Modern petrol 4WDs in the outback

I used to carry a bottle of the additive that boosts the octane rating when I was in areas that only had limited fuel supplies. I forget what it was but you can get it at most auto shops.

a-frame81
Do not get the idea that it is only Diesels that have issues with EGR systems, as Petrol vehicles also have them fitted and do give trouble, and Petrol also have Cat Convertors that have issues when fuel quality (not talking RON) is not up to scratch.

As for the 91/92RON fuel the fuel that is supplied in Australia has a RON minimum rating of 91 and can go to 93, and if your new vehicle is fitted with knock sensors (most petrol vehicles these days) then it will happily run on a slightly lower fuel grade, so long as you are not driving a Supercar under track conditions.

Regards
Athol

The Chinese vehicles should be the longest lasting, the highest quality and technically the best in all respects seeing they have stolen all the info, secrets and knowhow from the rest of the world.

I have a Y62 Patrol have done the Oodnadatta Tk , Googs tk , Maralinga and a track from Maralinga to Cook and then to Eucla had to use some 91 fuel at times the Patrol ran fine .
I do know some that only ever use 91 in their Patrols and even e10 but I will only use 91 when I have to .

I think you should have a rethink what you are trying to achieve.

While Toyota had some major issues with the 2.8l engine a few years back. But that is largely fixed. DPF's are a much bigger issue in forums than they are in reality IMHO.

To forsake a reliable diesel, for a Chinese petrol to use for the outback in the interests of reliability is folly

Do some more research on your chosen brand. Petrol is not user friendly to store and carry.

On the other hand if outback travel will be rare, and most use in the city then get a petrol.

There’s nowhere you’ll go that there aren’t petrol motors. When you get to the ‘outback’ in Alice, all the loaded tourists fly in and rent petrol RAV4’s to do the Meereenie loop. They are everywhere out there.
As stated above, you can carry an octane booster if you have a high compression petrol engine - I had a twin turbo Subaru that absolutely needed decent octane fuel. We now have a forester that we have done some decent touring in and will drink dam water. It gets better mileage and is more comfy than my new BT50. I’d happily take it anywhere that low range isn’t an absolute necessity. West Macs and Oodnadatta track - no issue at all.
As for country of origin, I’ll leave that for another argument. I had one of the first series Kia Ceres 4x4 light trucks out of Korea - I swore I’d never look at them again. Look at Kia/Hyundai now. If the Chinese are picking their game up as quickly they will own the car market in a few years.

What about a petrol Pajero ? Comfortable and capable. I know they are being phased out, but they are excellent vehicles. Perhaps not new enough.
The Hyundai Santa Fe is also pretty good, good value, and close to what you are looking for.

Cheers
Jim

Wow, you've done or are about to do exactly what I have done.... in a 2018 Nissan Y62 V8 Patrol. I bought it after swearing off DPFs for life when my 2016 Prado's third DPF was about to fail again - so I couldn't trust it.

Petrol is excellent, and I'll never by choice go back to diesel. Yes, you pay more in fuel economy (not as much as many people without first hand experience would suggest) but you get a lot more power for it. There's plenty of torque too - that's not only mostly fixed with gearing (you don't need to) but remember when 90kW and 180Nm was sufficient?).

For me, having a naturally aspirated engine with no DPF or turbo's was an added bonus. Unfortunately, I've had to buy a ute, and there are no petrol powered 4x4 utes on the market at the moment, so back into slug land with a diesel.

For what it's worth, the car I owned prior to the Prado was a 2012 LC200 diesel TTDV8.

Bad points? It's harder to find a safe storage area for the more volatile fuel. Your mate's that you travel will will likely have diesel filled jerry cans too. Overall range per tank is less - like for like. My Patrol fitted with the exact same set-up I had in my LC200 would get around 800km out of a tank (to a level where I was comfortable with it) whereas my LC200 would get closer to 1000km from a tank (again, not empty, but to the same comfort level). But then - where do you need a 500km range between servo's in most places now? There are a few, but not too many - and that's where you will need a jerry can for your car as your mate won't have one.

Oh - EDIT, sorry, onto RON. The Patrol takes 98. But read the manual and most will take 91 and will reduce performance (8kW in the Patrol). I never did use 91, but carried 2 x bottles of the fuel additive you can get at most SuperCheap or similar. I guess that's another negative. And with the tank being 140L, you need at least two per tank (they are bottles for 60L tanks).

My thoughts on this subject. The biggest drawback to having a petrol engined 4x4 for remote travel is the availability of suitable fuel in remote areas. In some locations, the only petrol available is “Opal”, this is certainly not recommended for the modern high performance petrol engine.

Also, petrol being a more “volatile” fuel can lose some of its volatility in high ambient conditions if not stored appropriately. Diesel is a more stable fuel, and affected by ambient conditions as much. Of course, diesel can and does have issues with water condensing in the bottom of storage tanks which can pose a problem.

Macca.

Modern vehicles with petrol engines are capable of adjusting themselves to a fair range of fuel octane rating. We drove around Australia for ten months with our petrol 2016 Montero 3.8 L V6 and had no problems (or evidence thereof). Now, we didn't go way out into the most remote areas for many days/tank refills, however did explore many areas which are considered "outback" including outback NSW, Alice Springs, Uluru, the West McDonnell Ranges, the Oodnadata Track (or at least some of it), as well as GRR and the Simpson.

At home we run the Montero on 91 octane (RON) all the time and have done this since new.

Yes a Montero is a Pajero (or a Shogun); you’d finf it difficult to sell a Pajero in a Spanish-speaking country : )

Ours has been excellent - very capable and comfortable. It is indeed a bit thirsty, but no worse than the equivalent LC.