4X4 by not that far

As some of you have figured, i'm a bit of a petrol head so its about time i added something a bit more meaty car related. You may recall from previous blogs i used to have a 2 door pajero and here it is.

I really liked this car because its a proper off roader with...

• a low speed transfer box
• plenty of torque
  
• and a diff lock

coupled with the fact that its got a short wheel base it was awesome in the dunes and would go just about anywhere. tThe only draw backs it had were that despite being a V6 it was only a 3.0 litre so felt underpowered and had a 4 speed gearbox so driviing around town could get a little frustrating (the steptronic did make up for this a little though).

Anyway to cut a long story short i needed to get a 4 door so I got rid of it and after much thought (and budget constraints) I got what I hoped would be an ultimate off roader (or so it said on the tin)...a Jeep Grand Cherokee and here it is below...


Now this car should have the ultimate off road running gear i.e. an electronic limited slip diff front, middle and rear so that traction is automatically transferred from a 'stuck' wheel to one that is free even if all the power is transferred to a single wheel -amazing i hear you say. Given it had a special gear box with 2 second gears, was excellent for normal driving. The one thing i really liked about this car was that it was the 'overland' spec so came with all the toys and a whopping 4.7l, 275bhp, high output engine. In english (and for any of you folks who have driven out here in the Gulf) this meant i could chase down all the nutters in the Patrols and Land Cruisers out here ;-)

so why didnt i live happily ever after...? the problem with this car is that...

• its ride height is too low so it just wasnt gonna perform reasonably without having to mess around with it and do some mods
  
• given the nutty driving out here I would just feel safer in something bigger
• the engineering of this car causes too many doubts and out here when off roading, a break down in the wrong place could cost you dearly

But my biggest gripe of all was the choice in design of its components e.g. solid front and rear axles. Now i know any of you off road officianados out there will disagree and say that its a perfect setup, i would have to say have you heard of the death wobble on Jeeps (google it to see what i mean)?! give me independent suspension (like on the Pajero) any day of the week. Any compromise in ability off road is more than compensated for in generally being able to live with it on an everyday basis.

so with that I eventually decided to move on and get something else...read following blogs to find out what happened next!

disclaimer: my applogies but if none of what i have written makes sense to you then exercise your minds a little and find out. For those of you for whom this does make sense, i have written it off the top of my head so I am not expecting geeky comments on how the Jeep's L.S.D system actually works!