What car should I buy?

You are right Robinson with regards to Land Cruisers / Prados and Patrols . Yet how about older model Pathfinder Nissan, Armada is bit too big for desert unless driving in really big large areas as Liwa !!! Or a good Pajero. For LR don’t go more than Disco series 2 after which you will be in trouble and very expensive repairs try to keep with early models with much more Mechanics rather Electrical! Have no info about Jeeps ! !

I will suggest to strictly keep away from anything other than a Land Cruiser or a Nissan Patrol…
yes they are expensive…but that is only because they retain their value !!!

Now is’nt it obvious on why these cars retain their value…stick with them & can’t go wrong.

It is not difficult to get a 5 year old Nissan Patrol for about 60K and maybe another 20k plus for a similar Landcruiser…but then you get a large comfortable and reliable car that hardly depreciates and can be sold in no time at all if you want to get rid of it for whatever reason.

Maaan, you just opened a Pandora box. Typical question, and everybody will start praising their own car or the car they wish to buy 🙂

Let me tell you something… it all depends on your budget, the driving level that you’re aiming, how many people you entend to carry, comfort, on-road vs. offroad usage and how many mechanics you know 🙂

You have answered most of the above in your question… But I would advise you to keep you options open (my personal opinion). Here is what I think of each of your choices:

LC’s and Patrols: Good, reliable, excellent for both offroad and onroad, you can have your family and your inlaws in the car as well and still have space for their luggage and camping stuff, good resale value, but still I find them overpriced for what they really worth due to the local market demand.

If you’re looking for a mid-size 4×4, consider the X-terra: Pro (very powerful, relatively reliable, it’s a Nissan, and excellent for both offroad and onroad, Price are just right), Cons (Leaf suspenssion in the back, not to many options for customization). But still, you can handle the Cons depending on your longterm objectives.

The Pajero – not the 3.0L, is an OK car, however, it’s relatively heavy and underpowered and will limit your offroad driving growth (in the long run) if you’re looking to more advance drive. Otherwise, if you are aiming intermediate drive only, it is just fine.

Land rovers, sorry … I can’t comment, I don’t know much about them …

WRANGLERRRRRRRRRSSSSSSSSSS 🙂 now we talk: the wrangler does not respond to any of you requirements except the price maybe … Not comfortable, Not for family driving, Not for on-road, No space, No cargo, Not fuel efficient, Not whatever … However, if you ask me, and any wrangler driver, I would tell you it is the best offroad car, ever ever, especially the TJ’s. They are the most fun to drive cars, Very Light, Very powerful, SWB, go everywhere, anytime. They also forgive your stupidities and they have a huge after market for modifications that you can do. As they said, you make you’re own jeep, you do not just buy it …
Reliability wise, frankly speeking, there are alot of stories about wranglers beeing not reliable, what I can confirm is that they are not as reliable as Toyotas, beside that, they are Ok in my opinion.

So good luck for your hunting man… just an advise … you do break stuff when you’re offroading, it is part of the learning curve, so think about how much it will cost you reparing them when making your choice… especially at the begining of you’re learning curve.

Cheers mate.

Khalil

Some Nice observations…Khalil !!!