Man or Auto off road

Some good info Assassin, but outside of the UK or some of Europe, I haven't seen many 'Aisin' specialist garages, or places to rent Aisin specialist tools...and the original question stated that the vehicle would be used for moderate overlanding as well as a daily driver. In my experience, when you break down in the bush in some less developed country and get towed in to the nearest town, you take what you can get in terms of mechanics and parts. Finding a garage with specialist Aisin diagnostic equipment is highly unlikely. Mitsibuishi does make some good vehicles and I am sure there are mechanics in small, one bay garages who sometimes work on them, but it can be a crap shoot to find a garage that says they can work on them, and actually mean it.

Good point Tembo, but there are a lot more Aisin specialists outside the UK, particularly in Africa and Asia than in the UK. This is the reason they supply individual components and complete sub-assemblies as while it may be less work to change a sub assembly 80% of this work can be done without removing the transmission from the vehicle, and with a sub assembly you don't need special tools to build them.

You can actually do the diagnosis work yourself and this is the reason Mitsubishi and Aisin allow you to download a FREE transmission manual as it contains a section with the special tools in and their dimensions so you can actually make them; or something to get you out of the mire. In reality you would be better breaking down in the wilderness with an Aisin transmission rather then a LR transmission.

Well, there you go then! Sounds reasonable...

Mechanically I'll readily admit I'm inept, so I just parked it up until such time I could deal with it - time and money-wise. You can guess the rest. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, etc. by which time I'm bought another Range Rover for peanuts and was back playing in the mud. That was 10 years ago, scary how time flies. Probably still in a barn to this day! Move on, it's a "throw away society" after all.

No it isn't a throw away society, its a society where people choose to squander money instead of educating themselves and mending things.

Most of it is ego and vanity and the ability to have something to boast about, a former neighbour buying a Mini because it was "in fashion" and a nice bit of bling and to hell with her three teenage children who wouldn't fit in the back.

Couldn't agree more about the fashion-concious of this world, they are really annoying, but, and there is a but, when you can buy a Range Rover/Land Rover ... or a Daihatsu/Pajero/whatever for under £500 with 9 months MOT and even tax at times, then the throw away part comes into play.

I've done it umpteen times over the years as it's more cost effective than repairing your current broken ride, so works well when you're talking about what essentially are 'bangers'. Different matter if your vehicle is worth a few thou, then you have to repair it or lose out big time. Sometimes, if you know what you're doing (plus a large portion of luck of course), running bangers is a good move.

And when people like you destroy all the old bangers, or the collectors buy them and restore them and sit on them for a profit?

You are going to have to come into the world of electronics.

In reality Tom electronics aren't that bad or difficult to diagnose and fix, its all about learning and application and the problems arise mainly from the trade using misinformation to scare and confuse customers into opening their wallets a little wider than they heed to using such scare tactics, particularly with women and young women at that.

These days you can buy a scanner for OBD II systems which are fitted to all vehicles from 2000 on, many before that for as little as £25.

Many of the big brands (Snap On being an example) charge £thousands for theirs and in reality they are no better than cheap ones.

I don't destroy them, they just give up on me!

I didn't mean destroy them in that sense Tom, merely that by people buying them up in large numbers the models get destroyed quicker than they would ordinarily through the numbers of people buying them up.

I replaced my manual 2.2 Ranger with an automatic 3.2 Ranger a couple of months ago and I love the automatic. Apart from maybe a slight increased fuel consumption I can see no disadvantage with the automatic. On road it makes driving effortless and I have been told you are 20% less likely to be rear ended than a manual as you have your brake lights on more often. Off road it gives more progressive control driving over stuff and for downhill you can still select 1st to use engine braking.

I don't think I will ever go back to manuals. My first car was a Mark 2 Escort with a manual choke, for me changing gear has gone the same way as that manual choke, don't need to think about it any more.

IJP

Lazy burger! All too easy I have to admit, and smoother.

Had my first chance to play with the auto in the snow, having constant drive without the need to change gear made it easy. In these condition I would take the Ranger over the Defender any day.

Everyone has their own idea's but after driving for over 50 years, 4x4 HGV'S all  over Europe,
plus a lot of other motors big and small, fork lifts to big cranes, RB 60's.
Still prefer manual, I have had all types of auto's as well.

Never drove a ranger so each to his own.  good luck with your new toy (truck).  

Only wish we was able to go out and play but all we had was 1" of snow but one day we will get out to have go.

I'm going to have to side with the auto boys on this my MLs was great off road (ground clearance was the only problem) but like the Mitsubishi system you did have the ability for full auto or tiptronic and hill decent was a no brainer low range set the speed in one mile an hour increments and just steer, no worry if the LR would jump out of diff lock or not, saying that I have driven the manual 110 down some pretty steep decents on loose surfaces without any issues.

Not sure on the BMW front I didn't think any of the 4x4s had low range ?

im with assassin.......3-2 to us.......

Assassin wrote:

You can with the Mitsubishi system and the current BMW system which is basically a sports orientated rip off (they say derivative) of the Mitsubishi system.

But then again Tom you will buy these unreliable vehicles such as Land Rover and not reliable vehicles such as Mitsubishi which don't have this problem.

im with assassin......3-2 to us....

ijp wrote:

I replaced my manual 2.2 Ranger with an automatic 3.2 Ranger a couple of months ago and I love the automatic. Apart from maybe a slight increased fuel consumption I can see no disadvantage with the automatic. On road it makes driving effortless and I have been told you are 20% less likely to be rear ended than a manual as you have your brake lights on more often. Off road it gives more progressive control driving over stuff and for downhill you can still select 1st to use engine braking.

I don't think I will ever go back to manuals. My first car was a Mark 2 Escort with a manual choke, for me changing gear has gone the same way as that manual choke, don't need to think about it any more.

IJP

4-2......your loosing tom......

i have had 4 delica,s and i would rather have one of these than a 90-110 there easy to drive ,plenty of room,more economical,warmer,better looking and will go anywhere a land rover will go......and japaneese reliability........ ......5-2 yer bassser.......