Moving to rural Wales and need a new vehicle...

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Tunstallstoven
Tunstallstoven Posts: 997 Forumite
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in Motoring
Hi

I'm moving to rural Wales soon and will be looking to buy a new vehicle. I'm looking for something that:

- Can handle bad weather (mainly snow and ice); especially with regard to hills
- Has good road clearance for when driving poorly maintained country roads (or the odd forestry track etc)
- Can get out of the way of other cars easily (i.e. when having to get onto the side of the road, where again good clearance will help)
- Is still ok for long distances. I have family in Norfolk/Suffolk and so will be making the trip home 3 - 4 times a year.
- Is reasonably economical to run.
- Will cost around the £7-8k mark.

I've already done a bit of reading about, and probably the most important thing I've learnt so far is that a set of winter tyres will serve you much better in poor weather than a 4x4 with normal tyres. But will be interested to hear what anyone thinks about that.

I'll show my hand... I do like the Dacia Duster. Gets pretty good reviews on the whole, and is an amazing price. The clearance seems really good and seems to beat other vehicles of the type. I also like the size.

But now it's over to you guys... What do you think would be a good choice and are there other things I have overlooked.

Cheers
«1345

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  • worried_jim
    worried_jim Posts: 11,631 Forumite
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    edited 15 December 2018 at 10:47PM
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    Subaru Forrester.

    https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201809050189104?sort=price-asc&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=New&radius=40&postcode=bn424sn&make=SUBARU&model=FORESTER&advertising-location=at_cars&price-from=6500&page=1
  • Owain_Moneysaver
    Owain_Moneysaver Posts: 11,357 Forumite
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    Nearest dealer and parts availability, or whatever the local farmers drive.
    A kind word lasts a minute, a skelped erse is sair for a day.
  • facade
    facade Posts: 7,030 Forumite
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    Subaru Forester if you want a "car", Toyota Hilux otherwise.


    The roads in Wales are like velvet carpets compared to the cart tracks that pass as main roads here, so you only need the off road suspension on forestry tracks.


    You won't get a decent 4x4 duster for that money, parts are hard to get, and the new ones have gone up a lot.
    I want to go back to The Olden Days, when every single thing that I can think of was better.....

    (except air quality and Medical Science ;))
  • Herzlos
    Herzlos Posts: 14,688 Forumite
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    Forrester is what springs immediately to mind. Or something like a Skoda Octavia scout. You'd get a decent Skoda Yeti 4x4 in that budget too which is surprisingly good off road.

    Realistically though, winter tyres will get you through the worst of winter and anything that isn't super low should be fine with farm tracks. Something you can get parts and support for locally is going to be the biggest priority.
  • facade
    facade Posts: 7,030 Forumite
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    I used to see a lot of MK1 panda 4x4s in Wales, but I don't think the latest incarnation is anywhere near as good.
    I want to go back to The Olden Days, when every single thing that I can think of was better.....

    (except air quality and Medical Science ;))
  • AdrianC
    AdrianC Posts: 42,189 Forumite
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    What are the locals driving?

    Here in the very rural Marches, the answer is predominately "perfectly normal cars".
    Very narrow roads? Tick.
    Very poor surfaces? Tick.
    Weather? Tick.
    Distances? Tick. (My nearest proper supermarket or railway station is a 40 mile round trip, or an hour and a bit each way to the nearest bit of motorway.)

    And everybody round here mostly drives exactly the same stuff as you see in urban SE. Actually, that's not true. There's more SUVs in the SE.
  • kev25v6
    kev25v6 Posts: 235 Forumite
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    Mitsubishi Outlander 4x4
  • force_ten
    force_ten Posts: 1,931 Forumite
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    in the area that i live what do farmers drive ?

    a lot still drive old land rovers anything from 50 years old to modern day but the crew cab 4x4,s seem to be taking over favour with the local farming community Isuzu and Mitsubishi seem to be popular choices but these are the real workhorses of the farming community
  • AdrianC
    AdrianC Posts: 42,189 Forumite
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    force_ten wrote: »
    in the area that i live what do farmers drive ?

    a lot still drive old land rovers anything from 50 years old to modern day but the crew cab 4x4,s seem to be taking over favour with the local farming community Isuzu and Mitsubishi seem to be popular choices but these are the real workhorses of the farming community
    Same round here, for farm wagons.

    But most of the farmers' wives drive diesel Golfs and the like...
  • unforeseen
    unforeseen Posts: 7,280 Forumite
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    AdrianC wrote: »
    :beer:
    But most of the farmers' wives drive diesel Golfs and the like...
    Because they can cut costs by slipping some red diesel in. :)
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