My daughter has just bought a Horse .... it is stabled and put out to pasture at the end of a muddy lane - I have just been there today and it's a damned quagmire.

She has had her MX5 for three years now and it's a fantastic car ..... but, it's not designed for Horsey stuff and fieldwork.

I have suggested swapping the MX5 for a 4x4 ..... I can see the options as Honda CRV, Toyota Rav4 or Subaru Forester. I know this is scoobynet and therefore maybe a bit biased (as I am being a long time admirer of the marque).

But, they are expensive to run - are they not? The Forester I mean?

Any suggestions?

What would a 3 year old Forester cost? A good one ..... I know their residuals are terrible, so would the Honda or Toyota be a better bet? The MX5 doesn't seem to depreciate at all ..... she would be in for quite a shock!

 

You could always try for a "biased" opinion over in the Europe forum at Subaruforester.org

http://www.subaruforester.org/vbulletin/f75/

 

MX-5s values are through the floor! NBs especially although you can buy a reasonable NA8 for £600.

Try a pair of grasstrack rear tyres and 4x 25kg bags of sand in the boot (3x if its an NA) and itll get to the end of most lanes.

x.

 

important to check to see what weight they are allowed to pull as part of your decision. Check the braked and unbraked towing capacities of the car and make sure the car is suitable for the horse + horsebox.

Braked means the trialer has brakes off it's own which work via the towing hitch compressing and appling the brakes - simple and effective system. Unbaked means you rely solely on the cars brakes and therefore it is a lower weight (capacity) due to this.

 

The 2.0 NA is available with a low range box, not many places it wont go if driven right! also means you wont be eating clutches with slow speed nag dragging shenanigans.

I borrowed one for a bit which had snow tyres on and was well impressed with its mix of on raod stability and off road ability. The ground clearance is pretty good too!

Fuel economy wise they arent the best, slightly better than the turbos but they still dont see much better than 350 miles to a tank.

Typical subaru reliability if serviced and looked after. LOAD of toys like heated seats, cruise control, massive sun roof .... all available if you want them and shop around.

MX5 would make a better track car, but for a member of the horsey set a forester is a proper boshty choice!

 

Buy a RAV 4 and stay off SN.......

 

Just get rid of the horse, pointless things as transportation has moved on a bit since Victorian times.

Either that or get a beaten up old landy just for horse work.

BTW I'm painting a mental picture in my mind now, the MX5, horses, etc. Is your daughter some sort of Jordan / Katie Price wannabe?

 

Why not add the costs of another car to your livery fee's and move the horse to somewhere with better access and stick with what you both drive.

 

Rav 4 is rubbish off road, make sure the honda has 4x4 as lots of them don't, my choice would be a suzuki jimney, if she's not planning on towing a box, pick a nice one up for £3k and it will go anywhere and cost peanuts to run, then she can keep the mx5 and have the best of both worlds, even get into a bit of green laneing, as she would lose more on the mx5 in a trade in and the low cost of buying and running the suzi will be offset by that and the cost of running a big thirsty 4x4.

 

I have a 11MY Diesel Forester for work.

Averaging 52mpg (motorway) & 38mpg (urban)

As already said there are LOADS of toys with it

We use it to go to the stables here in West Yorks - access is a BIG problem. We don't tow with it but it is happy enough on & off road.

Would I recommend one other than as a company car? Now that's the million dollar question!

 

As said above about towing weights, if your never going to be towing then I`d suggest a Suzuki Samurai / SJ as they are great off road.
There are others you could use like a Daihatsu Fourtrak Sportrak, and remove the rear seats for the bales of hay food bags.

The Sportrak I have was owned by the Windsor Park Equestrian Club for doing this very job, and had no back seats and was full of straw, hay, hairs, and covered in horse poo and mud.

 

Doubles up as a handy horse jump

 

If its going to be towing a horse box in muddy fields i'd be thinking Land Rover Defender.

 

My two pence worth,

Avoid rav 4 like the plague, we have a 04 plate one at work, sounds rubbish, goes rubbish, worse fuel consumption than my Impreza (didnt even get to london from herefordshire on one tank, had to fill up at the services on the end of the M4)

Granted we may have a bad one but it passes all its tests so cant be anything wrong with just this one.

also have a forester turbo at work, better car all round quite poular with the farmers round are way so they must be ok for light off road use.

either way i still tend to go for the 60 plate disco if using a work wagon thats not a van......... its funny how that always wins

 

The mrs used to have a jimny. ..... yeah ok theyre fairly good off road, but as an all round every day car theyre sh1te! no room in them at all and feel like theyre going to topple over in a strong wind, let alone an misjudged roundabout.

Rav4 ..... what a joke!

Kad16 ..... if your work forester has decent tyres on it, go have a play! The NA ones are better off road with the lo range box, but i think youll be suprised how well it keeps up with the disco! ..... take a tow rope though so it can help the disco out when it gets stuck! :-)

 

tyres aint the best on it to be honest, ill give it a go when i go shooting next though

 

I did say to keep the mx5, i agree as an only car not the best choice but we are talking muddy lane, and by your own admission they are great off road.

And yep the rav4 is ****

 

chop up for dog meat and keep what she's got. please stop posting on here you sad man

 

Broaden your horizons monkfish ..... this is scoobynet, not imprezanet ..... its subaru based chat! if you see the title of a post and dont think it'll be something you can contribute to or have interest in, dont waste your time in reading it, let alone feeling the need to comment on it!

You could just be having a jokey dig .... in which case i apologise.

Or you could be thinking that "are foresters any good" isnt a worthy enough topic to be thrown at a forum about subarus .... in which case .... well, it doesnt need saying does it!

 

For someone with a fairly low post count he obviously knows Lewis well Tend to agree with the comment too

 

With the way fuel prices are going it won't be long before we're all using horses again!

 

Her perfect car:-

 

 

I think my eyes are bleeding!!