Well, I have been after a Prado for a long, long time. Since they sold the 90's brand new. I was attracted to the 8 seats back then, that monster fuel tank and just the overall versatility. I was always aiming for a diesel but did consider a petrol a few years back.
But life and kids got in the way. I bought a house and ski boat and learnt to fly and the Prado was always just our of reach.
My brother went to Saudi for five years and bought a 90 series sahara equivalent. I cant remember what they called them over there. It had the steering wheel on the wrong side but he was having fun.
Then in 2004 Mum and Dad bought a new petrol GXL and began to put 100000 grey nomad kms on it doing the cape, Arnhem land, the canning etc. This was starting to hurt as I was still running around in a Calais. I did get to borrow theirs when they went overseas. So at least I was getting to drive one. Now I gave ma and pa's a decent flogging at Stockton a few times and was very happy. I also lugged my heavy boat around with it and it was like it wasnt there.
Now the only good thing about not getting in early was that the models got better and better as the years ticked over.
I loved the new 120. The five speed auto came out and that was pretty cool. But it wasnt until late 2007 that I started to get very keen. That new 3.0 DID oiler with the ramped up torque was getting to be impressive. Things like the rear air and bluetooth in that Sept upgrade were pretty good.
I was able to hire one for work in 2009 for some pretty long trips and even a 4WD course. Just dont tell AVIS what I put it through. I was very impressed with all that I did with it. I loved the new engine.
Ok so I was still only looking. A divorce and custody battle drained the resources for a while and Toyota just kept improving the Prado while they waited for me. Out came the 150 and it did look a little strange at first. Well I had to get a cheap 4 yo Adventra to replace the '91 divorce special Berlina that I was left with. The Adventra was good with the boat and great to sleep in but I was nervous about sand and so many other places.
Well it ended up getting stolen and burnt and I had to go shopping in a hurry.
I ended up with a Prado finally after stretching my self a long way to get it. We will be able to do it so long as we dont eat or need clothes in the next few years.
So Im finally here. Loving it and looking forward to a lot of good things from now on.
Dave.
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A little bit of Prado background.
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I sold my original 150 after 2 years and made money on it. Then I got a 2012 150 D4D manual as a company car and I’ve never worked a vehicle harder than that one. I was working in irrigation and was pulling 400 m of 300mm poly pipe when we did a 50km pipeline. Plus it was flogged on farms and worksites but was awesome and trouble free.
I handed that 150 back and had a run of AWD Klugers as company cars. Not the same but I was surprised at how well it went overall and especially on the beach.
Now in a strange turn of events I’ve found myself back on the coast and I’ve just bought Ma n Pas 2004 120 4.0 Auto just to pull the boat around and to hit the Stockton dunes.
With the 100s of old trucks, aircraft and farm machinery I’ve driven, a 16 yo vehicle with some km on it doesn’t worry me. Cheap to get into. Cheap to fix and modify. I’d prefer a diesel over the petrol but it’s not a huge downside. I can get 9 litres on the highway and it averages 15 overall with town and off-road work. The 180 litre tank is great and the price drop in fuel recently is welcomed.
The kids have left home so it’s just me and my 8th cattledog. I’m going to pull the 2nd and 3rd row seats out and flatten the floor all the way through mainly where the 2nd row seats were. A bit of a steel frame shackled to the floor and removable carpet covered ply on top.
I’ll get a lot of accessible storage room underneath. My aim is to run very light weight wise and to be able to carry all I need to travel and camp inside the vehicle. I’ll sleep inside it as well. The perfect undercover go anywhere park anywhere camper.
So I’ll be able to duck up to the beach for overnighters or do a 4 week run out west with pretty much nil setup.
At the moment, it’s got 250k km on it and Ma n Pa put it on every 4WD trek in Australia. It’s stock standard apart from a second battery. I’m pretty happy to keep a Prado like that but there will definitely be a Bluetooth stereo going in.
I’d also like to put a bullbar and winch on it for solo travel. I’m happy to get a second hand bar and modify it to suit before getting it powder coated and I’ll do all the install. Not keen on paying for labour or new when I can do it all including mods myself. When I wreck the back bumper I’ll put steel on that as well.
I’ll probably get a second set of rough rims to put more robust tyres on for the mud and rocks of out west. I’ve blown way to many grandtreks out there. They are good on the black stuff and brilliant as floaters on the sand so I’ll keep them going. I’ve got a 6th rim now as a second spare which is worth having.
Anyway, all of this will keep me out of trouble and busy so I’m looking forward to it.
Cheers.