Suraru Forester 08-12. The 2.0 petrol will pull 2t. That would certainly be my choice and, in my book, definitely not boring. I nearly went for an Outback last time but it's a very long car which I'd have struggled to fit on my drive. Besides, I much prefer the height afforded by a traditional 4x4.

Edited by kerbed enthusiasm on 29/10/2017 at 10:05

You are severely restricting your choice with it having to be a petrol and manual gearbox with hi-lo ratio's. So many possibilities out there were that not the case, but hey ho!.

Not sure why you think the forester is the boring choice, but it is one of a very few options which fit your requirements.

There is also the suzuki grand vitara which has hi-lo ratio's, this can be had with either a 2.0 (138bhp) or a 2.4 (167bhp) petrol.

I'm pretty sure that both the toyota RAV4 and honda CRV do not have hi-lo, but not sure about the nissan X-trail.

There are also some jeep's which may suit. The cherokee would be the biggest, but it would be with the smallest engine, a 2.4, as all the bigger engined ones were auto. I would guess, given jeep's off road heritage, they would have the hi-lo gearbox, but i'm not 100% sure on that. They would also probably be older (but cheaper) than you'd be thinking about, with the youngest on autotrader being a 2005. The smaller ones (compass and patriot) would be much newer, and again, with the heritage and all, should be very capable off road.

Nothing wrong with a pre DPF diesel and short journeys IF you buy either Shell or BP premium diesel fuel.. I speak with experience of a Yaris D4D driven very short journeys by my wife over the past 5 years.. And an Italian tune up prior to MOTs.

I'd favour the CRV or Subaru Forester out of this lot but I've a feeling it's not the kind of thing you're after.

No problems with the forester at all - I said it was the 'boring' choice because it's so obvious. We've both had Subarus in the past. I had an Impreza RB5, and SWMBO had a Forester Turbo, both about 1999 - 2002 or so.

Even if I found it 'boring' to drive, I've got the 325d (218bhp) and we've got the Z4 if I want a bit of 'hooligan time'.

We don't want a big pickup, she had one of those a few years ago. Also, I know someone with a modern Isuzu pickup, 2 years old, 12k miles, and it's currently in for a new DPF at a cost of £2500. That's a hell of a lot to budget for, especially if it's going to be on a regular basis

Edited by daveyjp on 30/10/2017 at 21:54

"It's even got 4 brand new Bridgestone Dueler tyres fitted"

Duellers are not brilliant in the wet or on slimy mud - I am trying to wear mine out so I can go for something a bit more grippy, probably BF Goodrich AT's all terrain.

I don't know about the Dueller H/T fitted to this Forester, but my Touareg came with OE Bridgestone Dueller H/P Sport and my plan was to change for something better asap - but I've been mightily impressed with their grip in all conditions, even towing a 5 tonne motorhome off a very muddy grass campsite.

Bridgestone Dueller is a range of tyres - H/P Sport - H/T 684 II - A/T 001 - and looking at their tread patterns, the H/T could be exactly what RobJP needs - I'd suggest seeing how they perform in RobJP's actual usage pattern before switching as ATs are too extreme for many uses.

An update

Phoned up the garage and they were very happy to get it in the air on the ramps fo me to get underneath it. So I did that last night after work. Absolutely immaculate underneath. I then took it for a short test-drive myself (even though my wife, who is pretty mechanically competent, had already done so) to see what I thought of the clutch, etc. Clutch feels great.

Car is now being bought. SWMBO's private plate is going onto retention, and, if the V5 gets here in time, we'll be doing the swapover this weekend.

Job sorted !

Nice one - enjoy.