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Hi All, Yes I am dead new to the forum but have spent some time reading the relevant threads.
Have been recommended to buy a Prado as a replacement for my EL Falcon as a tow vehicle and would appreciate recommendations as this will be my first 4WD.
My requirements are (in order or relevance);
Budget max $20,000
Primary use is to tow a 1400kg caravan (50% of time) or a similar weight trailer sailor yacht (20% of time), short trip to launch and retrieve my boat from local ramp with under 2 km distance (15% of time) and the remaining 15% of the time will be black top touring. I do not intend to do any off road bush bashing. One of the main reasons in being "steered" to a 4WD is to get the required towing capacity, with some reserve for a factor of safety and to have some traction if required at a slippery ramp on launch/retrieve. Might end up doing a Fraser Island trip (car only) but certainly nothing too serious. The van is not an off road model but might encounter a bit of sand or loose stuff in getting to some remote free camps.
I am in my 60's now and do not need to be able to tow at the legal limit uphill & down dale. Happy to just go with the traffic flow, but of course reserve power for passing is always great.
As its going to be a second vehicle, I will most likely only end up doing an average of between 10-12,000 kms pa. Therefore I an tending to strongly favour petrol vs diesel because of cheaper purchase cost; not a big difference in annual fuel costs (thanks for the excellent posts Mark); I avoid potential issues with bad diesel doing in injectors, sludging the oil ?? As I will be doing my own servicing where possible (certainly oil changes and fluids). I read that the diesel would not like the short run time for the under 2km trip to launch boat, as car will not even be starting to warm up. I appreciate that the petrol engine will not like this either but should be much more tolerance & have a better recovery when given a longer trip and getting up to normal working temperature at a latter stage (to drive moisture out of the system) Is this a fair assumption?
I intend to hold the vehicle for the next 10 years and will therefore put something like 120,000 addition kms on the clock. Don't want to get into the situation of having to do an engine rebuild, so this will mean getting a vehicle with under 250,000 ish. I know that diesels are known for doing very high k's in their life time, but I am concerned that with my limiting budget I will be getting a 3rd+ owner vehicle and the service history will not be well known as far as the vital frequency of fluid changes etc. On this basis am I correct in assuming that the diesel would be more prone to possible maintenance problems with higher k's with unknown service history?
Not after fancy features, just want a reliable vehicle to tow, that I can do the majority of maintenance myself (& get my from A to B) and back again!
Sorry for the lengthy post but the more threads I read, the more I realised that there was to consider.
What would you choose in my position? Petrol/Diesel? year? model?
Have been recommended to buy a Prado as a replacement for my EL Falcon as a tow vehicle and would appreciate recommendations as this will be my first 4WD.
My requirements are (in order or relevance);
Budget max $20,000
Primary use is to tow a 1400kg caravan (50% of time) or a similar weight trailer sailor yacht (20% of time), short trip to launch and retrieve my boat from local ramp with under 2 km distance (15% of time) and the remaining 15% of the time will be black top touring. I do not intend to do any off road bush bashing. One of the main reasons in being "steered" to a 4WD is to get the required towing capacity, with some reserve for a factor of safety and to have some traction if required at a slippery ramp on launch/retrieve. Might end up doing a Fraser Island trip (car only) but certainly nothing too serious. The van is not an off road model but might encounter a bit of sand or loose stuff in getting to some remote free camps.
I am in my 60's now and do not need to be able to tow at the legal limit uphill & down dale. Happy to just go with the traffic flow, but of course reserve power for passing is always great.
As its going to be a second vehicle, I will most likely only end up doing an average of between 10-12,000 kms pa. Therefore I an tending to strongly favour petrol vs diesel because of cheaper purchase cost; not a big difference in annual fuel costs (thanks for the excellent posts Mark); I avoid potential issues with bad diesel doing in injectors, sludging the oil ?? As I will be doing my own servicing where possible (certainly oil changes and fluids). I read that the diesel would not like the short run time for the under 2km trip to launch boat, as car will not even be starting to warm up. I appreciate that the petrol engine will not like this either but should be much more tolerance & have a better recovery when given a longer trip and getting up to normal working temperature at a latter stage (to drive moisture out of the system) Is this a fair assumption?
I intend to hold the vehicle for the next 10 years and will therefore put something like 120,000 addition kms on the clock. Don't want to get into the situation of having to do an engine rebuild, so this will mean getting a vehicle with under 250,000 ish. I know that diesels are known for doing very high k's in their life time, but I am concerned that with my limiting budget I will be getting a 3rd+ owner vehicle and the service history will not be well known as far as the vital frequency of fluid changes etc. On this basis am I correct in assuming that the diesel would be more prone to possible maintenance problems with higher k's with unknown service history?
Not after fancy features, just want a reliable vehicle to tow, that I can do the majority of maintenance myself (& get my from A to B) and back again!
Sorry for the lengthy post but the more threads I read, the more I realised that there was to consider.
What would you choose in my position? Petrol/Diesel? year? model?
Whitey
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