Thread: Urgent Advice - Would you buy this 4WD?

@Mitcho

The best guys to talk to are the guys who have owned and run these vehicles for years. Like @GWH for example. Get in touch with him via private message and have a proper conversation. Some of the comments in this thread so far are spot on about there’s also some crap.

The overriding view that the vehicle you were looking at was overpriced was 100% correct. Overpriced by about 100%!

I’ve run the mid- to late- 2000s 120 series Prado in Australia, both V6 4.0 petrol (1GR-FE motor) and 4-cyl 3.0 diesel (1KD-FTV). I did massive kilometres fully laden in hard-core outback conditions, often towing a 1.5t camper. Conditions way rougher than 95% of what you would encounter here.

The V6 petrol is the best truck I have ever had and absolutely bulletproof. They do massive kilometres in Australia. For instance the railway inspectors ran the V6 petrol Prados for track inspection, racking up half a million km in three years give or take. Nearly all those kilometres were on rough as guts outback railway roads most of which was closed to the public.

The 4-cyl diesel engine appeared in the 120 series in 2006 and is the same as the 2005-2014 Hilux. The early ones (‘06 to ‘09) had the iffy injectors and injector seals that was eventually sorted. Personally I would avoid one of the early 1KD engines.

Real world (combined) fuel consumption: V6 petrol 16L/100km, 4-cyl diesel 12L/100km. We had to keep logbooks and I had access to the fleet data (150 Toyota LVs) - these numbers are the real deal.

If I were you I would do some searches for a 2006-2010 Prado. Have a look at the mileage vs price. Long story short I have put two very good friends into Prado V6 petrols and both mates are stoked with their vehicles and have run them now for four-ish years. The running cost of the petrol is the same overall as the diesel when you factor in servicing, RUC. And it is a far, far nicer drive.

You would be paying give or take $20k cash for a ‘07 or ‘08 with ~200,000km, which is not even halfway mileage to a top end overhaul for the V6 petrol. They don’t have any of the injection or cracking head problems of the diesels, there’s no turbo to shit itself and they are run in a detuned state for longevity.