purchasing vehicle

I'm in the same situation smiffy and have come to the conclusion I'd be better off buying the vehicle of choice and putting in the things I deem as necessary as it'll probably work out cheaper. Cargo drawers, UHF radio, air bag suspension etc, several thousand $ but at least you get what YOU want. JMHO.
Rob.

Hi Smiffy 2,

Exploroz trader,
carsales.com.au
carpoint.com.au
rvsales.com.au
rvpoint.com.au

try a google search for a particular make and model that you want and scour the listings.

Have a look at the Commercial Vehicle sites, they have low kilometre vehicles with various extras, most of them are ex Government Leased with reasonable service history, just make sure you don't get a ex Mine Vehicle that has had a hard life, some time ago I purchased an ex Council 4wd with low ks and it still had 12 months manufacturers warranty.

Cheers

Actually I’d have to disagree with some of the comments above as buying the vehicle with the accessories is where you find real savings. Having bought one vehicle largely accessorised (and still having spent money to kit it out further) compared to the vehicle I’ve just built from scratch, the true economy is in buying a vehicle as decked out as possible. In case no ones noticed, anything to do with a 4by is expensive these days.

Cheers Mick

I would look in the for sale section of 4wd site / forums like this.

Having said that, any vehicle that has been kitted out has probably had a hard life. Might be better getting a vehicle that was only used to do the shopping and pick up the kids from school.

This post has been read by the moderation team and has been moderated due to a breach of The Advertising/Self-Promotion Rule .

Forum Moderation Team

Hi Smiffy 2

I must disagree with people talking about ex-rentals and ex mine vehicles. Yes they get a bit of rough treatment here and there, but they are normally very well maintained because of what they go through.

I live and regularly travel through a lot of the worst roads around, and have no sealed roads for more than 300 km's, and I have just made an offer on an ex-rental. I will of course change the shockies, rear springs and steering stabilser immediately, plus do a few other things that my current Hilux already has, but other than that, the car is extremely well maintained.

It is unfortunately normally the newer vehicles that I see break down around this area, far too much alloy for hard country driving. You need to decide whether you are going to do much off road, or more for towing, and establish your vehicle for what you require.

I would seriously think about a second hand vehicle if such suits your requirements, and then kit it out yourself for what you specifically need, and enjoy the fact that you hold the full warranty on the work you have done to it. That is just my thoughts anyway.

Cheers

Nah don't get an ex mine or rental from up here. I've lived n worked in the pilbara for years and those vehicles cop an ABSOLUTE flogging. One company I worked for had a 70 series go through 3 gearboxes in 160 thousand ks. as well as that the maintenance can sometimes be questionable. really you're only going to get what you paid for there. I've often gone to the ex mine vehicle auctions and unless you're a handy mechanic or want a project to rebuild from the ground up you should probably steer clear