Which medium-sized 4WD would you buy ?

Beano said:
Crikey....I think I've been put off them for life. No wonder Demannu once told me he didn't like them. Never understood why till just now.

"Owner Says Nightmare Subaru Has Killed Four Engines Within 3,000 Miles"

"Blown motor again... after fresh Subaru rebuild 5000 miles ago"

And thanks to Mistareno for the suggestion of a Ford Territory. I didn't realize there were heaps of them on dual fuel. This still appeals to me (I will do a fair few miles in the city), as do lots of secondhand parts at the wreckers. And a nice large body is good in prangs.

I used to cringe at the word Ford, but drove them as taxis about 10 years ago, and grew to like em. Though the seats were terrible.
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my parents have an AWD territory diesel.... it's a really good tow car and quite frugal. It's certainly not a proper 4wd, but I reckon it would suite you needs for sure :eek: I've seen the petrol engine pop up fro sale for $50bux (from memory) on facebook ... 'cos you jus tcan't kill them, so there is no market for them used.

seeya
Shane L.
 
Beano, my wife's Ford Mondeo (2010) is a fantastic car...just so you know they can make good cars. It's just ticked over 109,000km and the only fault so far has been a leaking rocker cover fixed under warranty. It has required no other parts or repairs and feels as tight and noise free as new in the chassis. I keep going on about how good it is and did consider an XR5 version for myself. I know it's made o/s, but it is a Ford...
 
Ha.

We've done the same thing. Test drove the Mondeo (in 2007) and the XR5. Thought the Mondeo was excellent but a bit big for what we needed, and the XR5 was a nice car but a bit disappointing in the performance department. Especially when compared to the RS Megane 225, which we tested next.

And that's how we ended up with the 405Mi16.
 
Hi
I don't particularly mean to go in to bat for Subaru, but if they have some problem with blowing up engines more than other brands, it doesn't seem to show up in owner surveys. They seem to rate pretty well in those surveys. I also reckon actual Subaru owners are normally quite devoted to them.

Regards,
John
 
John Handley said:
Hi
I don't particularly mean to go in to bat for Subaru, but if they have some problem with blowing up engines more than other brands, it doesn't seem to show up in owner surveys. They seem to rate pretty well in those surveys. I also reckon actual Subaru owners are normally quite devoted to them.

Regards,
John
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Subaru engines have traditionally been fairly bulletproof, but harder to work on because of their layout.

I'm under the impression that Subaru had some serious issues about 15 years back when they switched from a closed deck block to an open deck (for improved emissions reasons).

The engine itself was structurally fine but the head gasket material was insufficiently reinforced and started to fail just out of warranty leaving disgruntled customers.

Subaru changed the gasket material and then shortly after changed the block design to a semi-open block which seems to have fully resolved the issue.

If a rebuilt engine failed after 3K, something is wrong with the rebuild error, not the engine design....
 
John Handley said:
Hi
I don't particularly mean to go in to bat for Subaru, but if they have some problem with blowing up engines more than other brands, it doesn't seem to show up in owner surveys. They seem to rate pretty well in those surveys. I also reckon actual Subaru owners are normally quite devoted to them.

Regards,
John
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In both cases they seem like VWs.......which coincidentally also had boxer engines.
I must admit though....many secondhand ones have crazy kilometres, so some of them seem gto last.


Here's a Ford Explorer being sold for the cost of its recent tyres and suspension work. Not high Ks at all, either. Tempting. I'm sure it'll get sold really fast.

https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/shailer-park/cars-vans-utes/1999-ford-explorer-wagon/1153565798
 
John Handley said:
Hi
I don't particularly mean to go in to bat for Subaru, but if they have some problem with blowing up engines more than other brands, it doesn't seem to show up in owner surveys. They seem to rate pretty well in those surveys. I also reckon actual Subaru owners are normally quite devoted to them.

Regards,
John
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I managed to get my brother to buy a Citroen Xzara brand new. Everything that went wrong was a major drama including a nail through tyre . In reality the screw on the fan stripping and clutch cables binding were the issues issue.

He went on to Subarus and although he has far more troublesome issues with his Subarus it takes some time even years for these to be revealed to his brothers.
I was on an around Australia trip in 2014 when a Subaru with us blew up. The driver had not checked engine oil since the start of the trip. My brother then tells me "they all use oil I am always topping mine up!" He is now on his third Subaru seems blind to any issues and extoll the virtues.
 
Yep...that really sounds like VW drivers used to be in the 1970s and 80s !
 
Graelin said:
I was on an around Australia trip in 2014 when a Subaru with us blew up. The driver had not checked engine oil since the start of the trip. My brother then tells me "they all use oil I am always topping mine up!" He is now on his third Subaru seems blind to any issues and extoll the virtues.
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I will say that running any engine without oil will cause them to blow up!
 
68 404 said:
They seem confused. It is both a 2.4 turbo petrol and a turbo diesel...

Dave
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Yeah, looks like lazy dealer work. They probably have a default or "copy-paste" description they forgot to take off. That is why I would like to stand in front of it before I would buy on this one. Who knows what else they forgot to say about it.
 
For a limited budget have you considered one of the 'uncool' not so popular models eg Nissan Terrano. Might be able to get lower kMs than a secondhand cool model? (No experience of these, sorry)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I haven't looked at those yet, but thanks for the suggestion.

One of my conditions is that there must be a fair few of them at wreckers, so that secondhand parts are readily available.
 
Offer to buy an early model Koleos from someone who thought they'd trade theirs in, because the dealers offer bugger all money! And, to boot, the wreckers are full of Koleos's that no one needs parts for! :wink2:
 
John Handley said:
I will say that running any engine without oil will cause them to blow up!
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Yes the guy driving did not have much of a clue. The main thing is that my brother just accepted using a lot of oil is normal for Subarus. So maybe people not checking this are the cause of engine failures.

Holden Colarados we used drank lots of oil. So some modern vehicles use more oil than expected and if not checked their will be failures.
 
Graelin said:
Yes the guy driving did not have much of a clue. The main thing is that my brother just accepted using a lot of oil is normal for Subarus. So maybe people not checking this are the cause of engine failures.

Holden Colarados we used drank lots of oil. So some modern vehicles use more oil than expected and if not checked their will be failures.
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I call that Bull! My 2008 Diesel Koleos never needs oil added between annual services at 15,000 km. I'd say lesser brands don't have the technology to make a decent engine........
 
Kim Luck said:
I call that Bull! My 2008 Diesel Koleos never needs oil added between annual services at 15,000 km. I'd say lesser brands don't have the technology to make a decent engine........
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The use of the word Bull?

If you read that you would see the word SOME was used. My modern Peugeots use no oil between changes, twice in near 100,000 km I have put 500 mil in the 240,000 km Nissan Patrol. Yes I was in the Colarado that used lots of oil.
 
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