Starting to plan out a purchase for hopefully this year so would be grateful for recommendations. Happy to push out later in the year if good models to look out for are known to be released later this year.
Who’s riding
- 2x Adults
- 1x Child
- 1x Giant dog (80kg)
Recreational requirements
- Lots of family camping trips, so need room for the portable fridge and all the other bulky equipment, bikes etc
- Must be comfy for long journeys for both driver and passengers – our trips generally more than 3 hours but less than 8 hours a stretch
- Must handle well on beach and gravel tracks so prefer a 4WD or AWD over 2WD.
- Very occasionally bush tracks and sand dunes but not likely ever crossing rivers or dirt tracks in bad weather so not a deal breaker if it can’t handle hard-core 4WD’ing
Daily commute
- This will be our second car, which I will also use for the work commute. Our current compact AWD will be the mum taxi
- Daily work commute is a < 5km round trip, so not overly concerned about fuel efficiency but definitely a nice to have
I foresee in the future…
- Maybe a second child
- Likely a family caravan or trailer tent to tow
Budget
- ca.$50k (Redraw from HL)
Other considerations
- Prefer something less than 5 years old, but open to good reasoning to get something older if it fits the bill
- I like the idea of a 7 seater SUV for the cargo size, and in all honestly third row would probably remain down so there’s little care for that last row to be overly spacious.
- A 4WD ute would be considered, like a Hilux or Ranger but not sure if it’s okay to have the dog in the back without air conditioning on long trips - even with a canopy it must get pretty hot. Would be interested to see how other people have managed with large dogs in the back of utes for long trips in hot weather.
- Open to either petrol or diesel, convince me what's best
Clifford…?