What Ute do I buy?

Shane, it really doesn't matter what everyone else has, it is your needs and wants that need to be considered.

"What's everyone got?"

Everyone has everything.
What do you want?

Buy something to suit you for driver visibility and for creature comforts you like. Unless your loyal to one brand they can all basically do the same thing.

Your budget would help. I mean a G Wagon is about $186,000 and a 30yr old mitsubishi petrol triton might be about $1,860.00. There is a lot in between,.

Buying a 4x4 ute

Shane R9
Starting from scratch, I would be searching for KNOWN common problems with the crop of utes out there. Perhaps talking to some 4WD repair places so as to get an idea of reliability and servicing. Then you can weigh up the possibles and know some decent background of what is real. They all do similar tasks, but some have inherent autotrans issues like Colorado's do. Others have engine problems, ie, early Navaras. Just examples there. All have some drawbacks though. What one person will tolerate with failures/problems, another person might be not willing to take that chance and want better!

Isuzu Dmax,
proven reliability, ask any independent garage in the bush.

I went through this back in 2013 when I was buying a new tow vehicle. I specifically wanted a dual cab as it gave me 4 doors plus a tub that I wanted to fit a canopy and drawer system.

At that time there was only 4 that were rated to tow 3,500kg which was my basic requirement. The 4 were Ranger, Colorado, BT50 and D-Max.

I found a site that allowed me to do a comparison between 4 vehicles, this site to y knowledge does not exist any more so can't provide a link.

The result of the comparison was a table that listed the 4 cars with each specification aligned which allowed me to copy and paste it into a spreadsheet. I then rated each item from 1 to 4 with 4 being the best and this resulted with the best of the 4 having the highest number,

When it came to looking, I discounted the Colorado due to it having the smallest engine so never went any further with it.

When I called into the local Ford dealer, I sat in the car in the middle of the yard and nobody could be bothered to come out of the air conditioned showroom so after 5 minutes I left the yard and walked across the road to Mazda where I encountered the same results, i.e. complete lack of interest from the salesman. The other thing that I didn't like was that I seemed to be sitting on an angle with the steering wheel offset to the left.

That only left the D-Max and as pointed out by Chester, they are renowned for their reliability so that is what I ended up with and was extremely happy with it for the 11 years that I owned it.

Mind you, my mind was virtually made up before I did the research but it just reinforced that I was making the right decision.

All the newer utes are pretty good with competent towing and off road performance. All of them also have horror stories from unfortunate owners.

You need to make a list of what you will use it for and what wants/needs you can't do without.

When I went looking for a ute 7 years ago, my budget was set at $35k and I discussed with the missus non negotiables. They were:
1 - my 198cm body had to fit haha
2 - middle rear seat had to have a lap/sash seatbelt
3 - my missus had to fit comfortably in the rear seat
4 - less than 4yrs old.

We then spent a Saturday morning going to about 6 car yards just sitting in each different ute in my budget. We tried Hilux, Navara, Ranger, Dmax, Amarok, Triton, all the Chinese utes, Ssangyong, everything that was available we sat in. By lunchtime, without even a single test drive, the list was narrowed down to Ford Ranger, Mazda BT50 and Isuzu Dmax. You wouldn't think there was much difference but inspecting them side by side shows their pros and cons.

I then searched for the best one I could find in my budget. So far the Ranger has been a great car.

If you are on a budget & want a good solid ute which is is very capable a 4.2 GU Patrol could be a good choice *if* you can find one which hasn't been tampered with (ie is factory standard). Another good alternative would be a 75 series Landcruiser. Both will have higher fuel consumption than more modern alternatives, but are solid & dependable, & good off road. Go past any with 'go faster' mods & huge wheels though. They can be ok, but are far more likely to be source of ongoing problems, mainly because most of the time those sort of mods have been done by inexperienced mechanics for whom 'appearance' has a higher priority than reliability. With the Toyotas the stock non turbo 1HZ motor combined with the standard gearbox ratios is my favourite off road , but it's slow by modern standards on road. If primarily for off road use only, that would be my choice.

I see a few Pajero around ,excellent vehicle and reasonable price ,not a Ute but heaps more comfort and good on fuel.