Help Me Decide Please

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buster

buster

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I should have just created one thread (sorry Bill, can you merge them?)

Looking for the best choice for a reliable high mileage off-road vehicle.(mostly beach/snow). No rock/trail climbing all that much.

Jeep Liberty (3.7L high miles), 4-Runner (2002 3.4L 191,000 miles) Subaru Forrester (2.5L 150k miles) or CRV (1999-2004).

smile.gif
 
Those 4runners seem to run and run...

CRV if mpg matters at all.

Saturn Vue? 3.5L Honda V6 and AWD - could likely find one at half the miles for similar price range. If the fluids are changed on time, they're reliable (tranny mostly).
 
The Subie offers the best combination of light off road ability, passenger space, fuel economy and on road handling and braking.
The Liberty and the Toy are trucks, while the CRV cannot match the off road ability of the Forester.
The Forester also has the best AWD setup in this group, or any other.
Subaru AWD is completely transparent.
It works and you don't even know it's working, except that you don't get stuck.
I speak from experience; check my sig.
 
Originally Posted By: fdcg27
The Subie offers the best combination of light off road ability, passenger space, fuel economy and on road handling and braking.
The Liberty and the Toy are trucks, while the CRV cannot match the off road ability of the Forester.
The Forester also has the best AWD setup in this group, or any other.
Subaru AWD is completely transparent.
It works and you don't even know it's working, except that you don't get stuck.
I speak from experience; check my sig.


thumbsup2.gif
 
Originally Posted By: buster
True the mpg is pretty bad on the 3.3.

And the Liberty 3.7L I had as a rental once, was lucky to get 15-17 in mixed driving.
 
Leaning more towards a CRV. Boring but it will do what I need it to do.
 
I use to own a 2004 CR-V and I sold it after 87,000 trouble free miles. Loved that CR-V and my wife still hits me for selling it every time she sees one on the road. We're going to look at some this summer, she loved the higher seating position, room and economy. I would avoid the first generation unless they can verify a solid service history. I never had the A/C problems nor anything else.
 
4Runner, but I am biased towards utility vehicles being built like trucks. Pathfinders are pretty good too. Of the choices given so far, it would come down to those two for me depending on condition.

Liberties will go a long time with little/no maintenance, but expect to have to make repairs along the way when they start getting a lot of miles. Things like power windows will go out before the 3.7 ever quits, but check the oil frequently because it probably leaks.

The Forester will far outperform the CRV if you aren't looking for a truck. The CRV will work and be like a big AWD Civic, but if this is just an occasional use beach/snow vehicle, I think I'd want something more capable and fun than that.
 
I know you didn't list it, but 4-cyl Escapes are practically bullet proof. I'd recommend the FWD 4-banger Escape any day. With Cooper H/T tires, 12" of snow is no problem for my Escape. The best part is these cars are SO easy to work on yourself and parts are cheap.

Also, if you go to the Escape communities online, people have taken their FWD escapes through all sorts of crazy trails and off-roading you just wouldn't expect.

Of your recommendations, though, I really like the Forrester. Really neat car those things are.

And be warned about the early model AWD CRVs. I think they can only transfer something like 10-20% of the power to the back wheels. It isn't really an "AWD" system at all.
 
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If you don't need to tow anything I'd go with the CR-V. Here's an excerpt from a post in a different thread about my experience with the Real-Time AWD system in the snow. It's a very simple system but devastatingly effective in snow.

"Also I can personally speak to the real-world effectiveness of the CR-V's Real-Time AWD. After the blizzard of 2010 which dumped 30" of snow on NJ I (stupidly) had my wife's CR-V out 12 hours after the snow stopped falling and made it through snow I should not have had a chance in (while passing 4WD vehicles which were stuck). That was an amazing experience."
 
Take a 99-04 Tracker/Vitara for a test drive. You might like it or, hate it, but atleast around here they are around half as much as a CRV of similar age/condition.
Ours has done pretty well, one front axle seal, a starter, and a O2 sensor have been the repairs so far. Its got a timing chain, transfer case, ladder frame, rwd with solid rear axle, with the same mileage as a CRV.
Its a bit smaller inside than a CRV or Liberty.
I find in our forestry road adventures, 98% of it could be done with a small fwd car, but there's always a washout or steep rocky hill that does need some half intelligent driving and 4wd and low range to go slow to make sure I don't break our ride home.
IMHO for a fun mild off roader you might as well get real 4wd and a transfer case, and probably a Tracker is the cheapest way to do that. The CRV is a bit better commuter, but the fact you have to spin up the front tires to engage the rears is not ideal even for easy trails. I know for what off roading I've done, spinning the fronts could have had me stuck at best or broken down and stuck at worst...
The RAV4's of that era have a 4wd system to lock in the rears atleast but research which years had a bad manual trans if your looking for that.
 
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