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4x4s are a world of compromise, you want a tractor,limo and truck all in one package and nothing is perfect.

A good off road vehicle makes a poor on road one, good on road vehicles are poor off road. Non commercial 4x4s all sit at different positions between these two and working out what suits you is no small task. I love Land Rover Defenders but I don't think I could have one for commuting every day, I could drive an X5 to work but I'm not going to drive it through a quarry.

4x4s often make good tow vehicles because of the live rear axle, mine has a maximum nose weight of 340Kg. 4x4s are becoming more road biased to suit emissions laws and the normal cutomers so don't expect many of them to be much more than a hatchback on stilts.

I have a Jeep Grand Cherokee which is for me a good mixture, I can cruise for 100s of miles on the motorway and throw it around 4x4 test tracks. It's not quite big enough to carry what I want and not quite small enough to get over the top of muddy banks easily. It has a very good 4dw system but is complex and expensive to fix, lots of compromises.

Get a 4x4 by all means but get one because you want one, not because you think you need it as I'm pretty sure you don't.

Quote: Originally posted by pikerwoods on 02/9/2011

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What are M&S tyres...?

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Mud and snow.

I've got the popular Grabber AT2 (M&S) tyres fitted, one of the few all terrain tyres that will fit bigger rims. I think they are about to be outlawed in Europe for being too noisy, the replacement doesn't fill me with confidence.

More compromise for 4x4s, the decent off road tyres are mainly for 15" wheel rims. Decent brakes won't fit inside 15" wheel rims so you can either stop or go effectively but not easily find a tyre to enable both, when you do that tyre won't be cheap.

Most of them would probably have not been taught how to drive in the snow/ice or have forgotten.

They have probably thought that their 4x4 will be better at the "stopping" as well as the "going" and just pressed the brake pedal then wondered why they did not stop.

This is the second 4x4 I have owned 1st was a Suzuki Grand Vitara XL7 TD and this a smaller Suzuki Grand Vitara 1600, which I mainly use for winter and shopping trip as I much prefer the bike most of the time. It's handy in the winter as the small town I live in has a hill to get up and down whichever way you go and we usually have to push cars, vans and even a bus up the hill outside the house.

The Suzuki's had never had a problem on them and, up to now, have never had to use the low ratio setting. I was also taught to drive the old way where you use the engine and right gear to control your speed, especially downhill on snow/ice and have many times done the 16 miles from home to work without using the brakes at all in the winter.