Daihatsu Rocky.....any good?

Cheers Flappa. This is exactlly the sort of info I'm after. One thing I forgot to mention is that the vehicle has to double as my everyday to and from work car as well (about 40km round trip daily through moderate traffic - Adelaide).

My old Rocky was great also... I just pushed too hard and destroyed an engine and then the gearbox... Parts for the box were nigh on impossible to obtain, odd sized bearings which had to be ordered in. I tried several places all over Melbourne and only one place in Melton was willing to touch it for this very reason... As for the small tank, at that time(about8 or 9 years ago) Long Ranger made a 100L tank which yielded about 950km with a little restraint on the right foot...

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!

Whoops!!!!

What I was about to say was that the Diahatsu Rocky wasn't a bad 4WD for its time and what it was designed to do but I tend to agree with Quilpiediver and would opt for one of the more recent models like the Honda CRV or Nissan X Trail. You'll get all the modern comforts of air cond., CD player, etc to keep you, the wife, and the kids happy and still have a car that can comfortably be used to commute.

You should find something that is say 6 to 7 years old that fits into your price range. Redbook has the 1998 CRV) within your budget limits.

regards,

Browser

Browser as I said in my above reply, I don't know what you know about the 90's model rocky's but by the sounds of it not alot. They came with an excellent air con, it was actually thermostatically controlled (like a manual climate control) and had power steering and sun roof's as standard. They were a very nice vehicle and would take his family a million miles further than any POS CRV would. But as I said, the only downside is the 2 door limitation.

A mate brought a 88 diesel tray back rocky as his First car> they him his Old man and some other people took it a 80S Cruiser and a Patrol up to Randall River Nat park and surrounding Arias for a trip, the rocky preformed perfectly and on the way home towed the 80Series into Meekatharra after it broke down.

This was in 2001.