So... those who know/drive 4x4's?

I have a VZ commodore wagon. 7 seats & purple :lol: Love it to bits!

But... its not made for the amount of driving I have to do to get anywhere around here. I drive about 200kms every week for shopping, sometimes do that trip 2 - 3 times a week. I also do about 300 - 400kms every Saturday for netball/football. I'm driving back home for christmas (WA - NSW) & back. Also 2 - 4 hours for any decent shopping.

So I'm going to sell my beloved commy & get a 4wd :(

I know the best I can get is a Landcruiser 4.2 turbo diesel.
I'm not willing to budge on the diesel, but I am wondering what other 4wd's are worth looking at?

Nissan Patrol maybe? I want a 7 - 8 seater. Not too worried if its a big 4wd or not, but its gotta be tough. Not tough as in lots of 4wding. Though there are quite a few dirt roads I travel on & my car doesn't feel very safe on them, & the odd camping trip. But I more need it to be able to do the kms I want & keep on going.

There aren't many people letting go of the cruisers at the moment & I'm only going to have a limited amount to spend.

We have a 100 series landcruiser, it has 8 seats but all of the back row comes out so you can have lots of boot space. It's easy to drive and handle but it's only a petrol so it's expensive to run.

I love our Captiva LX Diesal. Great economy to run on long streches.

We live in Alice so ours are tested. The only 4wds most people buy around here are Cruisers, Patrols and Pajeros.
We wanted a cruiser but couldn't afford the year models we wanted. Looked at the patrols but didn't love them. We bought a Pajero. Love it. It's a diesel. It's economical, hard working and comfy. It only seats 7 though.

DH lives over 250km off the tar road, and it does that trip easily

DH has a Patrol which is diesel, I've never driven it as it's a manual. I have a Pajero which is also diesel, can get about 800km to a tank depending on what kind of driving I've been doing. The Patrol's back row seats fold up, my Pajero's seats get stored underneath the floor and I don't think we've ever gotten them out so can't say how comfy they are, sorry.

There are not too many places that I couldn't drive my Pajero, so feel very safe in it :D

I'm kinda avoiding Pajero's :) Know too many people who've had bad experiences. Same with Jackaroo's.

I know Prado's are meant to be pretty good cars too.

Yeah, I looked at some Prado's. Only thing is dad says I'm better off with a 4.2Ltr diesel, the prado's only came out in a 3.0 diesel. No idea what the difference is though. Will have to ask him tomorrow.

We have the Nissan Pathfinder, it is a 7 seater, diesel and it drives really well. I like that it doesn't feel quite as big as the larger 4wd's . (cos I'm shocking at parking)

My parents are currently driving their 7th Patrol :lol: The one they have now is a turbo diesel and they're happy with it. Prior to this one, all have been duel fuel with gas/ulp. Bought this one to tow a 25ft caravan around the country for a 2 year trip.

They've also owned 2 pathfinders and mum loved them, the smaller size made them easier and less truck like to drive, but they still had some grunt.

We had a joke with friends years ago when I was a teenager. They had an old land cruiser, we had the older patrol (square looking one). Their friends got bogged trying to pull a boat out of a lake. So the landcruiser went in to pull them out. And struggled and then got bogged too. So the patrol had to step up - and pulled a boat, ute and landcruiser all out of the mud. Before that happened, the friends always told my parents to get the landcruiser. After that, it was never mentioned again :rofl:

Hi Clover!

We just bought a brand new Prado! We are totally in love. We wanted the same thing as you by the sounds of it. We wanted that 4wd capability, but still something that wasnt too bulky around the city. We have to 3.0 turbo diesel. It has plenty of guts (for a diesel 4wd) and amazing fuel economy to boot,we are still running it in atm, but it is still only using 8.6L/100km. The third row seats are great in that they fold fully beneath the floor so you have full boot space when you dont need them! We chose it because it is such a comfortable town car, yet is a capable 4wd. I also really liked it because it was the only 4wd (other than the landcruiser) that I could find with the ISOFIX child restraint system :lol:
Let me know if you want to know anything else; but this is the link for the prado's specs :)
[link removed]

Just as an edit; my parents have just sold their landcruiser and bought a patrol. Trying to find a 4.2diesel Patrol ( that they dont make anymore) is terrible. They are really rare and over priced. I didnt like driving either of the cars and found them bulky and truck-like on the road, however for the die -hard 4wd'ers they are the best tool out there.

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Just as an edit; my parents have just sold their landcruiser and bought a patrol. Trying to find a 4.2diesel Patrol ( that they dont make anymore) is terrible. They are really rare and over priced. I didnt like driving either of the cars and found them bulky and truck-like on the road, however for the die -hard 4wd'ers they are the best tool out there.

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Oh I can vouch for this too. The current model of patrol is really hard to get, think there were 5 in Oz when my parents purchased. Dealerships don't want the stock because there's a new model coming. But the new model isn't in diesel which seems very strange.

We have a 3.0 litre turbo diesel Prado, with sub tank - so can do over 1000ks round trip, and that's with gigantor Mickey Thompson mud tires. It's a skinner/slimmer 4x4 so I have no trouble parking it in big shopping centres. Great vision as well. Pulls everyone else out of bogs with ease - it has a LOT of grunt. Hard to find, we bought a 2000 model 2 years ago for over $20k however it had 100,000ks less than comparable 4x4 the same age.

Best 4x4 I have ever owned. Have done Patrol's, Pajero's, Landcruiser's. I swear by the Prado. I will never buy a different 4x4 ever again.

Jeep's are full of problems so stay away from those. Everyone I know that's had a Jeep has had major issues.

Thanks guys :) I'm thinking Prado.

We have a 100 series cruiser. petrol. exxy to run but with a few tweeks we are getting good mileage now

Have you thought about a prado or pajero? both capable for mild 4wd. possibly cheaper as a diesel and come in 7 seaters..

Just make sure you try all your kids and their seats in the prado as they are very slim. They are actually narrower seat edge to seat edge than the outlander we just sold. We couldn't fit all our seats across the back.

Clover,

If you end up looking at a Prado, we found it better value to buy brand new. Prado's are in really high demand and dont devalue much. We were looking at current model (2009 and later) here in QLD and werent finding anything decent, second hand in diesel under about $53k and we were seeing them up to $65k. We ended up finding them on sale, new, on Brissys northside, did some bargaining and playing dealerships off against each other and ended up getting a brand new GXL diesel with some very basic extras for $59900, on road. We found it was worth it as the value of the three years warranty, and toyotas capped price services, and the stamp duty to transfer a second hand car, it will probably come close to making up for the 6-7G difference, plus, its a nice new car :)

Do you want the space to carry stuff or people? If you want space for stuff the Toyota Hilux is about as tough as they get. You can get a lid with a lock for the back for security.