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North Africa Topics specific to North Africa and the Sahara down to the 17th parallel (excludes Morocco)
Photo by Andy Miller, UK, Taking a rest, Jokulsarlon, Iceland

I haven't been everywhere...
but it's on my list!


Photo by Andy Miller, UK,
Taking a rest,
Jokulsarlon, Iceland



Trans Sahara Routes.

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  #1  
Old 16 Oct 2002
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Vauxhall Frontera

In Australia they are known as Holden Frontera and the post 1997 model has a reasonable reputation. Nothing special, nothing particularly bad. We only have 3.2 V6 petrol LWB.

What are people's thoughts on buying a Frontera (LWB) in the UK for a trip to Atar and back ? No major hardcore off piste routes planned. UK also has 2.2DTI model. I'm not a big fan of diesel but I get the impression that a diesel would be easier to sell than petrol upon the end of our journey.

We are also considering Isuzu Trooper ( Holden Jackaroo in Australia ) which have a good reputation here but don't appear to be all that common in the UK. I think the Trooper would be harder to sell than the Frontera as the Frontera seems to appeal to the " drop the kids off at school in my never go off road shiny 4wd " brigade. Our vehicle budget is around 8000 GBP.


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Old 16 Oct 2002
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Either vehicle is likely to be fine - there were 30 year old battered mercedes doing the routes down there so any 4x4 capability and clearance is good. Think your assesment is probably incorrect, Troopers are pretty common here, think probably alot more common than fronteras, would rate them as a much better heavy duty offroader than a frontera and think resale of a trooper would be far easier, particularly for the drop of the kids group. Troopers also very popular with the farming community so quite a few options for resale.
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  #3  
Old 17 Oct 2002
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thanks Tobias. I prefer petrol but do you think deisel would be easier to sell in the UK?
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Old 17 Oct 2002
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Suspect Diesel would be easier to sell, most larger 4x4s (as well as significant number of ordinary vehicles) are diesel and fairly large demand for it. Large engined petrols are fairly hard to shift unless using LPG.
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Old 17 Oct 2002
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Hello guys,

I don't want to rain on your parade, but as far as Frontera's reputation goes, it seems to be poorly engineered and disastrously unreliable. Hence, as a vehicle that is neither posh nor utilitarian, it holds little value, if any, in the second hand market. The school run brigade has long switched to Freelanders so don't count on them. Besides, I'd be surprised if Frontera spares were available in Africa.

Isuzu seems to make more sense, both here and in Africa, as the vehicle has a more agricultural background, better suited to the various roles you want it to perform. Additionally, if you want to sell it to a farmer here, he won't bother with minor defects which would immediately put off any one looking for a shiny 4x4.

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  #6  
Old 17 Oct 2002
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Checkout www.autotrader.co.uk

You can search on make and model

You will need a postcode for details - central london for example sw1p 1sb (probabily the best place to look for non offroad abused 4x4's)

The trooper was also sold by vauxhall called a monterey I think

The frontera is just a badged isuzu truck built in the UK under license but its not common in africa.



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  #7  
Old 20 Oct 2002
GWJ GWJ is offline
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..I agree with comments regarding diesel being a better option, especially in africa. One thing though, don't trust anything this Tobias character says, I've met him in person and a more shadey character there can not be!
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  #8  
Old 21 Oct 2002
GWJ GWJ is offline
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Anon, thank you, you have brighten up my morning with a good laugh. However I'm fairly confident I have never met you and I suspect you have the wrong individual. I would be fairly surprised to be described as a shady character by anybody who has knows me. If your interested in enlightening me further on where you think you have met me then I'll probably appreciate the extra laugh.
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