Landcruiser Colorado Questions

I am thinking about getting a newer 4x4 and have considered a Landcruiser.

Why - As you know I currently have a Disco 300tdi which is getting on, having covered 170000 miles. If I want a newer Discovery I then may start getting into electronic fuel management issues.

All newer vehicles have these sytems, but having done some research the Toyotas (on the whole) seem to be more reliable in this department. In particular I have been considering the D4D engined Colorado. What are your thoughts.

Also, if anyone has one I have found examples showing anything from as little as 20mpg - 35mpg. What do you get from yours, unladen with a light foot.

Ohhhh....and I'm not after a Land Rover /Toyota bun fight I just need the facts from anyone with first hand knowledge.

Ive personaly owned a d4d colorado and my dads company has sold 10+ in the last few years. Ive not had any problems with any of their engines. Ill comment on the Colorado that i owned. I bought it with 82,000 miles, full leather and equipment, owned it for 6 months covering 7000 miles. There was not one fault with the vehicle dureing this time. I gave it a full service with belts and gave it a set of BFG AT's. Auto trans, very solid build, rear locker as standard. IMO it was one of the best Off Roaders ive driven next to a Patrol.

For me Top of my List would be a Shogun 3.2 Auto.
If i was going to reccomend Off road 4x4's with a older system, i could say, Colorado 3.0 D4D, Patrol 3.0 (or 2.8 ), Shogun 2.8, LandCruiser 70 series LWB 3.0.
Not as good off road but still excellent is the Nissan Terrano II. The 3.0 is a gem, fuel is around 28mpg.

From the ones ive owned the fuel came in around 25mpg. All were Auto trans.
Personaly i get in my Truck 33mpg. Auto trans, standard sixe tyres. Gentle foot. You can get similar fuel from a Kia Sorento 2.5 crdi. Limited ground clearance and limited accessories but it can be done.

Great feedback..... thanks.

I wouldn't be doing too many mods other than all terrains, snorkel and roof rack. Realise the rack will reduce milage, but hopefully not too much.

Ill say that you could do Snorkel, AT Tyres, and roof rack on a Sorento. Which could still net you 30mpg, comfy, reliable and reasonable off road, no 80 series LC tho but it would be my next choice to a shogun.

Did you end up swapping your Disco in the end? What did you get?

Jas

I've just worked out that the Colorado is the Prado, which is of course the ubiquitous medium sized 4wd in Aus. Bullet proof in 120 or 150 series. Earlier 90 series versions were prone to cracked heads due to low coolant levels from head gasket leaks.

Normal to see 12-18 month old D4D Colorados with >150,000 miles for sale through regional dealers. These vehicles have been used by the roads or railways departments and covered hundreds of hot bumpy dusty kms every day. They still sell for >$25k (17k sterling) as they are still strong and reliable even at this mileage.

I've also just worked out that this is a Landy forum so I shan't enter into direct comparisons of Toyota v. Land Rover reliability, perceived or experienced. Suffice to say you very, very rarely see newer LRs (Defender, RR or Disco) in Aus outback these days. They're more of a town car.

Colorado / Prado fuel consumption (D4D) over here typically 12-13 L/100km around town driven sensibly (+/- 22mpg) and 10 L/100km (28mpg) on open road at 110km/h. Petrol 4.0l equivalent about 15 L/100km in town dropping to 13 L/100km unladen open road. My normal consumption when fully loaded and towing the camper at 110 km/h = 21 L/100km (13.5 L/100km). But petrol engine is very grunty and got long legs for overtaking the road trains. Diesel servicing costs about 150% of petrol costs.

These consumption figures come from measured at the pump to 2 decimal places petrol v. diesel competition a couple of weeks ago! We have about 15 of each (120 series) in our work fleet and the long-term costs are almost identical excluding depreciation (diesels better resale than petrol).

hartster wrote:

I've also just worked out that this is a Landy forum so I shan't enter into direct comparisons of Toyota v. Land Rover reliability, perceived or experienced. Suffice to say you very, very rarely see newer LRs (Defender, RR or Disco) in Aus outback these days. They're more of a town car.

Its not a Land Rover Forum. Or at least its not set out to be.
We have a range of 4x4's on here, some of our most popular members drive, Delcia's, Mercedes ML's, Jeep cherokee's, Mitshubishi Shoguns (pajero/monetero), one Nissan Patrol (safari) and we even have 2 Terracan owners........

UK is LR dominated due to the high avalibily of vehicles and parts.

Bring on the friendly banter, it will be good if you HAVE HAD experiance with Land Rovers and Toyota's so you could compare the two, providing helpful information for anyone looking to buy a 90 series, prado, colorado.

TJ

Its not a Land Rover Forum. Or at least its not set out to be.

Fair point, misread the play. Lots of experience with both LR & Toyota. Probably fair to say I've not got the best LR perspective because most of the one's I travelled with were SA assembled by BMW in the late-90s and they were crap. Very unreliable, all manner of problems. Way to much top end power, same engine as the 328i! Discos (Series 1) were even worse and just not up to the conditions unless they had been significantly mod'd.

Best LRs in Southern Africa by far were the mid- late 80s 110s that had had the diesel motors overhauled and the cooling systems set up for the higher temps. Plus the ever present Series IIIs with the Rover V8. Back in the day fuel was dirt cheap so consumption was more a case of range rather than $$$. However the if the later models ran into problems you could be stranded, because the parts network wasn't there like Toyotas.

SA had very few Land Cruisers in the 90s. They weren't made in SA like the Hilux was and as such were prohibitively expensive. They started to become more common in the late 90s and I'd gone by the time the Prado (Colorados) got going. Southern Africa was built by the Hilux, East Africa by the Land Rover!