BEST RUGGED 4X4s (off-road)
Heavy towing and outback adventuring: these vehicles will cope with the slings and arrows of Australia’s rugged landscape, without dropping the ball on safety, reliability or refinement
MITSUBISHI PAJERO SPORT
Very clever Super Select II transmission means driving on slippery or less-than-perfect roads in high-4 is possible without damaging the driveline.
Anticipate an all-new Pajero Sport in 2025 >>, based on the newly minted Triton ute.
A large versatility envelope includes seven seats, full-size spare, substantial 3000kg towing capacity. Good front/rear/centre clearances for serious off-roading. Or you can have GLX in 5-seat 4x2 rear-drive if maximum payload (750kg) and strict on-road driving is in your future. GLS gets tyre pressure monitor, LED lights, auto wipers, power tailgate & adaptive/radar cruise.
$5000 more Exceed gets you heated seats, leather, front parking sensors, 360 camera, digital speedo, premium 8 speaker stereo, blindspot & rear cross-traffic alert, and emergency throttle cut-off.
Enquire about a new Mitsubishi Pajero Sport now: Click here >>
NISSAN PATROL
Patrol has been around as long as LandCruiser but currently costs $30K less than the 300 Series. That buys a lot of fuel, which it happily drinks.
You get a monstrously powerful 5.6-litre V8 that accelerates hard and is reliable. Patrol also has serious 4WD ability, and copious interior space.
Even though it drinks 95 RON premium fuel from a 140-litre tank, at least it’ll move several tonnes of caravan, firewood or farming equipment. It’s actually the only Nissan product on sale I don’t mind recommending under caution of head office’s oftentimes incompetence for doing the right thing by customers.
Enormous boot, seven seats, luxury equipment, excessive leg, head and shoulder room for the biggest, brawniest beard-strokers. Save money on a Toyota and get the Ti-L, and enjoy that classic woodgrain.
TOYOTA PRADO
The lady-conscious LandCruiser capable of seven-seat school runs, big supermarket shops and the big lap. But it is very old. Thankfully, a new one is coming.
If you don’t want to think too hard about which 4WD wagon to buy, you’ve probably already bought a Prado. Enjoy the lengthy wait times for a Toyota, but at least you’ll know there’s a dealer in every major town pretty much. Keep that 2.8 turbo-diesel in tip-top condition, especially the DPF system. Don’t bother dropping $12K on the Kakadu. You don’t need it.
It might be ancient, but at least it’s been updated this century unlike the old now-defunct Mitsubishi Pajero. Even when the new model arrives in 2024, don’t expect it to be revolutionary. Toyota evolves in very small steps and a new Prado will be a modest improvement over the current model.
Toyota makes mediocre vehicles for the broader consumer who doesn’t want to bust a nut crunching numbers or deliberating too long over buying their next vehicle.
TOYOTA LAND CRUISER 300 SERIES
Australia worships Toyota and blokes love a LandCruiser. The 300 looks and feels every part of that ideology, however imperfect it is objectively.
The twin-turbo hot-vee design means heat extraction from the top of the V6 diesel could be problematic long-term, and there are reports of excessive oil consumption in this vehicle already.
Toyota gloated about LC300 weight-saving over the 200 Series, but it still weighs 2.6 tonnes. What this means for anybody needing a serious heavy towing machine for long-distance hauling is it’s absolutely a worthwhile contender.
The same goes for its four-wheel drive credentials. There’s no doubting Toyota’s ability to make a hardcore 4X4, even one weight 2.6 tonnes, to climb slopes, trawl through sand, claw through thick mud and ford rivers.
But you will pay very handsomely (and wait) for the privilege.
ABOUT PAJERO SPORT COMPETITORS
Below are vehicles I don’t generally recommend, owing to either their comparatively poor reliability or the parent brands being sub-standard at customer support. But they are reasonable options if they fit a specific usage case, or if the alternatives above aren’t available or suitable. It’s therefore something of a roll of the dice to buy one of these options below, but if you go into it with your eyes wide open, one of these below might still be a defensible choice,
FORD EVEREST
For the quintessential tradie who doesn’t want to get his tools wet buying the Ranger ute, there’s Everest.
If you intend actually to go off-road, Everest Trend is less glossy than Sport or Titanium, and more about actually getting dirty. You won’t cry if you scuff something in the Trend.
Opt for the 3.0 V6 over the highly-strung 2.0 bi-turbo 4, and don’t let Ford Australia skimp out on doing the right thing by you if a genuine problem arises. Don’t be distracted by that enormous portrait touchscreen.
It’s just such a shame Ford Australia doesn’t do customer care the same way Mitsubishi, Mazda, Hyundai or Kia do. (Because I want to love both Ranger and Everest.) Nor is this new model Ranger/Everest proving to be particularly reliable thanks to early driveline vibration issues. The jury is still out on the 10-speed transmission.
ISUZU MU-X
The ideal 4WD wagon if you’re happy to thrash mercilessly on the farm, out on the bush tracks or around town with little regard for mechanical sympathy.
Although you should always strive for mechanical sympathy, it’s not always possible and the 3L inline 4-cylinder which began life in the Holden Jackeroo, is hard to kill - but everything has a point, obviously. Don’t aim for the big 3.5-tonne tow capacity, but certainly it’ll be a decent tow vehicle. Good levels of equipment for a base model.
Isuzu Ute Australia has a shaky recent history with customer care, which is why I don’t recommend MU-X specifically. But if you need a basic, no-frills heavy towing platform that doesn’t require much forethought, the MU-X isn’t an especially bad vehicle. There are just better options.
If you cannot get a Mazda BT-50, an MU-X will suffice. It’s just a pity that Mazda doesn’t have a rear-cab version of the BT. But you can get a BT-50 with a tray canopy, and they’ll be better at customer care.
OFF-ROAD 4WDs TO AVOID
Jeep Grand Cherokee: The new Grand Cherokee is already proving to be unreliable, and Jeep is in a rapid sales decline and the dealer network is compromised as a result.
Jeep Wrangler: Not only is it a complete safety abomination, Wrangler is unreliable and parts are expensive. Jeep is a brand rarely interested in your consumer rights.
Skoda Kodiaq: Kodiak is a stripped out Tiguan that drinks premium fuel and offers Volkswagen Group wayward customer support. Sales are dismal and resale prospects suggest you’ll lose between $15,000-20,000 of value in the first year alone, according to Redbook.
Mercedes-Benz GLE: The GLE is just enormous, extremely expensive to buy ($3900 extra for 7-seat option), run and service, and not nearly as well-made as Mercedes would have you believe. Plus, you’ll pay about $15K in luxury car tax on the base model, losing $25K value in year one.
SsangYong Rexton: New Rexton is affordable and looks okay. It’ll probably be reliable enough, although we don’t know that until they’ve been on the road for at least six months, but there are just too many question marks about whether SsangYong will stay or collapse in Australia, again.
LDV D90: Sales for D90 are down in 2023 compared with 2022, but the key issue with this vehicle is LDV itself. There are some serious concerns about poor build quality, backed up by some poor demonstrations of aftersales so-called customer support. D90 is pretty unrefined, too.
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