Wednesday, Jan 11, 2006 at 14:25
That kind of thought pattern is exactly why it never took off in Aus and had to be scrapped. It was a very sad day...
I owned a 1994 Wide Track Rocky with a 2.8L Turbo Diesel Factory Intercooled engine. It had a Coil Rear end an IFS front and was a dream to drive on the road with power stear air con and factory sun roof. Built by toyota (as they own Daihatsu) it was as tough as nails and had a very reliable motor based on the Hilux 2.8L but with a stronger top and bottom end to handle the turbo. It was old school Mechanical fuel pump so you could run the bugger without any power from the alt or batt (I did once).
I reckon next to the 4.2 Patrols this thing had more staying power than any other 4by in it's time, you could be rawing through soft soft sand, wheels spinning engine at 1500rpms and black smoke bleep out the exaust without a worry in the world, as long as you kept your foot on the floor it just kept going. Unreal machines. Of course off the lights around town my 3.0L non intercooled surf would still leave it for dead but that's what all those electronic gizzmos do, but I still reckon the rocky had much better bottom end power, they were heavy as, dry tare factory weight of 2.1tonne. For a 3 door short wheelbase with a rezan top that's pretety bloated, but the milage was always 10L/100km no matter weather I was thrashing it round the burbs or we had everything we could fit in the bugger and were powering through the hills down at bridgtown on the highway.
I almost shed a tear when we sold it, but unfortunatally the ONLY downside to it was the fact that it was a 2 door... As our only car (the wife has a company car) and another baby planned (we already had a 6 year old at the time) it just was not practicle to keep the 2 door. Trying to get the bubs in and out of the car all the time with a 2 door 4by would have been a nightmare, plus we just wouldn't have had enough storage space as we barley have enough now.
So in short, and to finish off my dribble, just an absolute ripper of a vehicle, comfy, capable and economical, however even though the back seats have OOODLES of room (more than the surf by a long long way) I reckon for your family there just wouldn't be enough storage space. Maybe if you put some roof racks on (they can be hard to fit because of the odd shaped roof, but I have seen them done) it would be ok, but never under estimate the amount of space you're family is going to take up, especially if you are taking camping gear with you!
Good luck with your purchase, always exciting getting a new bus!
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