Prado VS Discovery

Hi Brent,
Are you looking to do any towing? Do you have a preference for Petrol or diesel?

It makes a difference IMHO.

Rob.

If reliabity and resale are importent to you their is only one choice. I work for a major car rental co franchise and I could not tell you off the top of my head how many toyotas we have, but we have not had aToyota warranty claim in the two years I have worked their.We run Prados, hiluxs, ravs, corrollas and camrys so this says alot as they do not get an easy life.
Cheers Pete

You honestly can't go past japanese manufacture for quality and reliability, and Toyota is at the top for 4WDs. They are the name and the legend for a damned good reason, and Prados would have outsold Discoveries by a massive margin for the same reasons.
My father in law just upgraded from my 80 series cruiser (and shed a tear watching me drive her away after 260,000kms of reliable outback touring) to a new turbo diesel Prado, and loves it just as much for alot of different reasons.... same excellent build quality and ruggedness but with very good fuel efficiency and very practical, useable new technology.
I have so many examples of my friends and family who have been let down by and been bitterly disappointed by landrover/rangerover reliability and service issues when they subject them to Australia's conditions... Yet Toyota comes thru time and time again to build ap a status of legendary quality and reliability.
I know which one i'd go for thats for sure.
Cheers!

Hi,
I had a 06 Gxl prado V6 Auto . It was a great vehicle , Fantastic on and off the road I could not fault it ..
You will not go wrong if you choose the Prado.

Cheers
Craig

Hi Brent
I think most replies here would go Prado for reliability and
resale value and I'd agree.
The nearset Discovery dealer is many km's from us in melbourne.

But there are other values and some clearly go for the discovery
based on style, roominess , vehicle stability and visibly where
I think the Prado comes up as the worst car in rear view (not much of an issue until your reversing down a driveway with kids crossing behind you).

Not a lot of difference in fuel economy - I'm thinking of the diesel
SE auto I recently took for a drive, in trying to decide the same question.
This discovery performed surprisingly well in the tests I gave it and had quite acceptable performance and low interior noise levels,
and rely makes a different statment than the Toyo.

Things like Prado's massive range, but limited interior space are also factors.

I took a Prado 4wding recently and it clearly didn't have the articulation to follow my Patrol which I found a little disapointing.
Whereas the discovery was much harder to shake off.

If I did go the discovery I'd want to have a rock solid service plan behind it.

Brent ,
For the last three years I have done trips withGodfrey the EO lurker who has an auto diesel Prado . That thing has done all the deserts and more without missing a beat . Great cars .
Willie

Hi Brent

Would I be right in saying your head says Toyota and your heart is saying Land Rover??

At the end of the day, perhaps you should go for the one you really want, not the one which is best on paper. If the one you buy doesn't live up to your dream, well at least you can say you've lived your dream.

Will.

I own a Troopy, Terrano II and Rangerover. All have given excellent reliability and service until recently. At 120,000km, the Rangie is already starting to show its age. Just spent $1300 for parts for the ABS (Discovery has the same parts) , airbags are cracked and nearing the end of their life ($800+ of parts), steering tie rods are all stuffed and need replacing, climate control is stuffed (12+ hours labour to replace $400 of motors) - all in 120,000km!!!!!!!!!

The cost of servicing is also a pain with the Rangie along with the fuel consumption that has gone through the roof over the last 2 months and the dealer does not know what the problem is and cannot fix it ( driving conditions are the same).

This is typical of Landrover dealers that I have dealt with over the last 8 years that I have owned Landrovers - all hopeless.

Troopy at 230,000km - gearbox problem that is common to all of them made at that time - otherwise nothing wrong else has gone wrong, Terrano at 120,000km, power window motor shot - that is it.

ALL vehicles have been maintained by the book from new.

We will be replacing the Rangie next year with a (guess what) - PRADO

Stevesub

I've just done a similiar exercise and gone for a Prado simply for the fact that in the event of a breakdown, Tojo dealers are nearly everywhere.
I thought deeply about a mates D3 which was in totally unmarked condition and truly never off road and a magnificent vehicle, but until LR get a network of dealers or at least agents capable of diagnosing faults, I won't be buying another one for travel in the bush.
I think the Prado will do just about everything I want to do now anyway, even if the D3 is actually a more capable vehicle.
Alan.

