This has been awesome, thanks everyone for your replies, suggestions and jousting. I think bottom line I may be well unreasonably prejudiced and I neeed to test drive some modern autos and the manual equivalent if it exists. I think grudgingly an auto will be fine.. Im not gonna ask a what truck ...

In simple terms, yes your prejudice against autos is dated and based on old wives tails from the 1960s and 1970s.... What make of 4x4s are you looking at? Bwahaha well I am from the 60s and 70s so fair call Your answer now opens up a raft of possibilities, Prado, Pathfinder, something more road ...

Okay so here’s a question. Am I unreasonably prejudiced against auto gearboxes? I am looking for a fairly modern 4x4, something softroady but with some capability i.e an X-Trail, Prado, etc but they are all auto. I have never owned a auto and I like the perceived control I have with a manual. The r ...

Okay so here’s a question. Am I unreasonably prejudiced against auto gearboxes? I am looking for a fairly modern 4x4, something softroady but with some capability i.e an X-Trail, Prado, etc but they are all auto. I have never owned a auto and I like the perceived control I have with a manual. The r ...

So a quick question for the experts. Does the Rubicon come in diesel?
If not, how easy is it to waterproof them?

Cheers

Very very intersting post. I am a newbie and a wanna be, one day I will own a Defender, one day....
But, could you explain what you meant by

The standard 16" steel rims in the above pic's don't have the right offset for nth island tracks, they sit inside the guards by at least 35mm

Thanks