he wants to forget the real offroaders and look at softroaders/gay wannabe offroaders or one of those look a like off roaders that is FWD but styled like a 4x4, such as that daft nissan juke thingy.

They will have the high seating position, decent mpg and towing ability he needs.

A real 4x4 will be able to pull the house behind him but very few of the full sized ones have great fuel economy. Plus at that money, youre buying an old premium grade vehicle so likely to be higher maintenance. At least the soft roaders are aimed at a lower budget level to begin with so not usually so silly to maintain.