Moving to Europe soon.

[MarcFromCanada]

Hi all,
I love my LandCruiser, sometimes when life is busy I think it's time to get rid of it for something less rattly and stinky and nicer for the family but all I have to do is take it off-road and those thoughts disappear. I've had the same BJ73 for the last 15 years, I DIY turbo'd it about 10 years ago, when time came to rebuilt the t-case( my fault pulling too heavy a load up a long grade) I put in 3:1 low range gears and then put 35"s on it. I've done significant amounts of wheeling with it and I am always blown away how well it holds up to rought conditions.

I do all the work on it myself and it's always been pretty easy to work on (the challenge is often finding parts).

As far as family DD's We primarily drove mk1 and mk2 vw diesels ( I was pretty steadfast against owning anything newer than 1998 for years but we caved in 2019 and bought a 2016 nissan leaf, as much as the thing is mechanicly amazing I find the general build quality to be crap compared to the landcruiser.

The vw's were okay, had lots of small fixes over the years but at least they were easy to wrench on. I am a car guy and what's generally know what's good and what to avoid here in older cars( friends call me for advice) but when I look at classified in Europe I get really excited at all these novel cars to me but realize I know nothing about their engines or build quality.

So I signed up to this group because I figured LandCruiser people in Europe must have DD's or family cars too.
I was looking at recommendations for small passenger vans, right now my top canditates would be.
a early Sharan pre 1999 only since I know that type of vw diesel engine well. ( unfortunatly the caddys with rear doors all had more complex engines)
Or a late 90's Nissan Serena( Ive had good experience with old nissan diesels)
I like the gas previas but the diesels in Canada seem to all develop headgasket issues. I worry about fuel consumption in the gas previa since we will travelling lots.

The wildcard to me is all these renault, citroen or ford torneos. -- Any reccomendations or things to stay away from?

Thanks everyone!

 

[Ben Stratford]

Hi Marc,
Thanks for the intro, it’s great to get a sense of who you are and your cruiser experience.
We need some pics of the beast though!
In terms of a DD mines a 60 but the wife also has a Nissan - just what you said!
Cheers, ben

 

[Dave_S]

Hi and welcome

TBH I would stay away from anything made by French manufacturers and stick with Toyota, Nissan, Honda or Lexus for a DD if you care about reliability.

Good luck

 

[Shayne]

Petrol is cheaper than diesel nowadays and any new small car is built to be disposable .

I'm with Dave , French cars are made of cheese , German cars are rolling laptops ridiculously expensive to fix , Italians make them out of spaghetti , and they all share parts anyway .

A Jap car 10 years old or more is likely to prove more reliable than any of them .

 

[Firewout]

Hi Marc,
Great intro!
Our DD is a vw caddy. Current one is the third already. Next one will be a caddy as well.
Just put new engine oil and filters every 30k kms and keep on driving. Apart from 1 emission valve actuator never had an engine malfunction. They just keep on going.
I do have a 30 euro cable and program to connect it to the laptop to reset alarms and reset fuses but it is really very simple.
I used to have an audi 100 2.5tdi avant. Fantastic car and very easy/logical to work on but very hard to find nowadays.
Sharan is top choice for europe. Keep in mind that with an older diesel, you can't drive in a lot of cities because of emission regulations.
For your wildcards: in a lot of citroen and peugeot vans and landrovers, they put the ford puma 2,2l engine. Not the most reliable engine if you neglect the injectors. The pistons don't like that.
Vw transporters are very popular but they cost you an arm and a leg.
you might also check the older volvo's.
Good luck.

 

[MarcFromCanada]

Thanks everyone, this is great info, I hadn't considered emission rules for older diesels. I am looking at something we can haul two mountain bikes in the back, which is why the sharan and caddy are up there on my list. There is not much Japanese stuff on the classifieds compared to here in Canada this why I was being curious about small vans like the expert, kangoo, jumpy, espace. etc... I am also super surprised at how many Cruisers are for sale, generally there aren't that many around for sale over here . I would also love a troopy they are super rare here and seem to be more common on your side of the pond. But I don't have the money for a non-rusted out one.

 

[Shayne]

What is your reason for wanting a separate daily driver ?

My daily driver is an 80 series with 35 inch tyres and whilst perhaps not the most economical running it is a damn sight cheaper than paying tax and insurance twice to save a few quid on fuel .

 

[Dave_S]

Or just do what a lot of us have done, and buy a Hilux!

 

[Shayne]

One exception to the rule is perhaps Iveco , alas they don't make a small vehicle .