purchasing a pilbara prado

G'day milney

I guess the "Everyone says don't buy ex-mine" comment either comes from an informed source ~ who may have bought an ex mine vehicle and got stung, as some ex mine vehicles are from an underground mine situation or from a coastal or salt mining operation. But ~ here's my two bobs worth ~ red dust and the Pilbara are synonymous ~ you just can't have one without the other if you drive on a dirt road anywhere in the Pilbara.

The Toyota Prado is a relatively new concept in the mining industry as these vehicles are a replacement unit for the larger Toyota wagon type vehicles.

The 200 series wagon is not used by the general workforce in the iron ore industry, mainly because of the V8 and also as only the "Shiny Bums" use a wagon for transport and most of them travel on their own, possibly because the don't have friends ~ but that is a personal observation.

The Prado is now the vehicle of choice for staff, more logical actually, smaller vehicle more fuel efficient etc and a lone "staffer" possibly doesn't look so alone in the Prado !!

To my knowledge the major miners do not use the latest Toyota tray back V8 as a general mule in the mining industry as "Mr Toyota" has not fitted air bag technology to these units ~ Nissan on the other hand has air bag(s) in the ute and they are now moving into what was only a short while ago solely Toyota territory, depending on year, kms travelled and general condition apart from a few extra holes in the roof for mine spec lights etc nothing should stop you from seriously considering a "Pilbara Prado".

A Prado would be pretty unusual . I have never seen so many Hilux Crew cabs as at Tom price, Karratha, Dampier and Port Hedland.

I must have seen near to or over a thousand.
Regards Philip A

Hi Milney
I can only talk of one very large mining area in South Australia. They usually get rid of their vehicles after 40,000kms or 2 years of age. Not all mining vehicles are treated badly. I know from the above mining camp, that there was one Toyota that was only ever driven by two drivers-both supervisors, from different shifts. both treated the vehicle like it was their own. When the time came to replace the vehicle, one of the drivers wanted to buy it from the company, but was told if he wanted it, he had to bid for it from the auction house in Adelaide.

Knowing when the vehicle was leaving camp, and when the auction was being held, the last thing that he did was to put 4 litres of oil into the fuel tank. At auction day, the usual dealers and public were there to see the vehicles go under the hammer. As usual, all vehicles are started, and this Toyota was smoking like a train, with the smell of oil, not diesel. When it came to this particular Toyota, there was only one bid, after the price kept going down - from the driver at the mine site who wanted it. Like he said, oil in the fuel made it look like the engine was stuffed and no dealer wanted anything to do with it, and he purchased the vehicle that he drove and knew the full service history.

Also another point, if it is a 2000 model, I would have thought that the mining company would have sold the vehicle many years ago. Just because it is from a mining area, it does not mean that it was used in a mine site

Cheers

Stephen

My husband used to be incharge of the Light Vehicle department at a Pilbara minesite - still there now on heavy stuff. Anyway, the Toyotas in their fleet where maintained better than the average Joe Blogs would do. They follow a strict service shedule - if you can get an ex-managers car you would be laughing.

Milney,
A couple of things to either help or confuse.

Not all Prado's in the Pilbara belong to mining companies, many are private vehicles.
A 2000 Prado with low k's is unlikely to be ex mining as miners tend to change on a 2-3 years basis.

Mining Co's generally don't put local type plates (EP WP) on their vehicles, they retain the statewide type (xABCxxx) plates that come with the vehicles from new. Local Mining Contractors may use local plates though.

Following on from other posters, the main problems with ex mine vehicles are RUST (anywhere on the unit) and driver abuse.
Both can be relatively easy to pick up but usually not easy to fix.

Hope this helps.

Disco.

2000 model - the mines weren't using diesel Prados 9 years ago! And "low kilometers"........doesn't sound anything like a mine vehicle to me. Usually the service record tells you where its been. It only takes one trip to load a vehicle with red dust.

They are a good honest vehicle when I owned them. Not as strong as a 70 or 105 series though. And the fuel consumption of the 1KZ-TE is not as good as you'd expect.