Advice choosing first 4wd

Hey Craig, i live in Cairns and would like to get involved with a club and try to put it through its paces. I got two boys that i get every second weekend and they are a big reason i want to get involved, gives them a bit of adventure and something different to look forward to when i dont have them. It will also double up as my daily driver and do very little towing.

Thanks ya reply.

The Prado would be a good 1st time 4x4 that has a reasonable power to weight for the beach & slippery clay driving you may find around Cairns. With a few mods they are a very capable offroader while retaining respectable comfort & handling on road. Long range tanks give them excellent range for the bigger trips as well. Good parts availability & not a great deal goes wrong with them.
from your breif description I doubt you'd need the larger space & power of the patrol.
Cheers Craig..............

Especially a 3.0 grenade Patrol

How well have you researched the 3L Patrol ?? Crikey there are a very high number of horror stories out there.

thanks for that, the 3ltr TD has come up a bit as far as reliability concerned and they also seem to be the more common for sale. So if i did go patrol i should be looking at the 4.2ltr??? at the moment im driving a skyline that is lucky to get get 300kms to a tank so most things are going to be better than that.

Tycs,

I am not suggesting one vehicle over another but if I were you and going to buy a Patrol it would not be the 3lt. I have 2 x GU 4.2TD and both are very good workhorses. You cannot mix economy and Patrol in the same sentence unless you are talking about the 3lt, both the 4.2TD and 4.5 Petrol (and the 4.8 for that matter) were never considered to be fuel efficient. I really struggle to get 7km/lt out of either of mine even when empty. You can however expect to get big km's out these engines (4.2TD, 4.5 and 4.8 petrols) so if you plan on keeping it for a long time then the Patrol will work out to be a good choice. I have nearly 400 thou on one and 170 on the newer one and have only just recently had to spend money on the older one for items that have worn out (alternator, w/pump and a/c pulley bearing). Other than this all money spent on these vehicles has been for oil changes and fun bits like turbo mods and gear to make em go harder offroad.

Ask to get a lift in one of the club drives if anyone has a spare passenger's seat and get an idea as to which sort of terrain you would be happy to put your own vehicle through and see how easy the different rigs do this sort of terrain, make a decision from this. The Prado will eat up most situations most people would be happy to put their vehicle into offroad and still be much better than the Patrol onroad. The long touring range of the Prado may suit you better for trips like the Gulf and the Cape (both on your doorstep you lucky mongrel ;-))

Good luck in your quest.
Regards, Trevor.

http://www.australianmotorsgroup.com.au/search/details.php?id=5977#content

thats the link to a patrol thats caught my eye

ah ok, how can you tell its an import, should have something on the compliance plate right??

Yes,it should have australian compliance plates stamped on the body somewhere,most likely in the engine bay.

But I dont think thats imported. The laws changed a few years back and even then you could only import them when they were 15 years old