Freelanders are underrated, the FL2 even looks less 'girly'.
I'm looking for a soft roader myself at the moment. Need the size for the kids and because of the misusses's issues we need something a bit taller so she doesn't need to bend putting the kids in. Also needs to be an auto so a bit more limited.
The ones on top of my list at the moment are a mid 2000's rav-4 or cv-r. Think the honda got a great review for being good on the road handling wise, haven't started looking into known problems for them yet though.
Don't laugh but kia /Hyundai do a little 4x4 Tucson it's got on the fly 4x4 so it's 2 wheel drive which makes it good on fuel the diesel manual or auto isn't too but the petrol is a no no.
The other car worth looking at is the bmw x3 the 2.0 diesel ks plenty and good on fuel but are rarer to find than the 3.0 diesel.
I had an x trail for 2 1/2 years and did lots of drift car towing with it including driving to poland and back with a trailer on . towed with ease, comfy , handled ok given the size , decent mpg.
2 faults. one rear screen exploded one day
and 2
the rear diff locked and exploded one day ( fortunately at sub 5mph ) nissan wanted £2500 to replace but it was in warranty so covered
apparently a very common issue.
the fact it runs fwd most of the time means it is reasonable on diesel. the 2.2 dci engine is decent too.
My a4 Quattro is epic in muddy fields, snow etc. if ground clearance isn't an issue then an audi Quattro of sorts is a fair bet.
1998 Nissan 200sx s14a , 2000 std 5 speed with nismo supercoppermix clutch bn6 Sapphire Blue
We have a Tucson diesel at work and I quite like it on the occaisions I get handed the keys, can't comment on off-road ability or economy though (It's a pool car).
Unless the X3 is a fcuk-sight better offroad than the X5's and 7's then simply no. Pretty much every wet race day at Combe I get the amusement of watching X5's getting stuck in a flat wet grassy field. If I wasn't track side then I'd make a point of driving the 180 over to tow them out
Yeah alot of the smaller ones are rubbish on the rough then again the audi Q7 gets stuck on wet grass.
I would think the free loaner would be the best off road.
Scooby Forester? Full time 4x4, more ground clearance than a freelander, and will beat the others listed on both handling and performance. If you get the turbo one they are dead easy to tune as well, raiding bits from the appropriate impreza...
MPG won't be as good as a diesel, but as you can pick them up dead cheap you can probably offset quite a few thousands worth of fuel...
plenty of LPG 4x4s better than diesel economy and better reliability than a diesel
Jeep v8 4.7 on lpg