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Blasphemy Corner --If You Couldn't Have a Land Cruiser?

Well, Plan B: 'Operation Temporary Runabout' came to nothing. In a sudden brainwave last night, I thought I could buy that cheapo Trooper and, even if it turned out to be a lump of rust, that wasn't worth holding onto, I could use it, in the meantime, to be able to get further afield to see promising sounding Land Cruisers. And then eBay it and [probably] get most of the money back, when I no longer needed it.

Unfortunately, I rung up about it this morning and the bloke said someone came in and bought it yesterday. Bloody typical! Oh well. Back to Plan A [seeing as that's been working so well, so far!]
 
Better off mate.. while the Trooper was popular here, there's very few left.. compared to 90 series cruisers that are still everywhere. I counted 7 alone on a 6 mile journey home from town this evening.. granted I live in an agricultural area, but there's nothing else in any serious numbers around here
 
Well it looks like Brenda the 80 will be leaving me towards the end of the year.
If it goes that way then i guess my only choice would be one of these 4x4 Hiace thingys
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4WD Mitsubishi Delica or a Mitsubishi Jeep. There's a Delica parked a few streets away that's obviously abandoned with flat tyres open sunroof etc. Still registered but clearly not used.

Seriously thought about it but wife approval would be impossible. Don't want to give up my Lancer or my Prado!
 
Don’t know if this helps but personally I’d give the Shogun a miss, I’ve had a mk3 3.2 DiD and it was problematic from the off, some just west and tear stuff like sticking callipers but others like the rear diff disintegrating and to top it all off the fuel pump packing up which was almost as much as the car to replace, I’d personally not have another.
The L322 Range Rover I’ve had since has been far less problematic, which is saying something!.
 
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Going by most campsites I see it's 60% Toyota LC 33% Toyota Prado 2% Ford Ranger 2% Nissan 1% Mitsubishi 1% Land Rover 1% rusty Holden Commodore wagon! Oh plus the one more debt than sense family with the $350,000 American ute and Luxury caravan.
 
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By Jeep I meant their licensed Jeep not the Pajero/Shogun. Who would not want to drive to work in one of these!

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If I could not find a single Land Cruiser on the market.... maybe I would get a 2005 VW Touareg with air suspension, central and rear diff lockers... It can actually follow a stock Wrangler Rubicon everywhere or almost everywhere. The downside is expensive maintenance and questionable reliability....
 
Don’t know if this helps but personally I’d give the Shogun a miss, I’ve had a mk3 3.2 DiD and it was problematic from the off, some just west and tear stuff like sticking callipers but others like the rear diff disintegrating and to top it all off the fuel pump packing up which was almost as much as the car to replace, I’d personally not have another.
The L322 Range Rover I’ve had since has been far less problematic, which is saying something!.

It's always good to know of potential problems. Certainly it's one of the more 'available' proper 4x4s as they seem to have been making it forever and it's on my list for the future.

I was aware of the fuel pump problem, but I just don't know how widespread problems are. Is it a bit like the cracked head problem on 1KZ-TEs, not hugely widespread but still a known issue or is it more like every other one is going to fail?

Interesting that the rear diff is prone to problems. My local garage had one in with unspecified diff failure too. I wonder if it's a serious weakness? Was it just rot in your case?
 
Can't afford one but I really like the look of the newest VW Touareg (MY2019 onwards iirc) and the Audi Q8. The latter also comes in RSQ8 flavour with a twin turbo 4.0 V8 and supercar performance. :cool:

And before anyone says it, yes, I know I probably wouldn't be able to off-road or overland in it. :icon-wink:
 
If I could not find a single Land Cruiser on the market.... maybe I would get a 2005 VW Touareg with air suspension, central and rear diff lockers... It can actually follow a stock Wrangler Rubicon everywhere or almost everywhere. The downside is expensive maintenance and questionable reliability....

I had this a while back:

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It came up from someone very cheap and I couldn’t say no, same underpinnings as the MK1 Touareg and had air suspension, centre and rear diff lock,low range etc just like the Touareg but with a 450 BHP twin turbo V8.
Really capable and underrated, I did only take it green laning once and it was on road tyres but it didn’t do badly at all!.

Never put a foot wrong reliability wise either, although it did use about a litre of oil every 1000 miles.
I didn’t end up keeping it that long though, the fuel consumption was too horrendous to live with!.
 
It's always good to know of potential problems. Certainly it's one of the more 'available' proper 4x4s as they seem to have been making it forever and it's on my list for the future.

I was aware of the fuel pump problem, but I just don't know how widespread problems are. Is it a bit like the cracked head problem on 1KZ-TEs, not hugely widespread but still a known issue or is it more like every other one is going to fail?

Interesting that the rear diff is prone to problems. My local garage had one in with unspecified diff failure too. I wonder if it's a serious weakness? Was it just rot in your case?

My personal knowledge is that no they don’t all fail but it is quite common, it’s usually caused by the fuel filler neck rusting and the rust getting into the diesel pump and killing it slowly, other things are they do rust, timing chain followers need doing regularly.
Someone I know had a 2010 mk4 one at the same time I had my 2005 120 series LC5, despite being a newer car the LC was smoother,quieter and noticeably better on fuel.
I don’t think the MK3 Shoguns are all bad, they’re capable,plentiful and cheap so if you picked up a cheap one to run and it suffered the fuel pump problem it wouldn’t be the end of the world, if you got a really nice one and it happened then it’s an £800-£1000 Bill unfortunately.
 
Yeah my colleague has an MY13 Pajero, over 200,000 km the only thing up with it I have heard about is the auto tranny slowly on the way out but still drivable. Very comfortable and smooth in the times I've been in it though.

Dozens of old high mileage Mitsubishi's here they are mid way in the top 10 most popular car make here.
 
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George L said:
If I could not find a single Land Cruiser on the market.... maybe I would get a 2005 VW Touareg with air suspension, central and rear diff lockers... It can actually follow a stock Wrangler Rubicon everywhere or almost everywhere. The downside is expensive maintenance and questionable reliability....
I had this a while back:

13847F52-8B42-4163-882F-3379B3F22B26.jpeg


Typical Porsche driver parking.... ;-)
 
Touaregs can also output 450 horsepower and without turbos! Just get the 6 liter V12. Cayenne and Touareg Mk1 share a lot like the AWD system, electronics, chassis etc. Touareg costs less to maintain though, so it is basically an affordable version of Cayenne. However, without a ladder chassis and with no solid axles, you can't expect extreme articulation of the wheels or a pure off road experience. It is very capable but I am not sure about reliability.... Maintenance is still higher than that of a Prado.
 
I only got the at because I got a very good deal on it, if I were picking one of them I’d go for the 3.0 V6 TDI Touareg, looking after any of them is going to be loads more than a Prado I agree.
I’d say they’re a good balance of off and on road capability.
Reliability wise I personally didn’t have any issue s with mine but there are quite a few well documented ones on both the VW and the Porsche, main one that comes to mind is the prop centre bearing failing.
 
Well if looking slightly into the future if I couldn’t have a LC then the up and coming Grenadier would be the top of my list. A true working vehicle and dare I say it maybe better than a 70 Series in some respects.
 
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