Outer Limits 4x4 Board

So my mums 97 magna staton wagon is giving up the ghost
and i say

' Mum get a suzuki, at least i will able to service it'

and she actually might be listening.

So i thought i might get the various opinions on year, model and configuration that would suit her. (can i point out this is a daily driver for an active middle aged women not the next We Rock Conternder?! )

It needs to be
-5 door
- tow an unbraked 6x4 trailer with furniture (>750kg)
-be easy for old ladies to get in an out
-sleep in the back when touring
-$10000 price cap (we do love our bargain buys though)

also with your recommendations any known faults and nigglies wll be of help. when we decide on ' the car' it will most likely go through an nrma inspection but it be good to save her money by eliminating

You might be able to get an older GV (pre 2001ish) for $10k.

What about $$$ for mods?

How tall is she as she might not be able to sleep in the back even with the seats removed.

TheOtherLeft wrote: What about $$$ for mods?

How tall is she as she might not be able to sleep in the back even with the seats removed.

shhh! she doesn know about mods yet.. le the bug bite first

she is a 1.7m tall

I think a magna station wagon would be an excellent choice.

A $10,000 station wagon would be a much better option than a suzuki if she doesn't require off road capability.

If you can "service" a GV you can "service" any other car of the same year.

Steve.

Early 2000ish forester i would say is a better buy for space/value

still got gravel/hardish sand capability.

changing oil is not an issue its the fact that i hasve factory service manuals for every suzuki and i am on forums like these for trouble shooting. (plus rwd seem easier access for oncar stuff)
a smaller engine be nice too

as for offroad she wants to ' travel around autralia sometime' which means she will not be doing trails every weekend but she will be camping and wondering off the beaten track.

i also thought maybe a station wagon liana but the forester might be a go too

keep the ideas coming

x plenty for a Forester.

Much better option IMHO.

Steve.

Foresters are nice but they are a pain to work on, even to change plugs? Gwagen might be able to clarify.

dank wrote:Foresters are nice but they are a pain to work on, even to change plugs? Gwagen might be able to clarify.

Generally Manuals are easy to get for free.

filters, oil,air are easy and doing oil change as so.

Plugs can be a pain but buy some decent exxy ones and leave them in there for a while.
they can be done, you have to remove sometimes airbox or etc to get to them.
the EJ20 motors are tried and tested to be reliable also.

I have a 2005 model one and its awesome for on road / gravel too. not too bad on fuel either. Mines the 2.5XS and gets about 10L/100 and 8L for hwy

I have no idea how hard it is to work on a subaru, that's what the dealer is for

PS I'd be surprised if the plugs weren't platinum, so changing plugs every 100,000km shouldn't be a big drama.

I agree though, the engine bay is definitely awkward to deal with compared to, say, a suzuki, but that's true of most modern cars- it would have been a PITA to work on our Cooper S too.

Steve.

Subaru' are easy, I own a modified (full engine conversion) Gen 1 liberty, as does my brother, as well as plenty of WRX and Forster owning friends. They have their little tricks, but over all are not that bad. The plugs are platinum (acutally Iridium most of the later models) too as Steve said. Plugs are acutally quite easy to do

Layto....

well we went and looked at some new cars today

swift 5 door
sx4
hyundai getz 5 door (used)
Hyundai i30
kia rio
nisaan tiida
and briefly the 5 door vitara (which she hands down loved for its size)

bsically since she has her own business she wanted to see what alternatives where available new in a round about way.

this was positive cause it got her asking herself,

'how often do i have 5 people and need boot space for the massage table '

'if i only do a load to auction once a month is it worth while me having daily dearer fuel economy? or just do slightly smaller more managable loads'

etc etc

was kind of fun being on he sideline while she looked at the cars , the salesmen realised early that my opinion mattered but it was a mistake to direct the answrs my way. i only asked mabe one question per odel, inavetable she would ask the same questions to the next salesperson we bumped into


she quite happily pay an extra $5000 for a different model but wasnt interested in $2000 extra for auto and pinted out that if she didnt wan metalic it meant it was white, so the bas price was never base for colour car (hey she my mum i am proud)


tomorrow we may be going out west to the glorious used car deers so she can see the used models and makes. i kind of think she would be happiest with a suzuki carry if her par time job on the side didnt incolve driving old ladies to shopping (aged care)

Anyway, any input i appreciated, any suzuki input between now and tomrrow will be really appreciated

(yes the subarus on the list folks, and what else?)

She really doesnt want a new magna.

Sx4 is basically a forester but seems cheaper built/spec.

U can get 4 seat carrys cant ya?

If she is a business and she can justify the purchase then don't forget that she could probably get the bonus 50% tax deduction on a new vehicle which may make things a bit cheaper especially as the end of financial year is looming.

The 50% is after GST which if she is registered for then she claims back anyway and is also in addition to the normal depreciation and if she borrows to buy it then the interest is a deduction too.

she spoke to the accountant and the consesus was, not reall claimabe this year, next year maybe.

loking at used3 year or younger cars. amazing how in less than 12 hours her budget is doubled

( her magna is 180 000 kms, so she is has lost interest in buying cars wth more than 100 000kms)

the hunt continues

ok can people post up every niggling thing i need to heck on a 93 lw vit

going to look at one tomorrow and need the ammo