Terrano and Surf

These vehicles were originally sold in japan to there domestic market & when the registration costs in japan become to expensive as the vehicle gets older they are imported in to other countrys such as australia & new zealand by private companys and sold in the used car market
When they are imported there are modifications made to comply with aust adr's & they are generally of a higher specification the the equivilent aust model
They are normally fitted with turbo deisels that were not available in aust models & many also have auto transmissions as well as many other additional comfort features
I cant speak for the nissans but with toyota it is up to the individual dealer as to how much he wants to help owners of private non aust spec imports
Some dealers love them & others believe it is to much trouble to source non aust spec parts & to work on non aust spec vehicles because of limited technical information avail from toyota aust
The main problem that dealers face in supplying parts is that most surf owners insist that the surfs are the same as 4 runners & dont want to help themselves by giving the dealers all the vehicle information required to order the correct parts (full model code & chassis number)
Toyota aust will attempt to supply parts for non aust spec vehicles from japan but are not obligated to keep them in stock as they may be with aust spec parts
The cost of the parts are normally similar to aust spec parts but if it is not stocked in aust the wait ex japan is at least 2 weeks if the parts are available

Given the choise i would buy a aust spec 4 runner as opposed to a surf but this is my personal view only

Regards Don

Steve,
The Australian Toyota Surf Owners Assnis a great resource and is very informative on the subject.
In Oz there are 3 generations of Surfs, with the last being the KZN185 model from 1996 onwards (mine was manufactured 12/1995)
The diesel motor/ auto transmission / suspension on the KZN185s is exactly the same as the Prado models.
The earlier 2.4lt T/diesels (Model LN60 to LN130) are under powered have over-heating problems associated with non maintenance of the cooling system. (similar to the 2.4 and 2.8 Hilux overheating problems)
The 3.0lt T/diesel Model KZN130 uses the same engine as the Prado (1KZE) and was known in some cases to have a problem with the size of the Idler Gear mounting bolts, which was addressed during the production run.
Regards Shane

I just picked up my 1995 3.0l Surf a couple of hours ago and have already done 100kms through the city of perth and along the highways out to midland on a warm day, and as my research indicated it is fantastic. I have been looking into this for a long time now and have come to the conclusion that there is no problem in buying a surf or terrano as long as you do everything you would (checks etc) before buying any second hand TD 4wd. 4 Runner is under speced over priced and is not deisal. That was why I went for the Surf.

Good luck!

Hi Steve,
I have a Isuzu MU, which is a grey import as well, great rig, but wish I could get more, but our Fed Gov put a stop to it last year at the end of June. So if you buy one now it will be second in Australia (already used ). Parts can be a little problem, but you just have to look around. I found that for my MU I would probably be better to get parts in from NZ, if I ever need them that is.
Any way to your question, the 3.0TD Surf probably the go but you will pay a lot more for one, check out the Isuzu if you can, they have a lot more room then you can see and the 3.1 TD has a lot more grunt then the Surf and Terrano.
Hope you find what your looking for .
Regards Bruce MU-ving on

Terrano 2 was marketed by Nissan in Australia, & as such has the full support of the dealer network!