A mate at work is considering buying a pathfinder and asked me for advice as the resident car geek. He currently has a Mitsubishi L200 so is used to no frills utility vehicles. Has anyone driven one, or know anything about them?

All I know is crude body on frame design with strong off road performance.

It's a Navara without the tax breaks!!

My automatic reply to him would be to not be so daft and get a Discovery. He says that Discos are too expensive. I think I'll leave him to it TBH, seems like mind has been made up.

I think they have a known engine problem. Lots of the diesels are blowing up in a catastrophic way I understand.

Watchdog just brought this up on Google.

Edited 13 March, 201115 yr by Captain Kremen

My automatic reply to him would be to not be so daft and get a Discovery. He says that Discos are too expensive. I think I'll leave him to it TBH, seems like mind has been made up.

If you like large running costs then a Disco is your thing.

Been a Land Rover fan for years, but it's not cheap!

They are (currently) very expensive to fill up, they have huuuuuuuuuge fuel tanks. I drive one for work and they can be thirsty with all the kit and stuff we carry around in it all the time. They are very comfertable and drive realy nice and cruze along well on the motorway. As for off road stuff, they seem to be pretty good, even with the standard tyres they come with.

It was a god send in the snow and ice at the start of the year, I put the 4x4 system in auto and the car did the rest, resutling in some entertaining slippy slidey action :p

They do seem to suffer from a common engine fault, where by the engine will shut down if pushed hard in any 4x4 setting, as I found out as I excelerated to respond to a call and it stopped dead on me!! I thought i'd buggered the engine, but after taking it out of the auto setting and waiting for a couple of minutes, it started up and drove as if nothing had happened..... :wonder:

It can be expensive to repair once the warranty runs out, for example it's around £1k for a new clutch!!

Mate has had one for 4 years.

He got his at Motorpoint, it was a Cypriot import but was brand new if that makes sense.

He likes it. They've got twins and he wanted something really big for lugging big buggies about and all the stuff they need.

He's also a diver and finds it useful for carrying big loads of tanks and suits etc.

It's been reliable, no major faults as far as I know. He gets about 32mpg from it, and I say he drives in a fairly normal way.

He had a spot of rust on the tailgate. Not sure of the outcome, I think he got it fixed rather than fighting through a claim.

It's pretty agricultural to drive, but his has made it through two bad winters with no problems. He went out to find some deep stuff to try it out and he had no issues in a foot of snow on summer tyres. Doesn't do any proper off roading but it's been down a quite a few tracks.

AFAIK he's no plans to get rid of it but he's not doing big mileage and TBH cost of running isn't really an issue to him.

Ta very much for the replies chaps, I'll pass the info on. He's had a test drive and like the way it goes up kerbs!!?? Strange fellow.

He's had a test drive and like the way it goes up kerbs!!??

That's the parking at school mode

Landcruiser.

expensive can't get any parts for them ie suspension arm on the rear there 480 quid local garage had one in all the guy could say bloody expensive crap

Ta very much for the replies chaps, I'll pass the info on. He's had a test drive and like the way it goes up kerbs!!?? Strange fellow.

They are good at doing that!! I was on the Enbankment on duty one night and I needed to get to a collapsed woman on the other side of the road, just put it in 4x4 and over the central reservation I went (solid brick and concrete about 6" high ) no problem