Car buying

No its lighter than the bigger brothers 100 series, have a great time mate, and a great vehicle
Cheers Peter A

Can't remember which mag I read it in, but the Grande was considered for the final group in a 4WDOTY edition and rejected because of the vulnerability of the airbag suspension. You may want to ask someone at a reputable 4WD prep centre about this and have them protected from stone damage.

Have fun though! :)

The Prado is very good car - specially V6 Auto - its got very good power to weight ratio and will do Simpson with ease provided you kit it up with proper suspension/
lift and tires, etc...

Off to Simpson in 6 days...

Also check out http://www.lcool.org/trips/double_simpson_2004/simpson_report.html for Prados in the Simpson...

Not sure if you are buying new or second hand - but I would go the diesel for sure as it has the torque - the auto is great - why have a fuel guzzling petrol - my vehicle which has the same motor (by the way it is 4 sale) as the Prado runs constantly in the 11's per 100km - the best 9.7 and the worst 14.4 doing slow slow work. In the traffic a diesl is terrific the low down grunt gets you off the mark quickly before everything else without having to rev it - try one and compare I love mine in peak hour traffic & on the hwy sit on 110 no problems. Just remember if you are buying new a trip like this will put a few rattles into the vehicle so it will become second hand very quick. Think about buying at auction and sell after trip etc. The Prado's are very reliable and suspension is greta & with the centre diff lock is very capable. My vehicle is not a Prado but the Surf that was based on the Prado chassis and running gear and so I can vouch for the Prado's performance, only difference is the Prado has more head room, is ugly and has less ground clearance. I'm not trying to sell my vehicle "Yes I am". Again I reckon diesel is the go but fuel prices for diesel are higher but the fuel economy is better & you can get diesel anywhere. Have fun.

I have a friend with a 2002 Prado V6 Auto Grande with traction control, leather and sunroof. Done about 80k and I think he's asking $38k. I can put you in touch if you're interested. He's in Adelaide.

Cheers
phil

I suggest you don't load it up too much as the air suspension doesn't seem to carry the weight over rough terrain any where near as well as the coils. Also the one I led down the Border track had trouble with the central dash display blowing a fuse (No air, stereo or GPS) & had 3 flat tyres.(Road rubber) So peeved off he looked at down trading to the GXL, a far better setup for the Simpson IMHO.
But don't let this put you off as the Grande should do it easy (& in style)
Cheers Craig............
***The more features on a car, the more that can go wrong. KISS***