I did a cross country freebie with Toyota some years back on the off road course at Silverstone, the usual stuff through mud and deep wading, We were using the top of the range new Landcruisers and Toyota had provided instructors who travelled the world demonstrating the skills etc, in a quiet moment we got chatting and I asked him to list his top buys and why..
They were
Landrover, simple, reliable, break down anywhere and you can normally fix it or source parts and get it repaired, be it in the the deepest darkest parts of Africa to the southern Americas.
Toyota Land Cruiser, similar reasoning except harder to get fixed / sorted due to reliance on a lot of electronics.
Mercedes G Wagon, as above but 10 times more expensive to repair.
BMW X Series... as above but worse, he also said at the time everything was computer controlled and if the 4 wheel drive failed it would select 1 wheel drive to get you home! which was pretty much useless when you are buried up to your axles in mud.