Vehicle Roulette time again in the Gwilo house!

Options are:

LR Disco 3 - very competent off road, comfy on road. Litany of woes with air suspension bags, compressors and valves well documented means astonishing performance and equally astonishing bills when it inevitably breaks.

Toyota Hilux - beloved of African Warlords across the continent and rather tough. However, as a light truck, probably not that comfy on road - the interior very Spartan.

Toyota Land Cruiser - large, Japanese daddy of a vehicle. Atrocious looking interior, challenging exterior looks. But.... Air suspension too? Issues? Toyota reputation for reliability.

Toyota spares and mechanics easy to come by in South Africa. Land Rover less so, at a reasonable price at least, but even then, from experience, more visits required and wallet opening than desirable.

So, what are these three like to actually live with? Any experience out there?

My mate has had LR Discovery 3 and 4 over the past few years. As said the repair bills are horrendous. As a tool for the job he needs it to do it's unrivaled, but the blasted thing keeps breaking, things wear out, things need replacing, and it costs many pounds as a result. A few examples...

 

• Torque converter replaced at 90k miles, along with the gearbox as well because the dealers failed to diagnose it quick enough and the resulting swarf in the transmission fluid wrecked the gearbox. Aftermarket warranty covered the torque converter and the total bill was over £3000 with a scrappy supplied gearbox.
• Air suspension compressor failed, closely followed by a front airbag strut, closely followed by the other front airbag strut.
• Webasto auxiliary heater failed, cost £600.
• Handbrake actuator failed, meaning new rear discs, pads, brake shoes, actuator motor and cables, cost over £1100.

That's after all the servicing which amount to something like £500 per year, cambelts, suspension bushes, and all sorts of other stuff. Richt now he buys one a year old, keeps it for 2 years, and sells it as the warranty expires. It's cheaper doing that than paying for the inevitable repairs out of warranty.

Toyota spares and mechanics easy to come by in South Africa.

 

Have I missed something and you're based in South Africa now?

Isuzu D-Max?  Seem to be reliable, reasonable on and off road.

 

Doesn't have the accommodation (or the image) of a Disco but the bills are a lot smaller!

Isuzu D-Max?  Seem to be reliable, reasonable on and off road.

 

Doesn't have the accommodation (or the image) of a Disco but the bills are a lot smaller!

 

biggest towing ability as well...

biggest towing ability as well...

Same as the Discovery.

Same as the Discovery.

I stand corrected - both 3500kg braked! Was sure the D-Max was the highest in the sector but not so...

Have I missed something and you're based in South Africa now?

Not exactly. I'm currently in SA on vacation, but mid term planning for more permanent relocation here. I'm lead to believe in order to bring a vehicle in tax free, you need to have owned for a year or so before arrival. Given the costs of cars here, it makes sense to buy and run in the uk - a Disco 4 for £20k in uk would sell over in SA for at least 30k equivalent - assuming you can even find one. There's a huge LR specialist on a plot and he's not been able to source a Disco 4 for less than that and even then, he says owners are hanging on to them or asking closer to 40k in uk terms. He's flogging a 24 year old Defender with the 200tdi block for £8500. The 4 year old td5 based defender next to it was £37000. Which is brand new prices.

Gwilo, I'm sorry I can't offer any advice, but I just wanted to say your original post was very funny to read

I've never driven or owned any of the above, however, a lady at my wife's stables has an automatic diesel 2003 Landcruiser, she has owned it from new, has now done over 200,000 miles. It only had main dealer servicing when under warranty, since then it's been a local village mechanic that has serviced it.  

Apart from a new turbo/exhaust and general maintenance it's been very reliable.  

 

It's still used for towing horse boxes (with some very large/weighty horses in) & is mainly used for short journeys (2miles or less) and is still running without any smoke!!

 

We own a Rav4 and have owned it for 7-8years now, apart from needing to replace some brake pipe for an mot we've never had any mechanical failings, its a 2005 2l vvti petrol over 70k now, it's been so good I've bought a Toyota too.

 

If you have any specific land cruiser questions you would like me to ask, let me know and I'll ask for you.

Matthew

Edited 30 September, 20169 yr by DarkPeakCycles

Mate of mine has a Disco 3 and I can echo Rustynuts comments.

 

They love it but if it wasn't for the fact her hubby is a mechanic and can do most things himself they couldn't afford to run it.

 

They've had problem with the air suspension and the brakes pipes needed replaced. Apparently the latter is a £1200 job at the dealer.

 

It's just an expensive car to run as well, likes a drink and tyres are not cheap.

 

One bright side is depreciation is relatively good.

Edited 30 September, 20169 yr by Aspman

Just another thought - Mitsubishi L200??

Is a VW Tourareg an option?

Obviously it is not a Double Cab, but there does seem above to be a mixture of 4x4's. Part Time AWD's & Body Styles /Types.

