I co-own and run a LandRover for work (25 yrs old), fantastic car.
But, the most versatile and *useful* 4 wheeled has to be by all means the "Unimog" (Mercedes Benz "
Universal
Motor
Gerät"):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unimog
Out since the mid 50s it is still on the road, new version just came out (and the first versions also). It is dubbed the vehicle that made most profit ever for his producer, hundreds of thousands have been produced and a great part went to the worlds different armies: Unimogs have been used by many different militaries, including the Argentinian, British, Belgian, Danish, Dutch, French, Irish, Indonesian, Portugese, Finnish, Estonian, Greek, Swiss, Chilean, Bolivian, Mexican, Pakistani, Rhodesian and Singaporean armed forces. They are also used extensively by the Brazilian Marine Corps, South African NDF, the New Zealand Army, the Turkish Army (it is produced in Turkey under license) and the Australian Army. The Unimogs are used as troop carriers, ambulances, tow vehicles (check out utube Unimog towing Harrier) and mobile command centers. The USMC uses an engineer version while the US Army uses them to access remote installations.
With a reason: Unimog is versatile: From lorry to tractor, from crane to well driller, 4x4 transport mastering the heaviest terrain (100% climb, 75% roll certified), economic and almost unbreakable it has been a workhorse for farmers, forest workers, geologists, soldiers and adventureres since it came out.
Standard equipment is a front and rear hydraulic hoe (rear: 3-point) that can run various accessories from plows to cranes, mine rollers, drillers, rail wheels, etc., also two cardan drives front and rear for water pumps, winches, etc. :
While it became bigger over the decades (much to my personal dismay, on a typical European ranch - using the "agrar" version - its more interesting to pass where the big tractors cannot) and shifted its primary role from being the ideal combi agrar/lorry/transport tool to community vehicle (snow plowing, street cleaning, forest work, water net maintenance etc. they even run on rails (!) and are used to pull wrecked trains) it is probably still the best allround "useful" 4 wheeler.
I am desperately looking for one for my ranch, but here you run into a problem: The ones that own one usually dont want to sell it, and the new ones are just too expensive for the normal person (300.000 Euros upwards).
To find it 2nd hand you have to rely on the old (1970s-1980s) types and series, and there it always is a bit of a gamble when you still have to put up 20.000 for a 40 year old Unimog (generally they then have 2000-3000 hours on them) because if anything breaks in the complex hydraulical systems you are screwed: While all parts exist (since the 406 series supply guarantteed by MB) they are fairly expensive and you need a mechanic with a lot of experience to repair/service them. This said, their realiability is legendary (the one I learned driving on 1966 is still on the road doing heavy duty daily) so its a calculated gamble.
Here some pics and vids of this amazing vehicle, of course mainly focusing on my favoirte series, the 406:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyhe9ipKTD4"]UNIMOG Wasserd Bundeswehr Gelände - YouTube[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntYp2ch2GF8"]Unimog Offroading - YouTube[/ame]
Rattler