opinion getting prado/touareq

[Bear Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bear]

vx05 wrote:

Our VX has velour trim, beige, not kid friendly at all, but as you say, the price was good and if it gets dirty, well, such is life.

Kids are great but they can make a mess of velour seats. Simple solution though; a complete set of seat covers is only a few hundred dollars. Just a thought :wink:

[vx05 Member Find all posts View Profile Close vx05]

Kids are great but they can make a mess of velour seats. Simple solution though; a complete set of seat covers is only a few hundred dollars. Just a thought :wink:

And a good thought it is too, now just need to convince the cfo that it is her good idea. Seat airbags are a bugger too.
Till then I have the supercheap $5 canvas clearance ones for boys weekends and fingers crossed for the rest of the time and as she reads this, I'm told it needs a vacuum Gotta keep it nice :roll:

[Bear Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bear]

Steve, does your VX have side airbags; and i'd be interested to know if they come as standard in the vx?

And yes mate, those supercheap canvas covers are excellent - easy on, easy off and keep the sheepskins clean. I got ripped off though ... paid $10 for mine :lol: :lol: .

[awp Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close awp]

Awp,
Apologies if am sounding discouraging. These are all questions I asked myself pre-purchase.
What it comes down to is personal preference, I would suggest you drive all of the vehicles on your short list, crawl all over them, fold seats, make sure your pram fits, basically go over them with a fine tooth comb and see which is better for you.
You may find that you can't live with the ride of the tourag or the lack of space in the prado.
As far as longevity is concerned, I believe there are guys on this site who have 200,000ks plus on their cars. As with anything, proper maintenance helps.
We bought privately, hence the better price, just make sure you get all the proper checks, REVS, RTA etc if you go down this road.
Dealers will tell you exactly what you want to hear, but provide that extra bit of piece of mind, with warranties and guaranteed title etc.
I hope you find the car that is right for you, and if it turns out to be a prado, stick around here, 4 wheel driving is really good fun.

no no no no... you're not discouraging me. you just helping me making right decision. i definitely going for test drive tomorrow for both cars might be cruser too if they have one.
and also what do you mean by proper maintenance? like doing the regular book service ontime? or there are something else? i dont really like changing a car every 2 years or 3 years. so i really want to buy good, strong and hold the value well.

what is REVS, RTA?

[awp Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close awp]

Steve, does your VX have side airbags; and i'd be interested to know if they come as standard in the vx?

And yes mate, those supercheap canvas covers are excellent - easy on, easy off and keep the sheepskins clean. I got ripped off though ... paid $10 for mine :lol: :lol: .

what is supercheap canvas covers? is that seat covers? brand is supercheap or supercheap is the shop name?

[awp Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close awp]

oh yes, almost forgot. how big difference between 4 speed and 5 speed prado? terms of fuel economy and speed.

[McBAIN Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close McBAIN]

Steve, does your VX have side airbags; and i'd be interested to know if they come as standard in the vx?

And yes mate, those supercheap canvas covers are excellent - easy on, easy off and keep the sheepskins clean. I got ripped off though ... paid $10 for mine :lol: :lol: .

what is supercheap canvas covers? is that seat covers? brand is supercheap or supercheap is the shop name?

canvas seat covers bought from supercheap. they look to be doing a runout to clear their stock so practically giving them away.

[Bear Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bear]

Yes, as Mcbain explained, the seat covers were (don't know if they still are) being cleared out by SuperCheap Auto. The point i was trying to make is that it is does not cost much to protect seats from children.

Also awp, you ask about 4 or 5 sp auto. I would go the 5 speed if you can; probably not much difference around town, a bit better on the highway and imo, will hold their value better in years to come.

As for reliability and resale value, there is never any guarantee - some cars last and others don't - regardless of the manufacturer. But on the balance of probability, Toyota does have an unsurpassed reputation for reliability and excellent resale value. When it comes time to sell, there are hundreds of people wanting to buy toyotas, and barely anyone looking for a Toureq. Not trying to bash the vehicle, it may be very good, but you know the basic rule of economics: Market price is determined by Supply and Demand.

REVS check ... a search to make sure that no money is owed on the vehicle. You can also get an extended REVS certificate (only costs a few dollars) which give you the whole history of the car ... Well worth while. Not sure what RTA stands for :?:

Let us know how your test drive goes

[vx05 Member Find all posts View Profile Close vx05]

RTA is Roads and Traffic Authority, the people holding us here in NSW back interms of tyres :x
They can provide details on the vehicles history, was it a repaired write off, stolen, fines outstanding etc. No guarantees, just a bit more piece of mind. I imagine Vic has a similar sort of system

Steve, does your VX have side airbags; and i'd be interested to know if they come as standard in the vx?

