Thread: Economics of old trucks vs new trucks

Originally Posted by Flyblown

If you’re going to buy an old truck, buy a petrol.

Hands down the best option is a 1GR-FE V6 4.0 engined Prado, or even better for NZ use, the rare but findable Hilux with the same engine.

The old school high compression turbo diesels with 400,000km plus the extra couple of hundred thousand you don’t know about? Fuck that.

If like me you’ve lived a while in Aus and used the 1GR in a variety of vehicles, and have access to the fleet data for a hundred or so more, you’ll know why I’m talking it up. One of the better examples of their ruggedness were the railway company vehicles - Prados mostly - used to check the lines day in day out in QLD, NT, WA. They didn’t buy the diesel variant of these vehicles for a reason. If I told you the mileage these vehicles wracked up in three years you wouldn’t believe me. And only about 5% of those kilometres were on the black top, the rest rough as railway tracks.

Feel free to throw stones, but I’m right!

They're an awesome motor, so reliable and cheap to service. If you're only doing a few thousand kms a year I'd have one a hilux with one of these motors hands down over a diesel variant