Newbie - Jackaroo for fun and frolicks?

In that market, I'd also look at the Prado V6 - deceptively capable, and originally marketed by Toyota as the wife's shopping trolley. Absolute sh*t load of them around on the market which have never been off road and at a good price.

See www.lcool.org for more specifics if you go down this route

gday poe.
we recently went throu the same thing.
we were looking for a slightly smaller 7 seater for traveling mainly not to much hard stuff.spoke to eric about our options and price range and he sugested jackaroo great value for money.looked around for a couple of weeks and thought $15000 will get us a really good one.
tried to find a diesel but as you said hard to come buy.
came across 1 in the trading post.
92 v6 se auto every option 150ks with service books winch bar tinted windows ect.
$10400.went and seen it drove it home.
they are a little thirsty around town but that could be the mrs driving lol 20ltrs per 100ks.just did a trip to melbourne and back with a little city driving this week done nearly 500ks and as soon as i finish typing this were of to fill it so ill let you know how many ltrs per 100 hwy.plus the bonus was we had a little left over money.
back to the trading post to find a camper.
came across a dingo ofroad 2000 in like new condition $4500 dtowed that home that night to lol.
now bring on the nice weekends so we can get out of here.
some parts are a little dearer for servicing air filter $60 tranyy service kit $60 fuel and oil filters cheap as chips.
i needed a seatbelt for the roadworthy plenty of jacks being wrecked in vic so no problems there.new seat belt $700 s/h $66.and a fuse for the horn$0 now roadworthy.
if you decide to go with a jack just keep checking the usual web sites and we did notice they are a lot cheaper in nsw.
cheers and good luck.

Thanks mr diamond for the info and nsw tip. I'll keep looking.

Much appreciated.

Poe :)

Poe,

It will likely come down to your budget and what is available at the time you are ready to purchase (and how big a hurry your are in at the time).

All the major brands should be considered.

One tip though, Jackaroo diesels from (June?) 1998 onward have a significantly different motor to pre 1998. Much more high tech, much more power, much more sought after. So if your budget can stretch and you want a diesel Jackaroo, I'd look for post 1998 vehicles. My guess is that you should be able to get these from $18k upwards if you look around hard.

Hope this helps.

Andrew