Best Engine

I was just about to say It looks like it falls to me to say something about the 2.3 but Ive been beaten to it although drift has a fair comment and knows lots more about fronteras as does gregster A friend rifleman theres a long list.Mines ok does 35mpg round town solo,but lots less when towing or laden.I am smitten with mine but it does have shortcomings,terrible up hills, smokes, heatings lousy they come with a heavy spare wheel carrier and a drop down tailgate (which I liked) most of the other fronteras have the spare on a swing door.
I bought mine with absolutely no research but felt very strongly that this particular one was the one for me and got it.
If you are near any fog members I suggest you see if you could take each model for a test drive.
If I was buying again...not sure...but probably 2.5 or 2,8 diesel..a lwb green one with steel wheels,but I was very tempted at green 2.3 recently which I missed and went for £150 I would of kept both, There are several different alloys and at least two types of steel wheels.You can look through the members ride forum to compare.
I use mine daily for work and it has a.t. tyres on it.tyres is another thing to consider
Just buy one of each

one chap on here has 9 :shock:

....happy hunting.

2.2 16V Eco is my personal favorite (I'm under the care of a psychiatrist) so long as you take a spare one wherever you go, when they fail they do it with a rare magnificence that can only be described as "burst". They are ok though if you keep oil changed often and service it properly. Just waiting for a new vaccuum sensor to finnish off freddy. Fast road cams, lightened fly wheel ballanced pistons, conrods and polished and ported inlet manifold. Need to do the exhaust manifold and change the ecu as well, will do that in the spring.. Such fun to see the look of shock on the boy racers in thier saxos as you pull away from them in something resembling a tank!

I had a 2.0l sport for nearly 3 years and loved it, was very slow uphills and towing was hard but now got a 2.8tdi. I only wished
I'd bought it sooner, loads of power and is more economical than the 2.0l petrol

Early 2.2 petrol owner here.

Not the fastest or most powerful. Reliable enough with regular oil changes. Tows quite well. Nippy enough about town, will do 90 on a motorway if necessary.
Reasonable economy, When I had standard tires/suspension I quite often got 30(ish) mpg.

I think you get a mixed bag with the 2.2. Its either good and will last or it will give up the ghost somewhere between 75,000 and 125,000 miles.

Anybody with a V6 care to comment? Otherwise i think i'll keep my eye out for a 2.8TD.

Many thanks for everyones views.

Oooh me please !

I have a 52 reg V6, have had it nearly three months, but had a 2.2 petrol a couple of years back.

Love the car, only use it for urban driving and am getting about 18 mpg, and have a heavy right shoe

Personnaly I wouldn't have any other engine now, but mainly cos I am not a fan of diesels, and the V6 goes like stink and sounds fabulous.

But I would re-iterate the comment above about the exhaust. I got my truck cheap cos it was rotten from the cat's back, they are VX only parts (unless you get a custom built system) and the bits I need are going to cost about 600 quid :grumpy:

But worse then that is that VX do not have the main silencer in stock anywhere, and two months after ordering it I still don't have even an estimated delivery date as they are on back order from their supplier.

Jon

Nobody seems to have mentioned the wonderful smell you get from the 2.8, or is it just me that likes things like that?

Having never had my head under a 2.8's bonnet(actually I have never seen one in the flesh)I am intrigued as to what kind of smell?

Only time mine has ever been smelly was when I still had carpets in it, as they frequently got wet it was mouldy wet dog smell, then I lie, because when I fitted my rubber floor it smelt like new condom for weeks :shock:

Ah... I thought it was the smell of the engine. :oops:

Well ,so far I have been able to avoid dogs,mouldy carpets and rubber smells. Has that smell gone away now drift?
My 2.3 has a car ish smell (? ) which is ok. It does smell better when hoovered and when I have gone round the dash with tesco's squirty bottle spray dash cleaner.

We're not on topic....

rubber smell has gone, its back to smelling like good ole farts now :oops:

I've got a 2ltr petrol and not had a problem finding parts, both from motor factors or VX. But with hindsight I wish i'd got a 2.8 oil burner.

only had to replace a few worn out engine parts (waterpump, timing belt & tensioner & a clutch slave) on it so far, so can't really complain about it (103,000 mile ish engine) only thing against it is that it could do with an extra "motorway" gear for the mpg. Don't tow so that's not an issue for me, but the previous owner used it with a c'van and had no problems. he even said that his mate in an oval struggled up a hill where the fronty didn't, but that could have been to better gear selection or a lighter caravan.

2.8 dirty diesel LWB for me next time....

that my couple of pennies worth, for now

Thanks for the update drift

Just had a look on autotrader and there are some 2.8's on there.