am thankful for every top, advice or buy recommendation. Thanks

Overview for the car:

Reliable, Diesel, manual, year 1986-2008, pref. <30.000€ just for the base car

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ze-phoenix@reddit

I think others have summed up pretty well here. My personal top 3 would be

Defender 110 with the 300Tdi motor. Very reliable and mechanical. Still capable of good highway speeds. The motor is pretty frugal too. The down side of it is that there is no crash worthiness. The body being alu and with thin A pillars is not super safe in a crash or roll over.
Mercedes G Wagon with the OM606 engine or the 461 model with the 280 CDI professional. The G is truly a stout off roader. It can take punishment better than a Defender or a Troopy. However if it breaks it'll be expensive (unless you can turn a wrench). Mercedes' parts network is second only to Toyota and you can get parts all over the world. It's super capable off-road and as a touring rig. It's smaller than the Defender or Troopy inside. So you'll need to be smart with space or put a pop top. I have a 1997 463 and it's truly an amazing rig
Toyota LC Troopy. Probably the king of this space. However not without it's caveats. Because is so spacious and long it's not the best offroader. Limited wheel articulation also hurts it. The 1HZ is bulletproof but run away from ones that have been turboed or not had a oil change every 5000 miles. Other than this the Troopy is pretty amazing and in a very small company of cars that are both compact on the outside and liveable on the inside.

Each of these will greatly benefit from a pop top setup. It will free up interior space by removing bedding and also make it more liveable. Keep a close eye on top end heaviness if you do a pop top vamepr conversion. Other than G Wagen (which has a carbon fiber pop top which adds only 10 kilos up top) all the other conversion for a Troopy or defender are very heavy and add easily 70-100 kilos up top and you need to beef up the suspension to counteract the top heaviness.

Outside these 3 choices a Toyota Hilux with a camper in the back is a great choice too. Not my personal preference because I'm a wagon/ SUV kind of traveler but the Hilux is a solid choice.

Hope this helps.

SWP_NL@reddit

Find a post 2001 toyota land cruiser hzj78. You will get an indestructible inline 6 cylinder diesel, mated to a pretty legendary 5 speed manual gear box. They're simple to maintain, parts are easy to come by and they are incredibly reliable. No electronic shenanigans. You could get a pop top top fitted and have a comfortable living space.

Steer clear of all the other options: the defender is a hit or miss vehicle in regards to quality, and will require high upkeep to stay reliable.

The y61 is a fair option, but still less reliable than the land cruiser.

Jeep is very capable offroad, but reliability is not great, parts are very hard to come by in a lot of places.

A discovery is simply not meant for this, too many Electronics, too vulnerable in build quality. It is an amazingly comfortable vehicle, but not suited to long distance expedition travel.