First Car

Hi all,

I am starting to think about getting my first car and i want it to be a 4wd as a find them more practical for your P's and my mates and I want to go out bush. I have toyed around with a few different cars from tritons to hilux's, I have started to get really hooked on the disco 2's (1999-2004). I have a budget of around 3500-4000 and i know that the 03-04 are out of my price range as they are the facelifted models. I have been looking around and a fair few people give them crap for breaking down but then i see the actual disco owners have said they are a great car, am i just being paranoid and some people are just ignorant or is there something i need to be genuienly worried about and is there a simple trick to keeping your discoveries in good condition. (Im thinking a td5 in manual with around 200k-300k on the odometer). If i find i dont want one what are some reccomendations for my price range that are a wagon, manual and preferably turbo diesel for fuel economy.

Thanks for your help in advanced Tom,