100 series

Are you serious?

Macca i owned a 1998 100s Petrol for about 3 and half years, just recently sold it , had spent a lot of money on it mainly on extras and my opinion is that they dont stack up with the off road stuff, too bloody delicate, more at home in suburbia. Taking the family for a drive in comfort and room to spare no problems and great to drive on a sealed road.
I live in the North West of WA and its quite easy to get off road, all the after market bits and piece I had on it were to be honest a waste of money, they really are over priced and cant handle punishment. I am not one of these people who delibrately goes out to bash the vehicle around either, two many four wheel drive owners think they are bullet prove when it comes to driving off road. You only have to see the tourist around here at this time of the year.

Have now brought a 1994 DX Nissan Patrol Ute Diesel and economically its great and handles the off road stuff well. Take the advise of your mate reference the 100s mechanically, mine had done about 130,000ks and the gear box had to be rebuilt, I was the second owner of this vehicle, never towed in 5th gear, thats an example of how delicate they are. Sure there will probably be forumites who will say I dont know what I am talking about but these are my experiences over the last 3 and a bit years.

Cheers
Spango

Well if a HZJ105 cant handle the cape york development road you better start telling a few people and govt deparments, cape york land council ect.

Great wind up.

To let you in on a little secret, you can drive XF wagons on all of these tracks/roads. I would sugguest an early model VB commodore if you like pre 90 tech.

The 105's are great for their intended use.

Interesting subject. I have owned many Toyotas over the years and still continue to drive them mainly for thier size and seating capacity. Are they as tuff as they once were? no way. Are they more comfortable and better equiped? of course. Vehicles are always going to be a compromise between tuffness, reliability and comfort. Less than 1% of Toyota ownwers would do what I do with them, 6-8 Cape York Trips per year and the rest touring around Australia a total of over 100k klms per year. Less than 10% would do what most of you guys do, play with them in various degrees of dificulty at weekends. That leaves 89% of Toyota owners using them as big people movers for their families etc. Realistically and quite profitably Toyota are listening to and catering to their bulk puchasers. Will they make a really good strong reliable tuff 4x4 again, I hope so but in reality unlikely. I still think my 12HT 60 series was the best strongest and most reliable. But in my game you have to have modern gear or no work. The 80s were good, tho some much bette than others with big performance differences between varios 1HZ motors and some bodies much tighter than others.After having 2 the 100s they have been the most expensive to buy, run and maintain by a huge margin. Would I buy another 100, unlikely, but what else is there? I have always been anti Land Rover but the new Discovery 3 make the 100 Series seem like a dinosaur. Great seating and features, would I buy one? not until they have proven reliable in our tuff conditions for at least a year.

This is good thread and I would have to agree that newer vehicles, 4wds included, are much more refined than they were. I have to agree with my dad though when he used to say more features = more to go wrong. Cars are better handling smoother to drive but they aint built to last, car companies are in business of selling cars. Each model is more refined but also weaker. I drive a patrol and I like it but its got its faults already had the diff housing welded up and apparently the chassis cracks near the rear spring mounts, dodgy welding on the spring mounts. 79 series tojos are also cracking diff housings where the older 75's didn't.
Just finished reading too long in the bush, I wonder how a gu patrol or 100 series would handle the punishment those old landies took.... reckon the air con would be appreciated though.

why not buy a Tractor with 4wd if you want to be TUFF:)

Or perhaps a D9 would suffice. No panel damage problems there.

After speaking to several ppl who have had 80 and 100 series cruisers, I personally would not by a 100 series.

If my Patrol had a tail gate instead of barn doors it would be perfect.

G'day fig jam. yes i have 01 100series std pack 1hz ,went up the cape last year this time. had no faults with it. had 150,000km at the time.Yes i chose a vehilce that didn't have all the gadgets and wanted it plain and simple if some thing goes wrong,that may/can be fix on the spot. But what i think is people talking about is the cruisers with IFS due to cracking and breaking away . Again no matter what vehicle you take i sure they all have there faults one way or another..
cheers ....

I have recently changed to a Patrol cab chassis after owning Toyotas. My last was an 100 series GXL, the first real 4wd weekend I blew 4 teeth of the front crown wheel (diff), sold it after the gear box was recod after 90000 ks. IMO Toyotas are a soft tourer and not built any more for the harder stuff. They may be fine to tow the van around Australia but put it in the Vic high country for a period of time and see how it stands up.

I mate has a 03 GU and has done some hard 4 Wheeling for 2 years and it has never missed a beat.

Landcruisers have lost their reputation for being a tough truck.

Bring back the 60 series.

Cheers

I can see where your mechanic mate may have been coming from.

I drive a 98 105 NA Diesel, and love it. I have also owned an old series 2 landrover. While I do my own servicing on the landcruiser, and could do a few repairs (given a manual, tools and enough time), I am sure I could confidently fix 90% of what went wrong on the old landrover.

Being older and more mechanical, they were much easier to fix when something went wrong. The trouble was, things went wrong more often.

So your mate, being a mechanic, was probably thinking along the lines of road-side repairs. Much easier to fix something with no ABS, Airbags, power steering, cruise control, air conditioning, turbo, etc.... BUT the vehicle will break down more often, and be less comfortable.

Depends on what you plan on doing, and how mechanically minded you are...

How much is a good back for a good nights sleep worth??? Take the 100 and get NRMA premium cover :-))
If it breaks down, you will be towed to the nearest repairer and put up in 5 startacc till its fixed!!
What else do u want???
Andrew

Guys, some of the comments in here are a joke.
I can assure you that if every one of us in here had a 100 series cruiser, every one of us would encounter different problems (if any). I have worked in the auto industry for most of my life. I assure you, every car we repaired had different problems, it comes down to lots of things, maintainence, owner, the actual car, where its driven, how its driven...etc..the list is endless. No 2 cras are identical.

Without carrying on as i could, I'll end this by saying that its a whole heap of factors are behind how a vehicle survives. This battle we have between who has got the best vehicle is childish. I love my GQ, to me it does everything i want it to. Part of the reason why i love GQ's is all based due to the fact that a GQ was my first expierence offroad. It could just as easily have beena 80 series he had and id be driving one now. Personally i think they r both excellent vehicles. any one of them can break down at any time.
Just my shillings worth
Ange.

So our own experience and thoughts are meant to be a joke.

You cant honestly tell me the new Landcruisers are as strong as the old 60 series ect.

Mate i'm with you Fig-Jam buy a FJ40, much better vehicle than the 80 and 100 series, they fall apart to easy.

Baz.

Macca. As the owner of a 100 series I'd suggest you take the fj40. When you get back let us know how the old bus with 300,000+ KM went. Let us know if the leaf springs broke your back in half, if the choking dust coming in through the holes in the floor annoyed you & if the 22 year old running gear held together. Of course you'll need a heap of jerry cans as the old girl doesn't carry 145litres like those new woosy 100 series & ya better take some ear plugs cos they're not as quiet either. Your mates memory of a bullet proof 40 series is far from reality as all I remember is blown diffs, broken springs & rough ride for your trouble. Sure you could modify the old bus to handle the rough stuff but you can equally do up 100 series the same.
Have a look at the continuous repairs on Otis the old green Cruiser in 4WD monthly to get an idea what's going to break next on your Cape trip:-))
Cheers Craig..........
HZJ105