Peter replied:

Kevin, Both vehicles are equally competent but have you considered your choice of engine carefully? I have just bought a 100 series LandCruiser RV to do the same thing as you, but after a lot of research, I am sure petrol is the cheaper way of going. eg service intervals of diesels, 5,000 km, if you are not towing or doing continuous city driving. If you are this distance is halved to 2,500km, as apposed to 10,000km/5,000km for petrol. Cost of filters are higher and there are twice as many changes on a diesel. The cost of fuel itself, on a recent trip (July) through the outback, (New South Wales, Queensland, Northern Territory), everywhere we fueled up we noticed 2 things. The first was the high cost of petrol, the second, was that diesel was always dearer than petrol, sometimes by as much as 15 cents per litre in one case (Tennant Creek). I don't want to dissuade you but it really pays to do your homework very carefully. Cheers.

Ray replied:

Hi Kevin I have been 4WDing for 31 years. The 1st vehicle was petrol, the 2nd Petrol/gas. The last two vehicles are both diesel. I found the best advantage with the diesel was the distance that I could drive between fills, approx 930klms. The latest vehicle is a Patrol 3TD and the service intervals are 10000Klm. The vehicle tows well and is at least equal to the Toyota 80TD off and on road. The vehicle has done 40000 with no problems
Ray

sean replied:

I have a 3l patrol with 40000 on it. The servicing costs except for the extra is on par with a petrol. The engine has no internal belts and injectors are not serviceable which makes less maintenance. Just ask the dealers to provide the total cost of scheduled services to 100000ks and compare. Towing a 16ft van at 100ks I get 6km/l. Done about 6000ks towing.

sean

Simon Evans replied:

The 3.0 Patrol isn't very good on clutches. 2 members of my 4WD club have them, and they have both had to have their clutches and flywheels replaced at quite low klms. One of them got it replaced under warranty. The other didn't and it cost him about $4,000. There has been quite a bit of talk on this subject on patrol4x4@topica.com with a number of people complaing about 3.0 clutches. $4000 seems to be the norm.

Glenn replied:

Have a 3Litre Pajero and found in Simpson desert this year taht fuel consumption was 18.6 - 18.7 Litres per 100 km. Believe Prado has a bigger thirst. patrol 4.2 Diesel was getting 15.5 Litres per 100 k (Maximum). Even though Diesel is dearer I think it would still be more econmical due to lower fuel consumption. 3 litre Nissan is much more econmical again than 4.2 Diesel.

Ian replied:

But clutch wear also depends on the driver. If you slip the clutch to get turbo boost when towing or offroad to get a little bit of movement etc, you do stuff a clutch quickly.

As for the $4,000 that includes replacing flywheels. Apparently now there is a technique to machine them, keeping costs to $1000 or so.

I drive a 4.5 Patrol GU & I love it. I get about 15L/100km when highway driving & I got 20L/100km in the Simpson Desert.

Ian