I have a plausible explanation - I need something that can tow up to 2.5 tonnes for a prospective business venture

Watch out for Mr plod. IIRC if your gross train weight exceeds 3500kgs and you are towing for business you will now need to have tacho fitted .!!

Something like the L200 weighs in at nearly 2000kgs on its own...

Here's a piccy of Paj. The Mother-in-law bought it for us so I told her I'd name it after her. Ladies and Gentlemen meet .......

THE BEAST

My best mate had a 05 plate L200, just taken delivery of a new L200. He racked up 45k in around 15 months, and apart from ridiculously short service intervals and a rusting canopy (which by the way doesnt lock???) had no problems at all. Suits the job he has to a tee.

My choice would be the Navara....slightly less 'agricultural' to drive day2day compared to the others and the best engine....I went on a 'driveday' a few months back and drove them all back2back.

Lots of reviews/roadtests/grouptests online:)

...Until Toyota put the 3.0 d4d engine in the Hilux next year the existing 2.5d4d 102bhp is painfully slow compared to the others.

Edit - heard someone at work whom drives a company van rather than car grumbling something about the benefit in kind for vans being removed in april. Any truth in that???

It's changing certainly, currently you pay £500 per year for any LGV including the pick ups as long as the load bed can carry more than a ton.

People with vans are going to pay more, not as much as if you had a car though. I believe the car tax rules are changing for vehicles that seat more than 3.

All this is from memory so if I am wrong on any counts feel free to correct.

From the Mitsubishi Website

From 6th April 2005 commercial vehicles used to travel to and from work will attract no benefit in kind charge whatsoever. If the user enjoys unrestricted private use they will be taxed on a flat rate benefit of just £500 a year, even if provided with fuel, and this situation will remain unchanged until 6th April 2007.

From 6th April 2007 use of the vehicle to and from work will remain untaxed, however, the benefit in kind charge for unrestricted use will increase to £3000 and, if fuel is supplied, this will attract a further £500 benefit charge. Whilst this appears to be a considerable increase, for a standard rate tax payer this will equate to paying around £660 a year - pretty cheap motoring and less than 40% of the tax attracted by an equivalently priced car.

my mate has an 04 2.5 d.i.d engine it keeps surging,cutting out and only revs to 3000 then starts to cut out then it revs up and its a danger to drive anyone got an idea or had the same fault

Not sure at what age you are looking at, but a lot of the earlier pick-ups weren't crash tested (classified as a truck) and as such only had 1-2 NCap stars!:eek:

I think the L200 was better, but for a car of those sizes 1-2 stars is pretty bad.

Didn't notice the date on this - sorry. Not much use now I guess.

Edited 10 January, 200917 yr by TriggerFish