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kervaig

Hi, my '95 Bighorn now needs repairs that are more expensive than it's worth so I need to replace it. My budget is up to $20k but I'd be more comfortable around $15-18k. I travel about 30,000km per year. I tow a horse float (2.2-2.5T) maybe once a month. I'm not sure whether to get an older 4WD to keep mainly for towing/lifestyle block jobs and a small car for all the other km's I do, or just get one vehicle. And there are so many options and opinions about reliability I have no idea where to start! 4WD are much more expensive for the km's now than they were when I bought the Isuzu. Would very much appreciate your advice. Thanks.

ABayliss

There's no right or wrong answer here, but here are some thoughts.
As you do a relatively high mileage in your daily travels, it's important to have a good safe, economical and reliable vehicle for 90% of your motoring. However, although you only tow the float on the odd occasion, at the weight you've stated, it's a heavy load so needs something like a decent SUV to tow it. An average car will not be up to the job.
The other problem is that good reliable SUVs (particularly diesel, which would be the preference) hold their value particularly well.
So in a perfect world, you need two vehicles, but the downside of that is that you have two lots of rego, WoF, insurance, servicing and maintenance etc. But to find a good example of either type of vehicle would take care of most of the budget.
So you really have two options;
1) Buy a decent diesel SUV and be prepared for the higher daily running costs, but at least you won't have two lots of overheads, so some of the cost will be off-set.
2) Buy a good quality daily car and a cheap old SUV for the odd towing requirement. I think this would be better than splitting the budget in half, as the car is for most of your motoring, and at 30,000km a year, reliability is important.
If you go with option 1, probably something like a diesel Toyota Prado would be good.
If you go with option 2, decide on the size/type of vehicle that suits your needs and buy as late, low mileage, well kept model as you can find (at the mileage you're doing, I would suggest at least the Toyota Corolla, Mazda3, Honda Civic size of car). And for a cheap SUV, put maybe $3k-$4k into something similar to the Bighorn you already have, and given the low mileage this vehicle will be doing, hopefully you'll get a reasonable run out of it.
So, sorry I probably haven't been able to give you a direct finite answer, but hopefully it gives you somewhere to start from.