Land Rover Freelander 2. Now made by Ford.

Brent I have owned Discos for the past 7 years and like yourself most of my driving was city based with limited off road. They are not expensive to service provided you can find a reputable workshop. I usually paid about $240 on average for a service. My vehicles were a series 1 and then TD5. Like yourself I was very keen to purchase a D3 however. And yes the D3 has won best 4WD but remember thats when its new. Its all very well having all these wonderful things a vehicle can do but the more gizmos the more potential for failure. Here's food for thought: a new prado might cost you 59K sell it 5 yrs later and you will prob achieve 32K, now a disco you will pay 65K and 5yrs later you will prob achieve 25K. Toyota is Australias best selling vehicle and the Prado holds the highest residual in the 4WD market. Many people I have spoken with dont like the boxy design of the D3 ( I dont really mind it ) but this will surely affect resale. Its a pretty hard call they are different vehicles. The Prado offers less luxury but it is practical and will do as it should. The Disco will leak oil but anything English does. I had problems with a faulty ABS modulator on my TD5 to replace it was going to cost $3500 however I hunted one down in Nth America on Ebay for 1k. Take a landrover into the dust and you have problems. The dust seals are pretty average, and we had a back tailgate door that refused to work. I have also had 3 window mechanism brake in the disco. Not too good for safety. But if your heart is on the Disco and your not going off road and dont mind niggly things then get one. Now for the Prado. I have just picked up a new 2008 demo diesel GXL and Im impressed. The fuel economy is superb 9.2litre per 100k. The tank is a massive 180 litre. I think the D3 is around 90 or so. I have to say I was very Landrover loyal, but resale and reliability are the 2 points that swayed me. Oh and also a Prado drives like a car ( to a degree ) it feels kind of compact. Doors shut with a solid clunk, side windows are massive for visability. Anyway good luck with your choice and safe driving.

Hi Brent, I’ve had a couple of Toyotas ( back a few years ) and they were reliable but I’m now on my 5th Land Rover and this is not the best place to ask that sort of question just as it wouldn’t be all that fair going to a Land Rover site to get info on a Prado, ( but I’ll bet you get a more non biased reply on a Land Rover site ).

You are comparing the wrong vehicles as a Prado is closer to a Freelander than a Discovery 3. A cruiser is the nearest thing to a D3.

Now for some real facts, the D3 is proving to be one of the most reliable vehicles on the Australian road, and not just 4x4s.

Toyota are nowhere near as reliable as they use to be, over the last 4 or 5 years they have had a number of reliability problems and unlike Land Rover, if you have a major warranty problem you near need to go to court before Toyota will do what they are supposed to do and this is info you can get on some of the Toyota sites.

None of my LRs have leaked oil, my first Disco 1 did 240k and the only non maintenance work I had to do was replace the resonator on the end of the exhaust pipe.

Had a D2 and that was an absolute bomb, it never let me down, just lots of little things not working and when I decided to buy a new 4x4, I had a look at a few 4x4s and still went back to an LR.

My wife has an 05 V6 SE D3 and it’s been rock solid.

The D3 has heaps more space than a Prado, the D3 is a genuine 7 seater and thats 7 FULL SIZED ADULTS, not 5 adults and 2 kiddie seats. A point not lost on an ever increasing number of 4x4 tourist operators.

The D3 is by far a much better driving vehicle, around town and long distance, than any of the Toyota 4x4s and once you test drive a D3, you will know exactly what I mean.

They have not yet built a toyota, any Toyota that can compete with a D3 off road.

If you know anybody in the mining industry, a big user of Toyotas, ask them about all the problems they are now having and about the huge amount of time they are loosing through general maintenance needed by the Toyotas as compared to other 4x4s and the mining industry is finding the Toyotas are nowhere near as reliable as they use to be.

As far as breaking down goes, if your anywhere but one of the capital cities, it make no difference what brand of 4x4 you get. If a major part breaks, you are in for a wait and Toyotas are one of the worst for major parts replacement.

A 3 months wait for Toyota parts is not unusual. I did a front diff on my last RR and the replacement had to come from the UK. From the time the diff went to having my RR back on the road was just 12 days. You won’t get that sort of service from Toyota.

In fairness to both vehicles, you really need to a lot more homework else where.