Disco vs Patrol vs Cruiser

ford or holden?

First advice would be to expand your question.Give some details regarding age of vehicle, purpose of use, type of fuel,transmission,etc. The more info the more help you will receive. Cheers,Bob

Ok, so got posting a thread a bit wrong.

So this is where I am up to and looking for advice from the more experienced 4x4 drivers on the site:

I am looking to upgrade from my busted 1991 Pajero (which was bought out of necessity) to a decent diesel 4x4 which can go wherever I want to take it, carry 5 adults and a load of gear and pull a ski or small boat (and is sub $30k). My shortlist was a Patrol (4.2TD - read about the 3 litre issues and absolutely no interest in playing that lottery) or Cruiser 100 series (again 4.2).

After looking at and test driving a TD5 Discovery this is now on the list and noticed a LOT of Navara's up in Cairns (which I assume will be used up beach)

That's the background so my quesitons are: Where would you rate the 3 vehicles on:

a) Towing capability
b) Offroad capability (up beach primarily)
c) Reliability

all are good but if travelling along some roads you are only allowed to take a cruiser, Patrols and Disco's are not allowed ...
LOL

In my opinion you need a gu nissan patrol with a 4.5 v8 landcruiser motor landrover tdi300 suspension perfect 4 wheeldrive.

Just to give you an idea of prices I'm selling my 2005 TD Cruiser in a couple of months and expect to get about $45,000 for it

There is one advertised on the C & M forum with 93,000k on it immacualte and he wants $61990.
I think he's dreaming as you could buy them new for that.

Saying decent diesel probably knocks you out of the best cars on your ABC list below GreenBne

I would encourage you to look at the cars I choose 4800 Patrol and also 80 series cruiser both petrol.

You question is often asked , but what influences people more than the cars features is what they believe the car features are - some 90% fall into this trap.

Take your example of the 4.2 Patrol , many a persons favourite car here.

You refer to towing ability - would you know that 4800 Patrol have more torque at 1000 rpm than it has anywhere.
This torque then continues relativily flat to redline at some 5200 rpm.

In sand this is a killer - once when given a 4.2 from Nissan we took it on a matched dessert drive and it was significantly behind the Petrol car and yet only delivered 17% better fuel economy when working hard - working hard kills underpowered cars.

We simply won't own any car that won't get to 100kmh in more than around 15 secs for saftey reasons.

Depending on which camp you are in the Petrols true running costs are + or - 10% of the diesels anyway despite using 30% more fuel.
Remember depreciation is the prime cost in owning a car.

Then you need to move on the engine heat - a well known issue from this old design - whereas with the Petrol I simply removed its unnecessary 2nd thermo fan.

We could then talk about noise - some 9 db higher in those cars.

So its important to get to know you cars are what you really want from them - the disco for instance has reliability as a main issue compounded by difficult access under bonnet and more often than not
requires a trip to the service centre - of which there are very few.

Against this almost every aspect of the 4800's can be self done and is less critical due to a number of things like fuel pumps which cost $79 compared to some thousands for high pressure diesel items.

I have just quickly gone over some things above can can explain more fully if required but really if you need a car that can do the job well below $30 as is argueably one of the lower life cycle costs options then check out these cars.

Buy a Jeep , 2.7 diesel is the motor Nissan wish they had , 5 speed Auto is the gearbox Toyota stole the design from , lever transfer box gives 2wheel drive /part time 4x4 / fulltime 4x4 and low range 4x4 , put a standard jeep up against a standard Tojo or Nissan and see who goes futherest of the beaten track ,,,,, it wont be from Japan.

Hi GreenBNE

Over the Past 20 years iv'e owned A Lada Niva,Range Rover,Landrover Series 2a ,2 x Disco's TD5's a Mitsubishi Triton and Finally a Landcruiser 105 1HZ.

I really, really wish that i'd skipped all the crap and just brought the LandCruiser in the First Place (Especially as it would have been an 80 Series back then) Go the electronic factory TD at the premium price and you will have a ball heaps of Power and Torque ,lots of accessories and you will be able to buy spares anywhere in Australia.

Gavan

GreenBNE

The Disco II won't carry five adults and their gear.

Four is tight. Three adults better.

The TD5 is a good cruising car, but if you load it with 5 adults and try and tow as well, you will be asking too much of it.