What to buy

Not a personal question, but how much you got to spend and what is the intended use?

It will be used predominantly as our family wagon. We visit the Flinders in SA annually and want to be able to enjoy the various 4wd only tracks. Also to explore other 4wd tracks in SA eg sand dunes near Beachport in the South east. $ wise up to $25,000

I swapped a Jack ('98) for a Prado ('00) about a year ago, for me it was no contest, Prado won hands down. Same sort of requirement initially as you, price around the same. I bought the Prado initally to resell (well, thought I'd have a crack once in my life at it!) as I thought it was being sold extremely cheaply... After a couple of drives, I sold the Jack instead. The Jack I thought had a better finish, and almost build quality, but the Prado was bigger (a bit) a just felt better to drive in. The Jack skipped around a lot at the back over sudden bumps, to the point of a$$ing out sometimes, Prado did no such thing (suspension probably cause tho). Prado felt more like a truck, Jack more like a station wagon on steroids (but very easy to drive - the missus liked it). I also wanted constant 4wd. Prado better resale value, Jack are no longer made and I had great trouble selling mine.

No clue on Pajero.

Tonester

DaveF,
The choices you've posted my personal choice would be the Playdo. Depending on the cash you have available you might consider an early GU, watch out for all the little issues though as mentioned in several posts on this forum. The Playdo is an underestimated machine by all accounts, goes well off road. A lot depends what you want the vehicle for.

Thanks for your thoughts guys. Sounds as though the Prado is the way to go but gee they are still $$$ hungry. It could be between the Jackaroo & Pajero, I guess once I (and my wife) have taken a few for a drive I should be able to decide from that. This is a great forum and I got some good info from looking in the archive as well. All the Best.