Cost will be a factor no doubt,
My 2 bobs worth,
Nissan Patrol, Mitsubishi Pajero, Base model 200 series cruiser. I discounted the 76 because of leaf springs and safety features. These are not in order of preference.
I quantify my opinion with; I worked in Tumut in the NSW Snowy mountains for 13 years as a fisheries officer and accessed all of the same tracks and locations (more even) than the local police. In this time I had 80 series, 100 series and Nissan patrol wagons and a TDV8 76 cab chassis with telstra box fitted. I did all of my night work and lots of my day work with both the Parkies and the Talbingo and Tumut police. This included Koszi and all it had to offer. These ops were for many purposes including illegal hunting, fish poaching, wild life poaching and search/drug crops and rescue.
I spent a lot of time in Police vehicles, however they would usually prefer to patrol in mine because it was better kitted out in a number of ways. Unfortunately the most basic was mud tyres for snow work, where they were confined to standard road rubber (Just dumb management).
The police had Nissan patrol wagons at the time (3lt) and I cannot remember being let down by one of them, yes there are issues with torque etc however when it came to getting the job done they were fine. At this time also the cops started to change over to the Pajeros and I must say they were impressive from an engine/drive line point of view and a totally different animal to the Nissan. The Pajero was better in a lot of areas than the Nissan's because of all of the electronic aids, stability and traction control, it would drive up things the old school tech in the Nissan would struggle with, in other areas the Nissan was better, ultimately off road the Nissan won simply because of higher ground clearance in the snow. A lot of the tracks have small trees laying across them that fall over or snap off from the weight of snow (Particularly so with tracks closed to the general public - think lost cross country skiers) in the Nissan you could just barge and bash through where you had to be a bit more careful and strategic in the Pajero - this could make a difference in an emergency.
Lastly the base 200 series, it is a progression of the landcruisers of the day, and the 100 series was a mighty beast for both a police and fisheries vehicle in the day, yes the 1HZ was a bit slow but in the bush it had the traits of the Nissan's ruggedness and also the low down grunt of the engine when things got challenging. I believe the base 200 would be a progression of this, with better safety features/engines etc.
Hope this means something. They may not be flash and have all of the bells and whistles that the guys want but these vehicles have proven themselves in the field and done exactly what you have asked and they tick all of the needs.
Regards
Jas
