Four wheel drive/AWD

[WalkleyIan]

Subaru all the way for me!!

I've got an Impreza Sport Estate non turbo, deceptively spacious and ace in bad weather, and also a Forester 2L turbo, would highly recommend both.

Subaru engines last for years.

I agree with a previous post of slightly higher mpg, both mine run about 26-28 in town traffic, slightly better on motorways.

 

Last tank full in the Legacy I managed to get 35mpg. That included 200 miles of MWay driving though with the rest round town (2 litre petrol).

 

Its been in 4wd Low most of this week so I suspect that's dropped considerably

 

I see the newer models have more respectable figures quoted.

 

---------- Post added 27-03-2013 at 14:29 ----------

 

I waas going to suggest the Skoda Octavia 4x4 but I see someone already has so I'll just +1 that.

 

That was our second choice but the things really hold on to their second hand value so put them out of our price range. May not be such an issue for the OP.

 

Two work colleagues who commute in from other side of Derbyshire in these give good reports .

[L00b]

I'd give the Dacia Duster a look. As far as I recall the basic 4wd model is about £10K. I mention them as they make a big thing on being simple well engineered cars, devoid of unnecessary things to go wrong. The basic one is VERY basic though, as it goes it doesn't have a radio or air con and rubber floor mats. But if you were using it as a hack then not having these things would probably be of a benefit.

 

If you bought one for 10K and kept it, as you say, for 10-15 years you would have well had your moneys worth out of it.

This. Especially since the OP is not badge-snob

 

Go for the middle range (with radio ) or even top of the range, and still have enough change (from buying new!) to feed it petrol/diesel, insure it, maintain it, etc. for a good couple of years or more out of the OP's purchase budget alone.

 

Dacia are the next 'Skoda' in the making.

[Dozer]

Thanks everyone, I'm learning a lot. NightFlight -- I've never dealt with winter tyres before, but I'm intrigued with your advice.

 

If we want to go that route, does it mean swapping between summer and winter tyres (assuming that we ever have a summer again)?

 

If so, I'm guessing that not being mechanically handy we hire a garage to do that for us. Plus I take we need a way to store the set of tires we're not using. I have this fantasy that the garages will provide that service, but I'm guessing that's not too likely.

[truman]

Thanks everyone, I'm learning a lot. NightFlight -- I've never dealt with winter tyres before, but I'm intrigued with your advice.

 

If we want to go that route, does it mean swapping between summer and winter tyres (assuming that we ever have a summer again)?

 

If so, I'm guessing that not being mechanically handy we hire a garage to do that for us. Plus I take we need a way to store the set of tires we're not using. I have this fantasy that the garages will provide that service, but I'm guessing that's not too likely.

 

Winter tyres are made from a different compound of rubber that stays pliable in lower temperaturesto give better grip and have a different type of tread pattern to "summer" tyres (more sipes to grip the snow) A tyre fitters should be able to swap your tyres over..probably cost about a tenner a wheel..some people buy a cheap set of wheels and have the winter tyres put on those so all they have to do is swap the wheels over around November and put the "ordinary" ones back on in March/April depending on the weather..yep,you'd need somewhere to store the set of wheels (or tyres) that isn't being used.

[Hillpig]

I'd give the Dacia Duster a look. As far as I recall the basic 4wd model is about £10K. I mention them as they make a big thing on being simple well engineered cars, devoid of unnecessary things to go wrong. The basic one is VERY basic though, as it goes it doesn't have a radio or air con and rubber floor mats. But if you were using it as a hack then not having these things would probably be of a benefit.

 

If you bought one for 10K and kept it, as you say, for 10-15 years you would have well had your moneys worth out of it.

 

Dacia Duster is good car. Dont be put off because its cheap.

[truman]

Genuine question to all the folk recommending a Dacia..have you ever tried one or do you own one?

[L00b]

Genuine question to all the folk recommending a Dacia..have you ever tried one or do you own one?

'had to try one last time I was in France (Xmas), as seemingly (driving around) that's the only car being sold there these days! Didn't get to do any 'proper' offroading, but certainly splashed some mud on country lanes

 

Sure, it's agrarian compared to the German-badged competition (I drive a Merc...when the wife lets me ). But no worse than the previous-gen Korean competition (I had a Hyundai for a while) or, for that matter, the '05 V50 I had until last autumn.

 

In fact, in a funny kind of way, it reminds me of my Mk1 MX-5 'reborn' as a small 4WD: basic, engineered by an engineer rather than an IKEA designer/marketing committee, does-what-its-says-on-the-tin, bare minimum of equipment so "least points of failure".

 

Cheap and cheerful, reportedly so-mechnically-simple-that's-what-makes-it-bulletproof, if you need a new small-sized 4WD workshorse for half the price of 2nd hand recent-ish 4WD SUVs with badges, you could do worse...

[SHYTOT]

Any advice on four-wheel drive or all-wheel drive cars for Sheffield? We're looking to buy new. We keep our cars for 10-15 years, so we are looking for something that will last so long as we take good care of it. We know it won't come cheap, but would like something that's not silly money.

 

We've never had 4wd or awd car before, but have been persuaded of the usefulness after a third winter in a row of experiencing that stomach-churning feeling of feeling the car slide backwards down the street.

 

A couple of other considerations:

 

- it can't be too wide -- our driveway is very narrow; fits a Corolla just about

- prefer to have a saloon or hatchback, but flexible [edited because I had mistakenly put the word NOT in there -- GEARED thanks for pointing that out]

- not looking for a luxury brand, but they seem to dominate this area; do we have to get a Landrover or BMW or Audi if we want a solid car in this category?

 

I've had a Subaru Impreza non turbo estate and an Audi A4 Quattro Diesel estate.

Both did Sterling service for many miles without faltering and without the stigma of an off roader.

[Eater Sundae]

I’ve no personal knowledge of any of the current 4WDs on the market, but as well as the 4WD versions of their hatchbacks, Skoda do the Yeti as a 4WD. The Yeti gets good reports. Also it might be a little narrower than the hatchbacks (I’m not sure, it might just be the way it looks).

 

The Daihatsu Terios was mentioned earlier. That is quite compact. However, Daihatsu stopped importing them a few years ago (because of the £ to Yen exchange rate).

 

Another smallish one is the Suzuki SX4. Suzuki have a fairly good name for reliability, so it may be worth considering.

 

The Kia Sportage comes with a 7 year warranty, which might provide some peace of mind towards the intended 10 to 15 year ownership.

[frededwards]

I'd look at the Suzuki Grand Vitara or the smaller SX4 and the Skoda Yeti.

 

If you want something less off road orientated the the Octavia or the Subaru estate as previously mentioned.