What vehicle would you take across Africa

[d4rr4gh]

If you had to choose something to take you through deserts, rivers, over mountains, and never give up, what would it be?

Its a bit of a dream of mine to buy a vehicle in South Africa and drive to Ireland but I'm going to Ethiopia/Kenya/Uganda for 3 months this summer so that might whet my appetite... You never know, next year I could be seriously considering this!!

[fat controller]

Land Rover or Toyota HiLux - both as tough as old boots, reliable across terrain, and reasonably simply constructed so that if something does go wrong it should be easy enough to fix (providing you have a decent amount of knowledge to begin with).

I have used both on farms years and years ago, and both were workhorses that would just plod on and on - most practical of the two would be the Landy in my opinion, simply because you can get something like a 110 County which has plenty of seats, space for your gear, whilst having the about the best 4x4 system their is.

I loved my 110 County (3,5 V8 petrol, affectionately known as Sherry, because it felt like it was built like a Sherman tank) - not once did it let me down, despite me doing some really stupid things with it - (I 'towed' three trees back to the house over the fields on chains once, and suffice to say they weren't small trees either - with hindsight, I'd have been better getting them cut into smaller bits or even doing one at a time); I even pulled a tractor out of the mud with it once (admittedly it was only the front wheels that were bogged down) - it was a colleague as much as it was a car.

[d4rr4gh]

The fella who works on my cars is a LandRover mechanic and he wouldn't go near one. And that's including the older ones. Not sure why but the guy's saved me about £1000 in advice alone so I'm happy to take his word for it!
In terms of your "colleague", maybe you were lucky? I dunno. I always thought old Defenders were amazing til my mech told me otherwise...

I'm sure its been scientifically proven that the Hilux is indestructible. I wouldn't be surprised if they outlived humans!!

[fat controller]

I must have been helluva lucky then - apart from servicing, the only thing that ever went wrong with it was an exhaust and a clutch.

The HiLux is a good motor, although slightly more cramped, but they do go on and on and on. It was Top Gear that tried to kill one, and no matter what they did to it, the thing still started.

[NickPicks]

Peugeot 505 estates are very common to see in Africa. Jeremy Clarkson notes them in his "best cars in the world" book. We had one when I visited Sierra Leone, and it went along tracks I'd have expected to see landrovers get stuck on. I'm sure it's not as good off road as a toyota pickup, but it's a great car out there (even if it is french)

[d4rr4gh]

Lol, my mum raves about 505s. And she's not the sort of person you'd go to for advice about cars... Those old mercs are really common too - actually, I was in one with 380,000km on the clock in Morocco. But I still think I'd go for the Hilux...

[Crasher]

Classic Beetle.

[DSG4ME]

Toyboata Landcruiser.

[Crasher]

Good choice but not family.

[Ben]

Touareg altitude, upper body mounted on the touareg Dakar underpinnings.