This is our test experience and interested in yours.
The principal object of my test was to see which car is the mnost suitable for long range dessert driving (e.g.
Madigan line ). With empathsis on fuel use.
I have 2 Patrols, both Petrol 4800 GU's, one auto and one manual.
We took 2 supporting cars - an 80 series manual diesel which took part in the tests and a 2005 manual Suzi Vitara and headed to Victorias Big Dessert where we have a 50km test loop which includes some impossible hills.
We went to some trouble to accurately measure the fuel usage.
The cars were levelled, their positions marked, then filled to overflowing after each test and driven back to the same
places where they were filled to overflow again and fuel used weighed.
The cars were driven together over the entire test.
The sand while dry was damp underneath so tyres were deliberately set higher than normal at 24psi to increase the difficulty for the cars.
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The other aspect of the test was ability. Here the manual would win when thrashed usually getting a car length further up a
hill before stopping, but several times gears were missed and if these runs were included then the auto won and was generally easier to drive until its limit was reached.
RESULTS SUMMARY
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AUTO 4800 used 8.3kg of fuel (approx 23lt/100km)
Manual 4800 used 6.8kg of fuel
I.E. Auto used 22% more in sand, so for a trip requiring 300lt of fuel load
the auto would need to carry an extra 66lt.
P.S. The diesel 80 series actually used more fuel than either petrol at 9.0kg.
I cannot comment on the state of tune of the diesel but it runs an aftermarket turbo and had larger tyres (285/75), and weighed 500kg more.
P.S. The Suzi wasn't part of the test and hence ran 12psi but it beat the other 3 cars all round - this cheezed off the big car owners but next day we were allowed to run correct pressures and the two Patrols were able to match, but not exceed it everywhere.