DC turbo diesels...

There is something I just don't like about auto's... Nothing I can really put my finger on, just never have liked driving them.

I had a 2.8TD Intercooled Rocky (one of the later ones before they stopped making them) in a manual and it excelled at low revs, an absolute monster at 1500rpms, couldn't stop the bugger if you ran it into brick wall! ;-)

I have a 3.0L TD Auto surf now and gotta say I have had no power problems off road, overtaking fully laden on the open highyway needs a runup, but we are pretty damned laden when we go away... The engine in this one is the same as the Prado and Turbo Hilix (Prado has an intercooler though). Don't know what it would be like in a manual, however I'd never go back to a manual 4by after having the auto, it is much more capable. I know the 3.0L TD Patrol I used to drive at work was very crappy at low revs, had some nasty turbo lag. The surf doesn't have any noticable turbo lag at all, very smooth power band. The patrol would EASILY out pull the surf, but only once you revved the bastard to oblivian (and I don't like doing that in diesels). These Euro diesel's are much more like small petrols IMHO, lower compression ratios mean more power from feer and hgher reving, but at the expense of low down grunt (which is what diesels were made to do!!??).

People who grab all the 3.0L TD's and put them into one basket need to a take a few different ones for a drive as there are STACKS of different 3.0TD motors out there at the moment with all sorts of different configurations and performance between them is completly different. Don't get too caught up in these KW and NM torque figers either, as they are only MAXIMUM readings and mean didly squat in real life, the only way to see if the Triton would be any good for you would be to drive one and decide for yourself.