Why to buy a Terracan

For new members to this forum, either completely new to 4x4's or those more experienced looking for a vehicle to choose, I implore you to consider buying a Hyundai Terracan 2.9 CRDI for your 4x4, towing, camping, Off road and overland needs.

There are a few members on this forum now who own or have owned a Hyundai Terracan and IMO I think these are one of the most versatile vehicles available.

Previous to the Terracan I have personally owned in order: A 300 td Defender manual, TD5 Discovery auto, 2.4td 70 Series Land Cruiser manual, 3.0 70 Series Land Cruiser auto, Nissan Patrol 2.8 Auto & a Mazda BT50 2.5tdi.

Owning the above for at least a minimum of 6 months.

I believe the Terracan to be as good as, even better in some categories than the vehicles I have previously owned.

Ill list what I think are the most important features that the Terracan offers:

Fuel Efficient - An average of 25mpg driving in town. An average of 38mpg driving on the motorway.

Reliability - I my self have had no serious problems with my vehicle in the 4 years & 35,000 Miles of owning it. Setting aside costs for consumables (£800), and accessories (£1500), I have spend around £0 on this vehicle for faults or parts needing to be replaced.

Pulling power - Hands down the best vehicle I have used for towing and general cargo hauling.

Torque - Not the highest torque figures ever released, but the 340 Newton Meters matted to the auto box @ 2000RPM is superb.
I have held a 1950KG twin axle caravan on Birdlip hill north of Swindon on the A419 @ 45 MPH in 4th gear @2200RPM.

Off Road Ability - Yes, Its a Hyundai & Yes, It can go off road. As my knowledge and understanding has increased, the ability of the vehicle off road has increased.
In my opinion the Terracan offers Superior levels of traction than any other vehicle I have owned.
It does not offer the same axle articulation or approach angles as the LandCruiser II but neither of these have caused the Terracan to become stuck.

Cargo Space - From the Boot door closed to the drivers seat the measurement is 1850mm. So there is plenty of room to get your equipment in. The boot door is top mounted, so it opens upwards, this is a problem if you want a boot mounted tyre, or a swing away carrier but it does mean you can fully open the boot door if you a hitched up to a caravan or a trailer.

Auto Transmission - Smooth, and well built. Its a 4 speed with Overdrive. Old school shogun trans. I love the ability to turn your overdrive off and able to lock it 3rd which is excellent when carrying heavy loads or when towing. 1-4 gears is between the speeds of 0-35mph with the Overdrive gears kicking in around 40mph taking you up to 100mph.

Part Time 4wd - No nonsense, works, strong, robust, simple. 2WD, 4WD Hi, 4WD Lo.
No Centre Diff lock option because there is no Centre Diff. Power is permanently 50/50 front to rear. Rear Limited Slip Diff. Hubs are locked and unlocked automatically when you switch from 2WD to 4WD and vice versa.




The Vehicle excells in Winter conditions, fields and woodland terrain. There is quite abit of weight with the Terracan but it is well distributed. I have never come across a Terracan Owner (around 25) who have had bad things to say about them.

Parts if you need them are easily available.
The Terracan parts can be bought from Hyundai or alternatively Mitsubishi, as Its the same as the Shogun.
Mercedes is also the other brand that can supply genuine parts. The Terracan 2.9 uses the Sprinter engine with one less cylinder.
Sourcing parts around the world for the Terracan is not as hard as you think. The Terracan has a vast following in Scandinavia, Australia, South Africa and even Egypt. Then you have the Hyundai, Mitsubishi and Mercedes services throughout Europe, Japan and Korea.

Best part off all is the price to buy one, they are great value for money, its not a false economy but alot of vehicle for your money. EG: Terracan, 2005, 80,000 miles, auto. £3995.

- Just to ruffle some feathers, look at a 2004 Discovery TD5 auto with 80,000 miles its double @ £6995, nearly twice the price, & half the vehicle.

Terracan Jas

Terracan Jas wrote:

- Just to ruffle some feathers, look at a 2004 Discovery TD5 auto with 80,000 miles its double @ £6995, nearly twice the price, & half the vehicle.

But twice the price for parts I'd wager? I've always said Jap 4x4s can be real bargains when they are still newish, but as soon as they start going wrong, which admittedly can take longer to do so than Land Rovers, then they can be a really expensive to keep o the road.

Even basics like starter motors, alternators and so forth are generally an horrendous price compared to Land Rover equivalents. I won't even get into major components like engines or transmissions, as it can be game over!

This doesn't just apply to Jap 4x4s of course, same goes for Mercedes/Audi/Volvo/Renault/Peugeot/etc. saloons and hatchbacks. All imports cost more to run than home-grown vehicles, they always have and probably always will.

So, if you can buy a Jap 4x4 or expensive (when they were new) Euro saloon/hatchback for a low price not long out of warranty, and it doesn't go wrong in X number of months, then you're laughing. On the other hand, be prepared for the worst if it does, the bill could be ... no, will come as quite a shock!

Have to disagree there Tom, most Japanese vehicles have dedicated dealers who offer good aftermarket spares for very reasonable prices. Can you buy the oil, air, and fuel filters for your Rangie for £12 for the three? i can for my 3.2 Shogun.

Japanese vehicles are generally more reliable then home grown Landies, and when you consider the cheap parts for Landies and the frequency you have to buy them it actually works out far more expensive than most Japanese vehicles. You might only pay £5 for a part but if you have to buy them 3 times a year thats £15, if you pay £10 for the same part for a Japanese vehicle and only have to buy it once every 2 years it works out at £5 per year, and you have three times the work.

Many years ago when i worked in the mining industry we were all Landies, they were unreliable and expensive to run, we introduced Daihatsu Fourtrak's to the fleet and they were as good off road, better on road, but just required a different driving technique; on fuel costs alone they were a third cheaper and when we consider they could spend 95% of their working life in low range and only go into high range when they went for servicing at the local plant pool, thats working them.
Reliability was their greatest asset, in the evaluation of 1000 vehicles only two broke down in one year, one was because it was driven into a brick wall which damaged the radiator, the other was when one was driven off road and hit a tree stump in the dark. Compare this to the Landies, having the same type of use they racked up 572 breakdowns for the 1000 vehicles, of these 23 were through incorrect driving, the rest were mechanical, the figures speak for themselves.
Plant pool loved the Fourtrak's because they could schedule them for servicing and they wouldn't be going out to recover them because they had broken down.

We even had a Fourtrak roll 200 feet off the edge of a dirthill and landed on its roof, we righted it and pulled the roof out with a mechanical digger, for a joke we grabbed the ignition keys and tried to start it; to everyone's surprise it still started and ran, tough old Jap trucks.

We had a requirement to save money, to do this we introduced the Toyota Hi lux for lighter duties, these too were tremendously reliable, and out of 500 on fleet we had only 13 breakdowns in their first year, they were not subjected to the same abuse as the Landies/Fourtraks, but excelled in their role and many were worked hard.

Assassin wrote:

Can you buy the oil, air, and fuel filters for your Rangie for £12 for the three? i can for my 3.2 Shogun.

Nope! Then again, I can't get them at trade rates either.

Thats retail from Milners and not trade so anyone can buy from them at that price.

The fact i know Trevor Milner, and have done for many years is another matter, and yes i do pay less than this.

Ah Mr Milner, one of the good guys.