What Car, what brands do you trust for the Outback?

[Ded Driver]

the prices given on those sites I listed are in AU$
generally all web sites using the .com.au extension will be in AU$

 

[boobook]

As well as scammers, be very wary of ex mine vehicles which will be usually Landcruiser or Hilux.

Many of these will have had prolonged exposure to a heavy salt laden environment which has a very corrosive impact on components.
Unfortunately, Murphy's Law insists that the components affected will be hidden somewhere within the vehicles internals, making for some very complex diagnostics and expensive repair.

A good way to ruin a long looked forward to trip

 

[PabloP]

As well as scammers, be very wary of ex mine vehicles which will be usually Landcruiser or Hilux.

Many of these will have had prolonged exposure to a heavy salt laden environment which has a very corrosive impact on components.
Unfortunately, Murphy's Law insists that the components affected will be hidden somewhere within the vehicles internals, making for some very complex diagnostics and expensive repair.

A good way to ruin a long looked forward to trip

Strange that you say that as I have worked on several cattle stations where they basically only buy ex-mining vehicles and as far as I can recall they have not had any such issues. It may depend on where they are sourced from and the pre-purchase check processes that they have carried out.

Rob P.

 

[Harbourmaster]

Son bought a Hilux when he worked for Komatsu, NOT from them, he got it for a song and spent a lot of time on it, He's a diesel fitter and was to keep him busy when home but what a bucket. He done alright out of it but he's never done another one.

 

[Murphy81]

Here's mine, good old 99 Isuzu nps 300. Has been to every state except nsw. Nothing much goes wrong, and if it does, I can fix most things beside the road by myself. Last of the n/a Isuzu which means 90ks is a good cruise speed. When going downhill. But will go almost anywhere a tojo will, except deep mud, where it likes to act like gold and try to find the bottom. Would not swap it for anything.

 

[allcables]

if it helps l hunted for a 6cylinder petrol toyota prado to tow my off road caravan. l know its petrol but with the long range fuel tanks, and being aware of where l'm going l reckon l'm good

 

[Murphy81]

Sorry, thought this was a general vehicle thread, should have read the earlier posts. Didn't mean to throw it off topic.

 

[David-Karratha]

As well as scammers, be very wary of ex mine vehicles which will be usually Landcruiser or Hilux.

Many of these will have had prolonged exposure to a heavy salt laden environment which has a very corrosive impact on components.
Unfortunately, Murphy's Law insists that the components affected will be hidden somewhere within the vehicles internals, making for some very complex diagnostics and expensive repair.

A good way to ruin a long looked forward to trip

Ex mining vehicles can be a bit of a hit-or-miss proposition. I’ve done far too many kms in mine vehicles, often hammering up and down our rail access roads, and yeah, when these vehicles are replaced, they’re usually well & truly buggered.
On the other hand, I’ve seen Land Cruiser and Prado vehicles go to auction, that were basically personal vehicles for managers & superintendents, which have basically done nothing but drive to site & back (all usually on blacktop). I’d buy one of them in a heartbeat.
At least with a mine spec vehicle, it’ll be fitted with roll-over protection, it will have been inspected daily and serviced by the book, and any defect will have been repaired immediately. It might also have done 250k on corrugated roads…
And yes, it’ll almost invariably be a Toyota Hilux or Landcruiser.

 

[Davent]

Ex mining vehicles can be a bit of a hit-or-miss proposition. I’ve done far too many kms in mine vehicles, often hammering up and down our rail access roads, and yeah, when these vehicles are replaced, they’re usually well & truly buggered.
On the other hand, I’ve seen Land Cruiser and Prado vehicles go to auction, that were basically personal vehicles for managers & superintendents, which have basically done nothing but drive to site & back (all usually on blacktop). I’d buy one of them in a heartbeat.
At least with a mine spec vehicle, it’ll be fitted with roll-over protection, it will have been inspected daily and serviced by the book, and any defect will have been repaired immediately. It might also have done 250k on corrugated roads…
And yes, it’ll almost invariably be a Toyota Hilux or Landcruiser.

I dunno about that, my hilux is an ex mine vehicle, got it with 58K on the clock, and now has @ 200K. I have done the timing belt and injectors, replaced 2 sets of tyres and a couple of batteries, most reliable car I have ever had, was a bit rough inside, but its a prospecting fishing car....very happy. was cheap to.

 

[Nightjar]

Nissan GU coilcab bought new in 2002, had a Chevy 6.5 turbo fitted and is still going well today, towing our van.

