sleepy Posted November 30, 2010 Share Posted November 30, 2010 hi guys i am looking at upgrading my 4wd and i am tossing up between a Land cruiser, jeep grand Cherokee and a Mazda bt 50(all diesel) . i have a budget of $30 to $35k and i will be towing about 2100kg to 2250kg BMT. most cruisers that i have looked at within my budget have around 100,000 ks on the clock, jeeps between 50,000 and 80,000 and i can get a new mazda for that price. any feedback would be appreciated. cheers sleepy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BWV Posted November 30, 2010 Share Posted November 30, 2010 I tow my whaler with a diesel cruiser and it goes 3.5t, tows it fine but wouldnt want to do a highway trip with it. wish I had a turbo diesel and it would go alot better. The car has nearly 500,000kms and still going strong never had a problem. I have been told that you will get 1000000kms out of the 4.2D if it has been looked after with regular oil changes etc. If i had 35k to spend I would be buying a 100 series turbo diesel for a tow vechile. I dont think the others are even in the same class. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zdenk01 Posted November 30, 2010 Share Posted November 30, 2010 Hi Sleepy. my background is spare parts, from my experience. The USA make is twice the price in parts than the japanese makes(genuine) The japanese models have a very good reputation. Hope this helps. regards Zed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gummybusta Posted November 30, 2010 Share Posted November 30, 2010 hi guys i am looking at upgrading my 4wd and i am tossing up between a Land cruiser, jeep grand Cherokee and a Mazda bt 50(all diesel) . i have a budget of $30 to $35k and i will be towing about 2100kg to 2250kg BMT. most cruisers that i have looked at within my budget have around 100,000 ks on the clock, jeeps between 50,000 and 80,000 and i can get a new mazda for that price. any feedback would be appreciated. cheers sleepy the cruisers are well known for sure and hard to knock i have heard alot of bad from jeeps towing never owned one myself but a family member has and it wouldn't be my pick personaly i would be going the new one for sure and it doesn't need to be just the BT50 there are other out there too like the D-Max or colorado personlay i have a D-Max but have not got a largish boat i'm towing but it does have 3000kg braked towing and with the 3l intercooled turbo diesel it have the power and fule economy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BWV Posted November 30, 2010 Share Posted November 30, 2010 4WD Monthly done a tow vechile comparasion a few months ago maybe 6 months. You might be able to contact them to get info or that mag, was an interesting read. To put it simple the bigger the engine was the better the economy was with the F250 winning towing (i think) 2.5 and 3.5T caravans for about 16L/100kms . The smaller turbo diesels where very thirsty around the 25L/100kms when under load as they where working alot harder than the bigger engines to tow the weight. The cruisers and Patrols where about 18-22L/100kms. I am currently going off memory but if i can find the mag i'll scan and fwd it to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IVZ350 Posted November 30, 2010 Share Posted November 30, 2010 go the toyota mate, mazda and jeep parts are to dear....a mate had a jeep for a while the gearbox gave him grief constantly, dunno how reliable the mazda is but i know from owning mazdas previously they aint as cheap on parts as the toyota Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrew399 Posted December 1, 2010 Share Posted December 1, 2010 Are you planning on doing any offroading or pure tow vehicle? Stay away from the jeep either way. A diesel landcruiser with 100,000 on it has pretty much only just been broken in! If you can get your hands on one that has spent most of its time on the tarmac then that is even better. The B250's are also a good car and as was mentioned above the izuzu dmax is also a good unit and very fuel efficient. If i were you though I would be looking at the landcruiser purely for its proven longterm reliability and parts are readily available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnv Posted December 1, 2010 Share Posted December 1, 2010 Hey sleepy , if u dont want to waste your $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ stay right away from the jeep cheery, very dear in parts & daily runnin cost r quite bad, a freind of ours had one 4 a very short period only. i have a late model hilux 3ltr turbo deisel top dual cab ute luv it , your best with a good landcruiser late model john Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCount Posted December 1, 2010 Share Posted December 1, 2010 Another vote for the Cruiser TD 4.2. Worth shopping around and if you know a little about cars get under the front to make sure it hasn't been bashed around and it appears to be straight. After a test drive take another look underneath to make sure oil traces aren't on the outside of where it is supposed to be on the inside.... Have owned a jeep for tarmac driving and traded it after 3 months for a Kluger and that was 6 years ago. It now has 220k on the clock and tows the Quintrex nicely. Good luck with the decision making. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hnsgeq Posted December 6, 2010 Share Posted December 6, 2010 Definitely the Toyota is the way to go. I have a mate who has one, has been treated very badly and still goes like a train! He has no regrets but I bet the Toyota wishes he'd bought something else! Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scaffsta Posted December 6, 2010 Share Posted December 6, 2010 Yep definately Toyota i had them all my life there great Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penguin Posted December 6, 2010 Share Posted December 6, 2010 (edited) As others have said go for the Landcruiser, The jeep and Mazda will cost you more in parts should something go wrong. Have you ever thought about a Toyota Prado perhaps? its in your price bracket. I dont know about the diesel model but petrol models pull a trailor boat easily. cheers Edited December 6, 2010 by penguin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moro Mou Posted December 7, 2010 Share Posted December 7, 2010 Diesel Prado's are a great towing vehicle and better on fuel consumption over petrol. Only problem that i can see with the Prado is the 2nd hand vehicles hold their value too well. This is great if you are selling but tougher if your buying. Cant comment on Mazda or Jeep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flightmanager Posted December 7, 2010 Share Posted December 7, 2010 Seems like Im the only one who likes the Jeep ! ( I own one ) . 4.7l petrol V8 pulls the boat no probs . Bit thirsty around town , but good economy on a trip . I like the Quadra Drive , never have any dramas on the slipperiest ramps at all. All spare parts are expensive , Jeep and Mazda do not have a monopoly on that ! Mate has just repowered his 1983 Cruiser with a 6.6l V8 diesel from a Hummer , no fuel figures yet , but I think it would tow anything!! Ross Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg123 Posted March 29, 2011 Share Posted March 29, 2011 Hi I'm in the same boat at the moment but have a slightly more specific question... Currently I tow a 19ft fibreglass vickers with 200 2 stroke yammy with an 80 series cruiser running the standard 4.5L straight 6 and manual trans. The cruiser does it very well, however as it its pretty old and has done 270,000 it doesnt have some of the safety features I would want etc. So I'm looking for a tow vehicle that has the modern equipment, can do some half decent off roading should I want to in the future and a good resale between 25 and 40K. The obvious choices are the 100series v8, the 120 prado 3.0TD and the prado 4.0 Petrol and maybe a 3.0td patrol (But I'd prefer the landcruiser) (I also prefer wagon to ute) The weight details are...I think the boat is 1400kgs + motor of 150kgs + trailer of 320kgs + fuel of 200kgs + other bits of about 150kgs = say 2.25T to be safe. My question is: Has anyone had experiences towing large amounts with any of these vehicles? Or could recommend any others? After some research the Prado3.0TD and Cruiser v8 petrol seem to be the top contenders. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamG Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 I have a 4 litre prado, great at towing my 2.5 ton boat & probably cheaper to run when not towing which is most the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thylacene Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 I have the 3.0 D4D Auto Prado, and tow our 6.3M Caribbean @ around 2000Kg BMT if I don't fill it with fuel or gear. The Prado tows it well returning 16lt/100 Km traveling between Canberra & the coast up and down Brown Mountain. Get around 10.5 around town and 9 on the highway. There are only three hills between Melbourne & Canberra that required the auto to drop back to 3rd, as we picked the boat up in Melbourne. I can back the boat up our driveway which is quite steep, and using low range 4wd it just idles up comfortably. My Parents have a BT50 Dual Cab, also a good tow vehicle, but not quite the torque of the Prado, the old fella's boat tips the scales around 1800Kg and it pulls it with ease. The Prado has a 2500Kg tow rating, so if your really getting up there, as others have mentioned, the D-Max or the Hilux are worthwhile considering. We chose the Prado because we needed to cart a family of four industrial sized adults. It is worth noting that the SWB Prado has a tow capacity of 3000Kg, the LWB version is reduced to allow for the 7 seat configuration and carrying passengers and gear. I also looked at the Jeep, and while the price was lower, everyone I spoke to who owns one has had reliability issues, mostly electrical. I just don't have the time to deal with things like that. If you can afford to go new, the common rail diesels are well suited to the task. Hope this helps Thy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg123 Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 Thanks, So the Hilux will tow more? I thought the Hilux was rated to the same if not less than the Prado. I also had a look at the Jeeps but came to the same conclusion. The other vehicle I considered was the VW toureg which is rated to 3500kgs but only has a 3.2Lv6 (base model) so I thought it would be underpowered. Plus It's more a softroader than 4x4. So in terms of the differences between the Prado 4.0 and 3.0D4D for towing? Any comments? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg123 Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 Sorry one more thing... I thought SWB equated to lower tow capacities?... The 4.0L SWB Jeep wrangler can only tow about 1000kgs (just an estimate) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamG Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 Hi, SWB is short wheel base ie. Not 5 door wagon length. Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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