Buying a 150

[ozspearo Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close ozspearo]

Hi all,

I'm hopefully about to become a Prado owner (after a year of looking), but I have a few questions which I haven't been able to find elsewhere on the forum.

The car will be used as a daily driver (60k rural round trip each day), the occasional long highway trip to Sydney or Brisbane, semi-regular 4wd trips to the Barringtons, etc, and towing a boat (<2T) about once a month, and eventually some longer serious off-road trips. I want the final version to have bullbar, winch, snorkel, towbar, dual battery, as well as a some other specialist extras like roof basket/cage, etc.

I've been looking at 2010-13 GX & GXL's in both auto and manual. My budget is around the $40k mark, depending on k's and what extras the car has. I've narrowed my search down to a couple of 2012 GXL's with similar k's, extras, service history, condition, etc (one auto, one manual).

So my questions are.... Auto or manual for the use it will get (I don't want to start a Nissan vs Toyota-style debate)? I've driven both and I'm still undecided. (I have always had manuals and prefer to drive them).

What else should I be looking for when doing my pre-purchase inspection?

Thanks,

-Scott

[AussieAndy Find all posts View Profile Close AussieAndy]

Auto's get better fuel consumption, there are more of them around to choose from and there is no clutch to be abused off road. They are also easyer to tow with, especially at the boat ramp or reversing anything into a tricky spot, and a lot easyer to do slow 4wd work with around rocks, slow hill climbs and hill starts, etc. The manual feels like it has more power, push the pedal and it goes, at least to me. The smart decision would usually be an auto, but you have to buy what you will be happy driving every day otherwise you will hate the car. We have a manual because that's what the wife preferred the feel of, I preferred the auto because it was the smart choice, but the manual also does drive nicer to me.

[ozspearo Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close ozspearo]

Thanks Andy. I've decided to go with a 2012 GXL manual. Getting the final inspection done at the local Toyota dealer on Tuesday and closing the deal later in the week.