Which is the best 4WD ute for modifying and long-term ownership?

QUESTION

Hi John,

Having visited your site many times and read through many of your refreshing posts, I am curious if you could help us out with our next purchase.

Reading through all the information one might start to think that there aren't many reliable vehicles out there or manufactures that honor warranty claims . This would be our first new car buy, as we have always been driving 7-10+ year old cars. We are looking at this new vehicle as a non sensible financial investment, but as an investment for long lasting quality experience.

Our first priority is reliability.

Our second priority in this case would be a brand with a reliable warranty-service track record.

We are looking for a ute with:

A payload as close to 1100kg as possible.
Airbag protection for rear passengers.
Rear air-con vents.
Key-less entry preferable

Optional:
Winch bar front
Tow bar (for rear protection + towing)
Snorkel

The reason for buying a new ute is to build it up as a reliable remote family tourer as well for driving medium to advanced 4WD tracks for the next 10-15 years and not having to tow anything, hence the close to 1100kg payload requirement.

We are not brand specific and are open minded to anything that fits the bill.

Regards,

Mike

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ANSWER

Mike,

Okay - all understood. I’m going to put my ‘mechanical engineer’ hat on. You’re probably not going to like it. (Quite okay, if that’s the case - I prioritise honesty over appeasement.)

Here’s the thing with these utes mate: They’re light-duty vehicles. Like, keep saying this to yourself: “Light duty.”

Bolting all this crap up, in and on, and around these vehicles, and adding the 4-5 people and the provisions, and otherwise maxxing out the payload - and then flogging the thing over ‘medium to advanced 4WD tracks’ for ’10-15’ years is frankly a bad plan when your over-arching priority is ‘reliability’.

Severity of operation is the opposite of reliability. Reliability is therefore enhanced when severity is reduced.

These sorts of vehicles are not designed to be beaten endlessly at the limits of several conflicting capabilities. (Limit of off-road ability + limit of payload capacity = great way to break something expensive and/or end up parked on the roof. This happens all the time, in the outback.)

So if you are going to do this adventuring, figure out a way to do it at well under the maximum payload, or carry the maximum payload if you must, but don’t also do heavy-duty 4WD work at the same time. Or buy a truck, like an Iveco Turbo 4X4, which is kinda designed to do both things at the sme time (and look at how different the engineering is…)

Or put 500kg in the ute, and tow a trailer not more than 2000kg. (Like 400kg tare and with a payload of 1600kg - two axles, braked, roller-rocker suspension…)

Lots of people turn their utes into the ‘pimp’s Cadillac’ of 4X4s - which is a great recipe to engineer out any latent reliability the vehicle(s) possess.

If going with a conventional ‘Japanese’ ute I’d choose one that’s been on sale for at least 12 months - which is just about long enough to tell if there are any intrinsic manufacturing/engineering problems in service.

I know much of this is probably not what you want to hear - but I can tell (by virtue of your desire for 1100kg of payload) that you are setting yourself up for disaster here - best to recalibrate at the outset.

Here’s my more entertaining version of this answer: The truth about modifying 4X4 dual-cab utes for remote adventuring >>

Sincerely,

JC

FURTHER TOWING RESOURCES

Should I buy the new LandCruiser 300 Series or Isuzu D-Max for heavy towing? >>

What is the Gross Combination Mass for towing with my SUV? >>

What should I do about my ute overheating while towing? >>

Should I get a GVM upgrade for my D-Max ute? >>

Is the RAM pick-up truck suitable for extreme towing? >>

Should I get a Light Rigid truck license for heavy towing? >>

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