Hi Speedy,

besides the vehicle type, for 6 months a rental could be comparable with buying, with the advantage that you won't be necessarily tied up to return the vehicle to Chile; bought and in Chile registered vehicles must be returned to the country for selling.

My two vehicles are diesel and have been in Argentina and Perú besides Chile, no problems with the diesel quality if you use established and big fuel stations (these also normally accept credit cards). Roads aren't so bad that you must have 4WD, but good clearance is an advantage. For roundtrips on the worst roads temporarily detachable pickup-campers are an advantage.

Security might be a problem if you carry valuables and let them visible, but even wild camping isn't that unsecure overland; robbing is more in the cities.

If you should consider my smaller camper on Mitsubishi L200 4WD an option (Raco in my webpage www.esctouring.cl, with lots of additional information), feel free to contact me directly under geylertsesc at gmail dot com; german, english and spanish spoken.

Regards
Geo Gerd

Buy whatever suits you. No such thing as the ideal vehicle and everyone has their own ideas anyway as you can see at https://get.google.com/albumarchive/114611728110254134379/album/AF1QipPalci4W...

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Tony Lee
Photos at https://picasaweb.google.com/114611728110254134379
Travels map at https://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=5cfc50ef7ac22ca2d&hoursPast=2400&...