stuzbot
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2021
- Messages
- 481
Well, as fans of my long-running Sigh! --Will I Ever Find One? thread will know; my quest to find a not rotted to feck 90 Series [later broadened to include 120 Series and 100 Series] has proved pretty fruitless so far. I've still got about a month left before I *need* to get myself some wheels, as I have various visits & trips planned, starting end of June.
But, given in about a month and a half's searching so far, I've not even found a "maybe" never mind a "probable", I'm starting to think I might need to spread my net even further. Even though it's pretty wide as it is. So, I'm pondering what else is out there that might give me similar to what I'm looking for in a Land Cruiser. My needs are:
* Rugged & reliable and preferably not so much electronic jiggery pokery that I can't work on it myself
* LWB --long enough to kip in the back.
* Diesel
* Reasonable off-road ability --I'm not looking to go rock crawling. But I do a fair bit of wild camping. So want something I can point down a forest trail or across some dunes, without worrying about getting stuck
* Reasonably comfortable for those long motorway drives to get out of the concrete jungle and into the green stuff.
So far I'm thinking [in vague order of preference]
1: Hilux Surf --3rd Gen I believe shares a chassis with the Colorado/Prado. so should be a reasonable substitute
2: Nissan Patrol Y61 --The ZD30 engine has a bit of a bad rep. as a grenade. But I'm sure a lot of this is intarwebs scare-mongering.
3: Nissan Pathfinder -- 3rd gen. The best body-on-chassis one, in between the monocoque versions. Have heard the auto boxes can be troublesome
4: Mitsubishi Shogun --The older 2nd & 3rd gen ones are pretty highly rated. Before it all went a bit plasticcy [not sure if they'd be long enough for my needs though]
5: Isuzu Trooper --Pretty underrated in UK. But they're everywhere in Ireland. Half a million farmers can't be wrong! [same concerns about snoozing room in the back]
6: Land Rover Defender --Ha! Ha! Had you there. Only joking. Been there, done that, in my misguided youth. Never again!
So, anyone got anything to add or any experience of any of those. I've owned a Nissan Patrol and an Isuzu Trooper before. But not any of the others. Obviously my first priority, by a long way, is still to get my sticky paws on the wheel of a Land Cruiser [of whatever model]. But, if we head into June and there's still nothing becoming available, I may have to settle for 2nd or 3rd best. Just to have a set of wheels.
But, given in about a month and a half's searching so far, I've not even found a "maybe" never mind a "probable", I'm starting to think I might need to spread my net even further. Even though it's pretty wide as it is. So, I'm pondering what else is out there that might give me similar to what I'm looking for in a Land Cruiser. My needs are:
* Rugged & reliable and preferably not so much electronic jiggery pokery that I can't work on it myself
* LWB --long enough to kip in the back.
* Diesel
* Reasonable off-road ability --I'm not looking to go rock crawling. But I do a fair bit of wild camping. So want something I can point down a forest trail or across some dunes, without worrying about getting stuck
* Reasonably comfortable for those long motorway drives to get out of the concrete jungle and into the green stuff.
So far I'm thinking [in vague order of preference]
1: Hilux Surf --3rd Gen I believe shares a chassis with the Colorado/Prado. so should be a reasonable substitute
2: Nissan Patrol Y61 --The ZD30 engine has a bit of a bad rep. as a grenade. But I'm sure a lot of this is intarwebs scare-mongering.
3: Nissan Pathfinder -- 3rd gen. The best body-on-chassis one, in between the monocoque versions. Have heard the auto boxes can be troublesome
4: Mitsubishi Shogun --The older 2nd & 3rd gen ones are pretty highly rated. Before it all went a bit plasticcy [not sure if they'd be long enough for my needs though]
5: Isuzu Trooper --Pretty underrated in UK. But they're everywhere in Ireland. Half a million farmers can't be wrong! [same concerns about snoozing room in the back]
6: Land Rover Defender --Ha! Ha! Had you there. Only joking. Been there, done that, in my misguided youth. Never again!
So, anyone got anything to add or any experience of any of those. I've owned a Nissan Patrol and an Isuzu Trooper before. But not any of the others. Obviously my first priority, by a long way, is still to get my sticky paws on the wheel of a Land Cruiser [of whatever model]. But, if we head into June and there's still nothing becoming available, I may have to settle for 2nd or 3rd best. Just to have a set of wheels.