With the market the way that it is in North America and in Europe you can pick up a second-hand dedicated off-roader with ferocious abilities, such as a Jeep Wrangler or a LR Defender for a bag of chips.
10 000 euros is "a bag of chips"? You must be a richer man than I am... (And yes, that's about the price of a Wrangler that is over 10 years old in Finland. Occasionally a bit less, often somewhat more.)
Also, you need to think of "off-roading" in wider terms. Not everything under the category of "off-road" is the same thing. Sure, a 20 year old beater is great to take to your local off-roading park and really push the envelope with it. If it breaks down, no biggie - worst case scenario, you need to call a taxi. But would you take that same vehicle for a 3500km road trip? (And with the gasoline prices in Finland, could you afford to?)
This, to me, is the Patriots role - a "light expedition rig". A vehicle that you can drive long distances with and still handle bad weather conditions on the way and the easier trails when you reach your destination. That in addition to being a daily driver, that is.
In my opinion you cannot build a weapon for off roading and still retain the on road characteristics of a stock vehicle. Hell as soon as you just put new rims and bfg's you are changing it a great deal.
A "great deal"? Come on now. It's not
that huge a change, unless you go for significantly different tires than stock. Of course, that's the whole point in all modifications, isn't it. If you change the differential ratios a little, you get a lower crawl ratio that helps a lot on the trail but you still remain able to drive on the highway too. (Although with normal summer speeds, the engine RPMs are a bit of a concern. Still, the modification is interesting, as a lower crawl ratio would really help on the off-road side.) If you were to somehow create a 40:1 lowest overall ratio with that method, you'd have great crawling ability but you can forget about driving that vehicle on the road. So moderation is definitely a good thing to have, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with modifications that are within reason.
We are not talking about building an off-roading monster here. Just doing a few tweaks to make the vehicle a better compromise for our individual situations. After all, no company builds their products exactly to suit one particular person, but rather they build the best compromise they can come up with to as wide range of consumers as possible. Issues such as marketing, local availability etc. also affect what is available. A little tweaking can help get more out of your gear. Not to mention making it unique.
There is a non-monetary value in that that shouldn't be completely ignored.
