Outer Limits 4x4 Board

The wife wants to get a Paj. Now i know nothing at all about them. She is looking at 2000-2002 models. Its going to be used to pull a horse float with 2 16 hand horses on board.Will all so be her daily driver. So whats better? duel fuel,diesel,manual or auto.It will be draging the nags around every second weekend or so,so what will stand the test of time. What are the things to look out for.Any help would be great because i know crap all about them.

how far/ oftern is she planing to tow the float,

if its just to pony club every other weekend it should be fine, if she is in competition with the horses and all over the countryside id probably look at a cruiser or patrol

i have a 1994 2.8td paj that i bought to take our horse to pony club and it did it with ease, ive done a few trips about 400+km with the horses onboard, it did it well, and that was through cunninhams gap

pajero seems a lot more reserved onroad, but when your getting up near the towing limits i cant help think the bigger motor and extra power wouldnt go astray

Personally, I'd be buying a diesel for towing.

2000 models had the 2.8td which carried over from earlier Pajeros. There's nothing particularly wrong with it, but it's quite "old" by today's standards. Power & torque are about average for the period, and economy is nothing to get excited about. It was only sold in Australia with a manual - no auto.

Somewhere about 2002 (may have been 2001) saw the introduction of the 3.2 DiD and 5 speed tiptronic style auto. Much better power, torque & economy, and this is the engine / trans combo for which I would be looking. When it was released, only the multivalve TD 'Cruiser (and possibly the Merc diesel?) had better power ("in its class...")