New Mitsi Kit

A one eyed trol owner is hardly the right bloke to give an unbiased appraisal of a toyota Robin !!!

Pesty

Hi Robin
There must have been something wrong the Prado that you were driving. They are usually as smooth as silk.

Cheers

Stephen

Hi Robin
My mate has the 2008 D4D and I thought it was pretty good very smooth and quieter than my 2005 Pajero and I don't even like that word Toyota or Playdow.
He also had a recall about the injectors maybe this is why your test drive was idleing rough.
Robin you must have a good ear or it was a Friday car.
Cheers Scoot . :-)

Hi Guys

I will explain a little more as I was dissapointed.

Unlike a recent latest Discovery I drove which was silky smooth to the point of having no more engine intrusion than my petrol, the new Prado was quite poor.

I doubt if it was faulty , but I intend to not draw conclusions until I have driven
a second one.

The Idle was not rough , but rather hunted thru a range of about 6-800rpm, it would go smoothly up/down while waiting for a traffic light change.
It also has an "ECO" mode which seems to come on automatically, is this new for this engine ?

The other effect was a distinct engine vibration from 1700 to 1900 rpm.

Fortunately this was below cruising speed but very annoying in city 80kmh zones.

I had a new petrol Prado for comparison which was a dream compared to D4D.

Definitely something amiss with that particular car. Never experienced any of them problems in Prado or Hilux. Just a beautiful silky smooth diesel Engine, with power to burn. With a fuel range of over 1500kms why would you want petrol?

Why?

This would do it for me

Petrol: 0-100 9.1 seconds
Diesel: 0-100 11.2 seconds.

Cheers,

Jim.

I can not think of any reason why I would actually want such an engine other than the obvious lower fuel use, but then if cost was king I'd go gas.


I mean , it has massively less power.

It has lower torque , and that torque is up high (max 3400).

Its torque drops off at the low end below turbo boost
whereas Petrol keeps going down below idle.

It is much noiser and vibrates (in the cabin even as per Toyota specs).

It has massively high pressures it tries to contain which are harder to work with.

It is a much more complex engine than my petrol.

Significantly more difficult to service - espically in the bush.

I have been told you have to pay an almost unbelieveable $1000 plus
for injectors which I was also told should be replaced @200,000km.

(mind you the petrol does requires its $9.95 spark plugs to be changed each 100,000km)

Its much more damaged by water ingress.

Requires heavier starting currents to turn it over.

Has a complex pulley belt system.

Uses a smelly oil as fuel , which casues accidents when spilled on the road.

Its getting better but still generates cancer causing particles.

Costs more to service

Wow !

I'd better stop now as this word processor can only cope with so much text!

HaHa, but yes Diesel is the hands down winner for 4wds my friends. Bring your Petrol up here and travel remotely, see how many places have Petrol for sale. Lets do some serious water crossings, im yet to conk out in my Diesel. If you wanted a car with power and torque why the hell are you driving a Patrol. You should be in a 6 litre Commodore. Now thats power and torque from a real petrol motor. And if you wanted a real 4wd, with real power and torque then i guess the new Landcruisers are king of that. As for difficult to service, how on earth is that? Complex belt system, only for those that dont understand it. Same service intervals as a Petrol, and less harmful emissions then petrol. Less volatile also, always a good a concern when out in the outback.

And why would you want to go Gas, really after all the crap of getting it fitted and all that space lost, you dont gain anything. Someone said to me other day they got a 28litre gas tank fitted and it gets them an extra 200ks, well 28litres of Diesel would get me about 250ks. And up here gas is only 30c cheaper, all in all no benefit at all. Diesel, its the King of the Road.

Until they start making trucks with Petrol engines, i'll stick with the Diesels. And come on a 3 litre motor, requires hardly anything start. I believe the Diesel Prado, regardless of NVH is a much nicer and comfortable car to drive then a Patrol, reagrdless if its gas, diesel , petrol or coal powered. Thats why they are so popular.

Robin,

I think your immediate assumption that the dieisel Challenger isn't coming to Australia is not correct.

If you check the Mitsubishi Australia website you will find that the vehicle only comes as a 2.5 common rail turbo diesel

Hi all,

My vote is for the diesel. Hi Kroozer I agree with your comments. To me its a more relaxing why of travelling with high torque off idle.

I'm not much of a rev head (nowdays anyway) but a diesel audi consistly beats all comers in the Le Mans 24hr race and BMW have all but deleted the petrol from their car range (they do still make some though).

Sorry Robin (each to there own) I dont think I'll ever own a petrol 4wd

Regards Wilko

Hi Guys

I was just stirring on Stephens comment about driving a "good old oiler" Wizard, and that they don't bring any good ones to Aussie land.

Now Kroozer , forget the commodore , it was only last week I was out raced in
a H2 Hummer and its 6+ whatever litres and the silly thing chased me hard in the bush as well.
Now the 4800 Patrol was King of cars from 2002 to 2007 and the coming of the 200 series , but it is getting old for sure but I have instituted a mental block about 200 series V8 diesel as an aberration and so the petrol Patrol is still King almost.

However I may re-consider as I am trying to gear up for a non-fuel stop run at the canning next year , and so far have only achieved an 1150km range.

I think Robin is thinking for the extra price of a diesel, he would stick to a petrol........but if they were the same price to buy, its really a no brainer..

0 - 100 times in a 4x4 ?? don't know of anyone that thinks like that for a 4x4 ??
But hook up a caravan and see who wins the race ??

By the look of your other list of comments, you are a VERY one eyed petrol supporter, and I don't think you are going to change in a hurry !!!! lol

The amount of Petrol 4x4's we recover up here every year in the wet is amazing.

Thats only one reason i wouldnt even have a petrol 4x4.

And you hit the nail on the head Gronk, why would you state the 0-100 times when we are talking about a four wheel drive??

i dunno

cheers

Gday Robin,

They certainly are available in Oz, took one for a spin yesterday.. Kroozer mentions not being able to get petrol in the Kimberley, I have to agree with this but add that I have done the GRR, mitchell Falls etc. Anne Beadell and many other remote outback places, sure i have long range tanks as we all should have, only time we have had any issues was with a mate not having enough diesel to complete the Tanami....

Now onto Stephen, well the old Playdoe may be as smooth as silk but only about as fast the worm that created it...LOL lastly for now Wilk0 ... Ä diesel that pulls from 0 rpm, only seen one of them in the last few years, That was a small V10 Touareg.. I have driven quite a few turbo diesels and until the rpm reaches around 2000 rpm they wouldn't pull a granny off her #### Pot....

What a can of worms I have opened for all you wanna bee's. Des, I seem to recall ure 50 series having to have the bag of ball nails in the front diff replaced along with a couple more 50 series owners in ure local club.

Plus Mitsi can give 10 years warranty on their running gear because they have faith it wont fail.. And by the way we don't have to make adverts with sexual over tones of incest to sell cars...LOL