Best off roading vehicle

He subaru fans,
I am a off-road fan. I am the kind of dirt-gravel road with 40 + mph speed fan not that rock climbing kind. snow dirt fog rain all are my favourite. I used to go out hunting tornadoes and thunderstorms but could never get a good off road vehicle feel because of lack of a good offroad vehicle. well I kinda used to rent cars when ever I could to offroad, I mean drive recklessly and since I dont have to worrry about them it was no big deal wheather the car made it or not. now there is a problem. I am tired of renting cars so can you guys suggest me a good car to buy

my requirements, good off roading car preferably 4 door, MANUAL (big no no to autos), AWD and rugged.year dosent matter if you can mod it good. Also I drive a lot. well my record is 4 k miles in 8 days alone!
so I will be putting lots of highway miles too. Like from chicago to ny for weekend. or may be chicago to florida for long weekend. Since i drive long non stop trips I dont want uncomfortable seats or crazy rattles. so all old trucks that we wud love to get are out.

we dont need excessive luxury (cant afford it) and nor do we want fancy fenders, they break too easy for person like me.
so you experts help me out lets c how things go.

the cars that I should not have abused are ford taurus! crysler sebring ! Toyota camry! and even chevy aveo! malibu! etc etc... so i dont want to get a 2 wd they feel to slippery.
I love subaru cherokee trailblazer wrangler evo etc, but it is totally up to you how to design a car to fit my need.

Thanks for your time and I will appreciate your suggestions.
Lets see what i have thought of coincides with your choice

last thing I would like to add, you can mod it as you like but dont forget to add its cost!
lets c what happens next.

[xjy173]

The kind of off road driving you are describing we call "off pavement", mostly graded gravel and/or dirt roads at relatively high speeds. For that a Forrester/Outback awd Subaru wagon would be good and it would get good gas mileage on those long trips you describe.

A Jeep Cherokee XJ or a Grand Cherokee ZJ with Select Trac (selectable part time/full time 4wd) would be good choices also but the mileage would not be as good as the Subarus. Good Luck!! )


PS An automatic trans would be a much better choice for what you want...just MHO

[LooseNut]

You could also try something like a Toyota RAV4. (Oh, am I in the Subaru section?) They have an available center diff lock (locks the front and rear axles together for better traction) for sticky situations, would make a nice highway ride (the new ones get close to 30 mpg highway) and there's an optional v6 that's well over 200 hp in the new ones--also available with 3rd row seats. The aftermarket has plenty of bull bars/nerf bars/taillight guards available to protect that sheetmetal. www.performanceproducts.com

Eric