 

[Jaros]

I'd trust the 2004 Nissan Pathy---if you regularly service it which i to my abililty--cheers.

 

[davsgold]

well just say it won't be an electric Tesla

 

[The geezer]

I have had 43 years in the motor trade and I can tell you that underground mine vehicles in QLD are always pieces of **** usually always rust buckets. Don’t do it, however open cut mines( eg all bauxite mines are really good and are usually well maintained ( duty of care) because they always maintain the roads (cheaper then the maintaining the vehicles)in case of a liability issue. I have checked over many vehicles for RWC for people who wasted money at auctions buying cheap land cruisers at online auctions-that will never make to the Road.

 

[Jaros]

well just say it won't be an electric Tesla

I know what I'd trust more---------NnnnnnnnnnIssan

 

[rustyhooks]

Isuzu Dmax late 2017/2018 hands down better than most other dual cabs, ours has just cracked 240000 kms with no problems apart from new front wheel bearings, tyres 2 sets and one battery plus a DPF delete, its been remapped and we just had a major service done before we head north to the pilbara and it still drives like new, mods done 2" lift tyre size upped from 245/75/r16 to 265/75 r16 which also lifted it an extra 45mm, dragon lady hates it as she suffers with short legs hehehe.
Now we are going to be towing a 16' caravan i had the local Isuzu dealer service the transmission , i also fitted new disc pads yesterday when doing the wheel bearings, a friend of ours works piloting large trucks throughout australia and he did close to one million kms with a earlier Dmax which convinced me to get ours, after having had Landcruisers, Nissan Patrols x 2 and a slug Navara 2.5l late model dual cab, Mazda bt50s x 2 and the last vehicle was a Ford Ranger which we spent over the time we had it probably in the vicinity of 20K in mods to get it to do what we wanted, (it was pretty much a slug before modding etc bad trubo lag) the Dmax fuel economy returns around 9.5litres per 100kms average towing at 90kms per hr towing in 5th gear, i lock it out of 6th, my mate with his GU patrol ute with a Palomino unit on back uses 21litres per 100kms, other mate with his 79 series towing a van same size as ours 18 litres per 100kms up to 25 litres depending on wind etc, bearing in mind at Geraldton diesel is $1.79 at the bulk fuel supply and up to $1.90 at most outlets we think we are on winner.

 

[bicter]

Now we are going to be towing a 16' caravan i had the local Isuzu dealer service the transmission ,

Might also be worth your while investigating if theres a need for a transmission cooler given the extra load of the van.

 

[Jaros]

A good solid old one that hasn't got sensors attached to everything.

 

[David-Karratha]

I dunno about that, my hilux is an ex mine vehicle, got it with 58K on the clock, and now has @ 200K. I have done the timing belt and injectors, replaced 2 sets of tyres and a couple of batteries, most reliable car I have ever had, was a bit rough inside, but its a prospecting fishing car....very happy. was cheap to.

Yep. I’m in a Hilux too. ;-)
58k is pretty good. Some of our vehicles have regularly done a few thousand kms a week, all on poor, highly corrugated roads. I’ve seen cracked sub-frames on the Prados (which we stopped using on our access road), but the Cruisers & Hiluxes usually do ok. There were some who believed the ‘luxies were a bit skittish on the dirt, but I personally don’t dislike a little bit of twitchiness. They’re pretty buggered however when they go to auction.

To go back to the original question, providing you maintain it, and treat it reasonably well, most of the popular 4wd’s are pretty good.

 

[rustyhooks]

Might also be worth your while investigating if theres a need for a transmission cooler given the extra load of the van.

after market cooler fitted last year

 

[Gassman]

just saying...wife n I went round aust in in our ba falcon tradie one ton ute...towing a 10 foot caravan...38000 klicks doing this...man...went over some really rough tracks ect...earnest giles rd ...is one example that springs to mind...coming outa kings canyon...also the diamantian development rd..to windorah....where a worker sed ...u shouldn't go down there...shaking his head as we went...LOL...lucky for one bloke we did...had a flat n no tools in a Toyota...sitting there for 2 hrs waiting for someone to come past...he wanted to give me all of his beer in repayment for help...cant do that...but took 4 stubbies...
lol...the only probs we had was replace electric fans at Kalgoorlie...2 front wheel bearings at cloncurry plus regular oil changes ect...still driving it now 4 yrs after the fact...like i sed ...just saying...oh n i put an xtra cooler for trans in....its a must have...