Are you planning in towing anything? If so the hilux can't tow as much as others and the clutches are made of chocolate.

Just another thought - Mitsubishi L200??

 

Bloke that owns a cattery I used to use would talk lovingly of his L200 Barbarian.

 

Didn't mention any problems but he didn't do a lot of miles. Used to buy new and trade back to the same dealer. Got good deals because there were waiting lists of people looking for low mileage used L200s.

Also VAT free through the business I guess.

 

Have you thought about a Honda CRV. Yet to meet anyone that doesn't rave about theirs.

Edited 30 September, 20169 yr by Aspman

We did briefly own a CRV and while it was a good vehicle, for the purposes of dirt roads in South Africa, it would be lacking in ability I believe.

+1 on the D3. We owned one from new for 5 years and it has a great image and capability when it works. A set of tyres will be difficult to find for less than £800 pounds, ours were down to the canvass after 14-15 months of undemanding road use. It tows well at max weight but the air suspension makes it fidgety when loaded (look at Jeremy Clarkson's TG Yeti vs Range Rover and you'll understand why). We got rid of ours at 5 years and 44,000 miles when we no longer needed it for towing a 37 foot boat trailer and also because the cost to turn it around for another year (4 tyres, service, mot, tax, clutch) was north of £2500 - great but flawed and you already accept that LR's penetration in SA is limited if you need help.

So what? We bought a 102,000 mile Mitsubishi Shogun 3.2 diesel for £8500 to tow a much larger boat to the South of France and back (2200 miles with a gross train weight of 5.5 tonnes according to our local weigh bridge) this summer. Didn't miss a beat, much more comfortable seats than our ex-Superb, new tyres all round for less than £250, but it also has a drink problem (18-20mpg!).

Before buying we tried the VW Toureg (dull), LR Defender (lovely but not really a distance machine), X5 (expensive and a bit tarty) and an Isuzu DMax (which we loved but it's just too big and the price starts to rocket when you add canopies and other basics).

Hope this helps, M

Edited 1 October, 20169 yr by PirateSyrett

Forgot to mention that we also tried a couple of ML's which we liked but the low range gearbox of the Shogun swung it for us.

We have a Land Cruiser at work on a 08 plate and it's an awesome bit of kit. It's surprising nice to drive. My mates a mechanic and he's always had a Toyota hilux for the last 12 years. He swears by them.

If you have any specific land cruiser questions you would like me to ask, let me know and I'll ask for you.

Matthew

Oh I have many.

I suppose my first one is so they have conventional steel springs or expensive to fix air suspension? Do they have a hill descent control style system?

What are the common faults/weak areas likely to break and repair costs?

Running costs not a huge concern as SA has a weird cheap road license scheme and fuel is about 60p a litre.

If it's good enough for African Warlords you have to ask what more of a recommendation do you need?

 

Now normally I look to taxi drivers to figure out what is reliable but if there were African Warlords in Perthshire I'd ask them.

If it's good enough for African Warlords you have to ask what more of a recommendation do you need?

Now normally I look to taxi drivers to figure out what is reliable but if there were African Warlords in Perthshire I'd ask them.

Rather the warlord in Africa - the equivalent of a taxi over there is a large, thin sheet steel built, Nissan/Mitsubishi derived panel van minibus thing, driven at ludicrous speeds, with Audi inspired racer guided cruise control ( only way to explain the millimetre between their front bumper and your rear bumper) and indicators raided from the BMW parts bin....

Edited 4 October, 20169 yr by Gwilo

Speaking with a mechanic today, he warned us off the Hilix too for other reasons - some sprockets related to the timing chain break off and there's some sort of vacuum system running through the timing chain area ( at least that's what I understood, which sucked the bits in and trashed the entire engine). He's seen a few Hilux with expensive engine issues, but no land cruisers. He was also very keen on the Mitsubishi L200. However, SWMBO isn't, so that's kaiboshed.

She is however warming to a 2010 Subaru Forester 2.0 Diesel. Is this motor a boxer as well, or Inline 4 cylinder?

Obviously, not a mechanically switching 4WD system, but way better mpg on paper than the big mud pluggers.

Am I better considering this, as a more car like daily driver while in the uk?

I have a mate that loves his 3.0 Forrester. Scoobies seem to have an expensive problem with the exhausts when they get a bit older. They rot in hard to get to areas needing a very expensive replacment exhaust rather than a little bit of welding. It happened to both the people I know with scoobs. My mate with the Forrester and my Dad's mate's Legacy. My mate paid to get it fixed (£1200) because he loved th car so much an it had been otherwise faultless, my Dad's mate moved his on.

 

Rot probably not an issue in SA.

I didn't see her to talk to last night but saw her car at the stables, it has conventional springs. 

 

I couldn't see in due to the gangster tints on it. will ask you other questions when I see her.