Prado D4d Vs Prado Petrol

Diesel......depending on how much extra $ they want for it !!

Maybe a silly question, but if you are driving mostly to and from work in the city and highway work with only moderate off road work....why on earth do you want a bullbar, winch, lift and BFGs...??? BFGs are are hard tyre and will make your city driving less comfortable. Winch...??? Save your money for a bettter tent/camper.

Apart rom that....get the diesel.

This is the "Holden or Ford" question. It all depends on you. Both are great engines.
Personally - I have a petrol. Use it for towing a van & the consumption is really good for a 4litre. Originally went to buy a diesel but the difference in purchase price was $7.5K (Toyota had a factory rebate on petrol's at the time [6/07] ). Can buy a lot of petrol for that difference and with the price differential on diesel now the sums are even better on petrol.

Check out http://www.pradopoint.com/ - has heaps of info,

Willy

There's better ways to spend the dough Brent.
I am in no doubt that I would go petrol ..and spend the dough on getting sequential injected LPG installed. Cost $4k, rebate $2k. Then you'll be getting around town at 67cents a litre. The price goes up in the bush, but it's still well below cost of ULP or diesel. I've done heaps of outback touring and there are only a few places in the remote outback that LPG was not available. Get an 80 litre LPG tank and keep you full size petrol tank, then you'll have the option if LPG is not available. You'll be filling up more often, but when a fill only costs $40, it's fun thing to do.

Do the sums yourself - with diesel & petrol heading north daily, it'll pay for itself in a year then it's all money in the bank.

A lift is next to useless, unless you're going extreme. Winch is big boy jewellery, you'll never use it and it'll weigh the front of your car down so much that you may even need to spend another grand or more upgrading suspension. A/T tyres are a good idea, they're good compromise rubber.

That's my two-bob's worth.

Brent their is not much piont asking the guys the pros and cons of diesel v petrol. All the diesel guys are going to tell you to get diesel and vice versa.
Diesel pros Better resale this is the biggie, better economy, better range, better downhill engine braking.
Diesel cons, You stink after every refuel(I refuel diesels for work) If you get dirty fuel and it wrecks the fuel pump you could be up for thousands, They still do not have the get up and go of the 4l v6
Petrol pros, Better performance, cheaper fuel, cheaper to buy, nicer to drive(my opinion) Can convert to lpg
Petrol cons, thirsty if towing,less downhill engine braking,poorer resale(this may change if diesel prices keep rising faster then petrol) More flammable fuel
I drove a new d4d auto prado on saturday for 140 ks and found the performance lacking. The lux d4d manual was a very good performer(lighter) which I also drove the same day.
You have to work out what works for you.
Cheers Pete

Have the D4D Auto GXL Prado.

Was achieving 9.5 to 9.8L / 100km consistently in the city. Missus, with a lead foot, was getting high 10's, low 11's.

Fuel Consumption was before 2 inch lift kit & Sovereign Bull Bar.

Go to Pradopoint.com for more info.

If I take Diesel as using 11L / 100km ($1.56 per L) & Petrol at 17L / 100km ($1.86 per L) then per 100km, the Diesel will cost me $20.46 per 100km and Petrol $26.52.

Diesel would need to be 54% more than petrol before Petrol becomes more economical.

So if Petrol is at $1.56 per L, Diesel would need to be > $2.40 per L before I kicked myself in the head and regretted buying Diesel.

Petrol v Diesel - Diesel is even more economical as you do sand work and towing. Diesel, more expensive to service. Petrol, not susceptible to a dirty batch of Fuel that could cost you $6K - $10K in an unrepairable Common Rail Injectors.

Diesel, greater resale, engine (barring injectors) last much much longer.

I would be getting the diesel.

But, if I was driving mostly in the city, I wouldn't be kidding myself with a 2 inch lift, BFG's an ARB bar and a winch.

This is the reason Harold Scruby hates us!

Moderate off road doesn't mean 2 inch lifts and winches.

Hi guys, I would just like to buy into this debate a bit. Before I start, I have the 1KZTE (old) 120 series diesel.

A couple of points:
Diesel engines last longer - maybe so in the older style, mechanical fuel pump, low stress diesels BUT how much proof is there that these newer 4 cylinder TDs will get you 500+K kms? A well tuned petrol will get you 400K kms without worry these days as they are all running better oils, cleaner fuels and are always in optimum tune due to the advanced computer management systems.

Maintenance - petrol every 10000 km - oil and filter cheap as chips and not messy. New plugs at 100 000km (expensive) and a timing belt somewhere around there as well.
Diesel - oil and filter every 10 000kms but advice is to do this every 5 000 kms for longevity therefore double the frequency and higher costs of diesel oil and filters. Also messy. Injectors (when?). Timing belt 150 000 kms.
Arguably tyres and brakes last longer in the diesel due to lower performance and better use of the engine for braking whereas the V6 performance lends itself to fast acceleration/deceleration and therefore greater wear on the tyres and brakes.

If you ever keep the vehicle long enough to rebuild the engine: how much is a petrol rebuild vs diesel? I think it is a lot cheaper and more easily done by a home mechanic I believe (happy to be corrected).

Resale price will remain higher for diesels - only for so long and only provded diesel doesn't continue to exceed petrol prices by the margin they are now. This point has been mentioned. Labor's future 'environment tax' may exacerbate the difference too.

Towing economy - yes this is important and, yes, the diesel will get better economy than the petrol but, as has been mentioned, the diesel will still suffer a loss of economy. Towing a 1+ tonne CT with my chipped 1KZTE my economy drops to around 14l/100kms AND my performance suffers considerably, particularly in hilly terrain. As has been mentioned, the petrol economy does suffer but not like that of Patrol or Cruiser 6 cylinder petrols AND the performance, particularly in an Auto, is very good. No need for 3 kms of straight, flat road needed to overtake anyone!

Does Toyota still have the Petrol Prado on special at $52K with auto and other goodies. If so, this would be abut 7-8K cheaper than the diesel equivalent and no waiting time. As has been said many times, thats a lot of petrol OR pays for the gas conversion and a lot of off road gear (if thats what you want).

Look, I love my TD and it suits me but, if I was to replace it now, I would buy a petrol if the discounts were still on offer. I believe (as I am currently in Africa) that NSW diesel prices are around $1.90 and ULP about 30c/l less. Thats a big difference AND ULP prices get discounted regularly due to demand. By the way, isn't NSW LPG approaching the $1 mark? If so, thats a long way from 67c as mentioned earlier.

Anyway, just a bit more input to confuse the issue. By the way, I bought my TD in Mar 2004 when diesel (in QLD) was 89c/l and petrol was 92c/l !!!!!!!! Look how far we have come in just over 4 years in fuel prices.

Cheers
Rob

Do a quick sum on purchase cost diesel servicing diesel fuel consumption diesel then compare the same costs for a petrol powered Prado if they both suit your needs the cheapest should be the best i'll be interested in the answer to the equation good luck Peter

To those guys that use petrol what fuel are you using Premium or Unleaded, does the Premium get more mileage but when it's approx 10 cents more per litre is it better

Hard choice because they are both very good motors.

In my book, the big difference is in Range. The diesel will always have greater range when the going gets tough, and diesel is such a safe fuel to carry. There are almost no tracks in Australia that can't be done with a standard (180litre) diesel D4d Prado.