We have all the airbags, seat, side curtains to 3 rows and dual fronts. They were what sold the cfo on the car. I think they were standard along with some or maybe all of the Grande's traction control, which by the way doesn't work when your hung up on the transmission with 2 front wheels in the air ops: Gunna need a new bash plate :roll:

[roddy Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close roddy]

Hi,
i too did extensive research. Going from a subaru forester XT to the 2005 VX Prado. I went for 2005 to get the 5 speed auto, not the 4 speed in the aug 2004 and prior. I went with VX to get all the 'goodies' without leather - hate leather in car... cold in winter, hot in summer. I gave up on vinyl seats years and years ago - leather not far off. Personal taste though - before the leather lovers start bashing me !!! lol..
Our VX has grey velour interior which i scotch gaurded. Have sandgrabba mats and cargo mat, all is protected.
You won't be sorry, nice car.... (not a turbo subie though) , but at least we have room now... lol
cheers, Rod

ps, gee Steve, $36,000 for a 2005 VX is a great price. We looked for months and months and best we could do was $40,000 - had 70k km though with a few extra's... We were being fussy though and had only 2 colours in mind and had to be in great nic.. cheers

RTA is Roads and Traffic Authority, the people holding us here in NSW back interms of tyres :x
They can provide details on the vehicles history, was it a repaired write off, stolen, fines outstanding etc. No guarantees, just a bit more piece of mind. I imagine Vic has a similar sort of system

Steve, does your VX have side airbags; and i'd be interested to know if they come as standard in the vx?

We have all the airbags, seat, side curtains to 3 rows and dual fronts. They were what sold the cfo on the car. I think they were standard along with some or maybe all of the Grande's traction control, which by the way doesn't work when your hung up on the transmission with 2 front wheels in the air ops: Gunna need a new bash plate :roll:

[awp Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close awp]

did try those cars. and i choose prado. touareq is a nice car though, nice interior, very european cars. but lack of space. so with prado, i choose grande. is it good to get 2003 grande with 83k Kms for 44000 drive away? bull bar, tow bar,fog light, dvd player, hard cover wheel, head light protector, bonnet protector. well, i don't really need the cosmetic, i just need head light protector and it's still 4 sp.

what do you think guys?

and another question, which one is better, buy older car with low mileage or newer car with high mileage?

[awp Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close awp]

had only 2 colours in mind and had to be in great nic..

i ever heard that white color doesn't have good resell value? is that true?

[vx05 Member Find all posts View Profile Close vx05]

and another question, which one is better, buy older car with low mileage or newer car with high mileage?

We went the newer car with the reasonably high kms (90,000). Simply put, we do very few kms per year, so in a few years we will be back to average. Our car has a sovereign bar, tow bar, uhf and toyota mats.

We also looked at a Grande from '03, with 118,000km on the clock for $37k, private sale too. Little things, like mould in the centre console fridge, wear on the leather on the outside of the drivers seat, and a few dings around the rear sensors put us off. Also was gold, thought it would be harder to look after than silver.
These things are just wear and tear and obviously increase with age and use.

Of course, it's all personal, and I wish you the very best of luck.

[roddy Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close roddy]

From Aug 04 they went to 5 speed autos BUT i think the Grande had the 5 speed auto in the earlier models, not sure???
At the end of the day it depends on km's and condition... I wanted a VX and the 5 speed auto so had to go Aug 04 or newer. Otherwise it wouldn't really matter. An older one with ave Km's for it's age with full service history - very important - in great condition and well looked after would be better than a newer model not looked after ...As for km's travelled. I would prefer a car with good ave kms for it's age. Too low means it hasn't been driven much or maybe a lot of short trips, not so good for a car. Mine had 70k in only 2 years, It was driven between Canberra and Sydney so good highway miles. There are so many variables to consider...
cheers.. Rod

did try those cars. and i choose prado. touareq is a nice car though, nice interior, very european cars. but lack of space. so with prado, i choose grande. is it good to get 2003 grande with 83k Kms for 44000 drive away? bull bar, tow bar,fog light, dvd player, hard cover wheel, head light protector, bonnet protector. well, i don't really need the cosmetic, i just need head light protector and it's still 4 sp.

what do you think guys?

and another question, which one is better, buy older car with low mileage or newer car with high mileage?

[vx05 Member Find all posts View Profile Close vx05]

Hi awp
The other option is to price a new gx or gxl.

We used a company called private fleet, they advertise at the top of some of the PP pages, for my wifes new car. They tender out your order and get back to you with a good price, for a small fee (approx $200 from memory). You just need to know the exact specs you want on the car
eg GXL with auto and mats and tints, or whatever it is you need. Although they may not be able to help much if you want a diesel.

For the money you were originally looking at, I think that you might be pleasantly surprised.

Just another option for you to consider.