What car to buy for a very long trip

[hawke]

I'm giving some thought on going on a long drive - Sydney to London, and wondering what would the best car to use. I haven't worked out the exact route, but would probably be either Sydney - Perth - Singapore - India - Iran - Turkey - Bulgaria - France - England. Or - Darwin - Hong Kong - China - The Stans - Moscow - St Petersburg - Stockholm - Denmark - Germany - France - England.

There would be two of us - me and my wife.

I suspect that 4WD would be useful - something big enough to sleep securely inside if needed - diesel probably. Reliability, ease of parts and fix-ability would be important.