Thinking about buying a JEEP!

[kidafa]

Hi All,

I'm currently in the market for a used 4WD/SUV that I would like to use for towing and daily driving. Towing weight MAXIMUM would be about a 3.2T boat.

I've narrowed down the search to a either a Jeep WK2, Pajero or Discovery. At the moment the Jeep is leading the race but I must admit im slightly concerned regarding reliability and service/parts costs.

I will be buying a diesel for the fuel economy when towing and raw torque!

Can anyone shed any light on what to look out for when buying a used Jeep WK2? Anything in particular I really need to pay close attention to when looking at them? Will probably be a 2011-2013 Laredo or Limited in Diesel.

Cheers in advance,

Chris

[matt-chops]

If you're towing (or even just driving every day) you'd do well to find an MY14 or newer to have the 8-speed—your fuel economy will be better overall.

I would review the service schedule as well and understand that the diesel with 8-speed requires a fairly major service at 80k that can be costly.

[kidafa]

As much as I'd love a my14 the budget just won't allow it or more so the other half won't allow me to stretch the budget that much....

Is there anyway I can check if a used vehicle has had the recalls done etc...

[TR Laredo]

Originally Posted by kidafa

As much as I'd love a my14 the budget just won't allow it or more so the other half won't allow me to stretch the budget that much....

Is there anyway I can check if a used vehicle has had the recalls done etc...

Best bet is to ring the service section at your local jeep dealer & ask if they can check the VIN for outstanding recalls. This link has a few fixed price WK2 diesels available
http://www.pickles.com.au/cars/fixed...rollPosition=0

Cheers

[Paul-JK]

I could be wrong but I didn't think the Paj was rated to tow 3.2T.

Do you know what else you want to add to the car, and how it will be used, especially when towing? The GCJ is an excellent tow vehicle BUT it doesn't have a great payload. If your boat trailer had a ball weight of 10% that would be 320kg. There's half your payload gone straight away. Add in driver, passengers, bull bar, roof rack, luggage etc and you can be over GVM very easily. I think the Disco has similar GVM/GCM to JGC as well.

The only options for more practical GVM/GCM packages are landcruisers and in some cases dual cab utes as far as I know. I say "some cases" as they generally have a higher payload but can not generally tow their max towing rating while at GVM so it is a bit of a trade off. Or you can stump up $150k for a new Ram 2500, but that wouldn't make the best DD.

I'm not bagging the JGC. It is a great car but you need to check your weights to see if can do what you want legally.

[gqmad]

I bought my grand to tow a 3 ton boat with and its an excellent choice. When you look at towing over 3t the only other option you have is the landcruiser or patrol and both over priced for what they are. My choice was disco or grand , I drove both back to back and liked the jeep the best. Jeep was around 30k cheaper than the disco but in my views also drove better. I ended up with a 2015 overland diesel. There is plenty of poke with th boat hooked up and if you want more you can have it flashed for $995 and this will give you 220 kW and around 700 mn torque. Mine is now 3 months old and so far so good it's been reliable. I have been told by 2015 all the bugs have been sorted. Earlier ones had issues but after all the updates and recalls they are pretty good. I intend to take mine to the Simpson desert later this year and will be doing the Tripp solo. I'm not worried about a break down

[kidafa]

Thanks for all the great info and help so far guys, I highly appreciate it.

I will set the ball weight up so that it is pretty safe on the 320. When its towing usually the car wont have much in it as we tend to load up the boat as much as possible.

So my best bet is to ring a Jeep dealer to get them to run the VIN to see what recalls have been addressed? Does anyone have a dealer that is been helpful for this kind of thing? Just feel a bit funny saying im looking at one privately and then ask them to have a look at it for me on their system.

When im physically looking at them are their any certain spots where they are prone for leaks to look for and other things like that?

Thanks again,

Chris