Car Buying Advice - Need help deciding which to buy

chuspapi

Hey guys, I'm new here and looking for a little help deciding which vehicle would be best buy.
My wife and are looking for a good 4x4 for our family car. I personally wanted something like a Wrangler,
but with our 3 month old little boy in the picture the wife told me no. lol So we were able to find 3 that we both liked, but I'm not sure which to go for.

I'm trying to figure out which will we get the most out of I suppose. Longest lasting and upkeep. All that good stuff.

So here are the 3 we are looking at
1 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo 90k miles $6,900
2 2004 Nissan Frontier XE 4 door extended bed 150k miles $4,500
3 1994 Land Rover Discovery 5 doors seats 7 70k miles $4,000
And all are in great shape.

Personally I like how the Disco has 2 seats way in the back, perfect for my mother in law and her little demon child. Lol

I look forward to any input you guys may have.

Thanks!

Michaell

chuspapi said:

Hey guys, I'm new here and looking for a little help deciding which vehicle would be best buy.
My wife and are looking for a good 4x4 for our family car. I personally wanted something like a Wrangler,
but with our 3 month old little boy in the picture the wife told me no. lol So we were able to find 3 that we both liked, but I'm not sure which to go for.

I'm trying to figure out which will we get the most out of I suppose. Longest lasting and upkeep. All that good stuff.

So here are the 3 we are looking at
1 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo 90k miles $6,900
2 2004 Nissan Frontier XE 4 door extended bed 150k miles $4,500
3 1994 Land Rover Discovery 5 doors seats 7 70k miles $4,000
And all are in great shape.

Personally I like how the Disco has 2 seats way in the back, perfect for my mother in law and her little demon child. Lol

I look forward to any input you guys may have.

Thanks!

I'll get some experts to chime in here, but I'm pretty certain they will all tell you to avoid the Land Rover.

Hang tight ...

28firefighter

From my perspective the Frontier is the way to go. Likely to be the most reliable of the bunch and leaves money in the budget for maintenance. 

Run away from the Land Rover as fast as you can. Unreliable, expensive to fix. 

I'd walk away from the Jeep - not really known for their reliability and it seems you're paying a premium for it being slightly newer with fairly high mileage. A coworker had a Jeep Grand Cherokee of the same vintage and the electrical system was a nightmare. He sold it almost as quickly as he bought it. 

qbrozen

Yikes. So an LR that will drive you to tears quicker than it will drive you anywhere else, a Nissan with 150k miles, or a dark year for the JGC. I'm gonna go on record as saying none of these are a good choice. Find an older JGC with the 4.0 straight 6 or a Nissan with far fewer miles.

tbirdmarco

go with the Nissan or jeep! but like said above would find sum with lower miles!

qbrozen

I should have asked: what is your budget?

nyccarguy

Run away from the Land Rover!  Any yes, what's your budget?  Where do you live?  How many miles per year do you drive?

stickguy

Nissan best bet, but miles are steep, and are you sure a pick up will work? Maybe look for a lower mile pathfinder instead.

The Land Rover, run and hide from that.

roadburner

How about an Xterra SE?

Mr_Shiftright

The Nissan, if it passes a pre-purchase inspection and doesn't need a lot. Figure if you're lucky you'll get maybe 50K-75K miles of good service out of it.

Wrangler is just too punishing a ride, too primitive for a family I think for normal commuting.

Run from the Land Rover like your hair was on fire.

pensfan83

As others have said run and hide from the LR. Early to mid 2000's Jeeps were not particularly reliable. If you're willing to go back as far as 1994 on a LR you may be able to find a clean late 90's early 00's Grand Cherokee with the straight six, solid engine. Other options could include a CR-V, 4Runner, Pathfinder, or the Xterra you mention. All three will have pretty solid reliability and won't break the bank if they do need repairs. Listing your budget will help narrow down the options and model years.

Blake

Hello @chuspapi I would advise to stay away from the LandRover! The maintenance and costs that come with this vehicle are astronomical. A Disco would be a great second vehicle to take out off-roading or things like that, but I do not believe it will be a good daily driver.

Unless the Jeep Grand Cherokee has a V8, I would go with the Frontier. The reliability on those Grand Cherokee's are good at best. That being said, the V8s seem to last longer and have less issues.

The Frontier has slightly high milage but also has a proven track record of being a very reliable truck. Make sure you have the Frontier inspected by a trusted mechanic, if everything checks out on the Frontier it should be a great vehicle for the next few years.

Please feel free to reach out if you have any further questions!

Thanks!