Foton Tunland

[Shoogs]

Apart from the weird name has anyone had any experience with these...?

I am moving back to Perth Australia in March and need a daily, occasional camper trailer tow rig, these interest me as they have the Cummins ISF 2.8 and as I will be doing a 'rebuild' on my defender and parking it for a while I have a cunning plan possibly with the engine after 2-3 years... at 30k drive away they are very tempting.

cheers

Tim

[Gordie]

They seem to be pretty popular in NZ...and the price is very attractive, along with the Cummins power plant. Not sure if it was these or the LDV utes(also chinese), but they outperformed name brands in the ancap ratings recently. The mrs is keen on a ute in the future and I reckon we will be seriously looking at these.

[Rick1970]

Customer at work is on his second one (1st was written off in an accident). He has a late model hilux in between them, and prefered the Foton so bought another new one.

Only problem he has had is the spare wheel carrier/winch fell off.

Can't imagine he would be the kindest person to a vehicle either.......

[Homestar]

Everything I write here is based on a single 5KM drive in one and taking to the owner of it for a couple of hours on and off over a couple of days, so as a sample size of 1, take it with a grain of salt maybe.

You get what you pay for here from what I've seen, but the engine is fine and adaquate for the task, but no rocketship. No idea what it tows like but it significantly down on power compared to a Ranger or Hilux, but again, adaquate for the task. Interior was a bit noisy as you'd expect but it drove fine. Typical back crunching suspension that most utes have without a load in them, a real teeth rattler, but my Hilux is too, so won't mark it down for that.

He had owned it around 6 months and had no complaints about its reliabilty. This was about 2 years ago, so no idea how it is going now.

Given that their lack lustre sales have dropped consistantly since they were released and dropped 23% last year alone and are now only outselling the Jeep Compass and Jeep Patriot - even the Havel H9 outsells them - then I'd probably do some good research before forking out your hard earned.

Resale value is horrid too - Maybe buy a second hand one - there's one on carsales 2 years old for $18K

If you buy a new one, check the build year on the compliance plate as they were overstocked last year and some months saw zero sales, there's a chance they are still selling old 2016 stock

[Shoogs]

Cheers all for the replies, it has to be new for the tax man and I figure if I get 3 years and 40k from it I am happy, as suggested the engine is my intent long term. So considering a crate Cummins engine ex USA is 16k delivered... 5k a year for a daily and occasional camping trip is not to bad.

They get very good reviews across the board and are selling very well in South Africa and New Zealand and few other places, cost is of course a good incentive.

Anyway food for thought.

[Gordie]

If you do get one...keep us informed...as I said, may be looking at getting one later in the year. [thumbsupbig]

[Shoogs]

[QUOTE=Gordie;2766547]If you do get one...keep us informed...as I said, may be looking at getting one later in the year. [thumbsupbig][/QUOTE

Will do, probably around March at this stage...

[Homestar]

Cheers all for the replies, it has to be new for the tax man and I figure if I get 3 years and 40k from it I am happy, as suggested the engine is my intent long term. So considering a crate Cummins engine ex USA is 16k delivered... 5k a year for a daily and occasional camping trip is not to bad.

They get very good reviews across the board and are selling very well in South Africa and New Zealand and few other places, cost is of course a good incentive.

Anyway food for thought.

Remember the Cummins engine in these isn’t an American made unit - it comes from their low HP plant in India.

I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but it isn’t one of their top shelf engines by any stretch, but they don’t make too many dogs either.

[Toxic_Avenger]

Remember the Cummins engine in these isn’t an American made unit - it comes from their low HP plant in India.

I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but it isn’t one of their top shelf engines by any stretch, but they don’t make too many dogs either.

I thought it was china.
But anyhow, old article below from the Cummins investor pages, but they were claiming that the Cummins/Foton joint venture would make them Cummins' largest volume engine plant.
I don't think Cummins would put their brand to the wall without a heck of a lot of QC in a flagship facility like that. Anything but would have the potential to break them.

EDIT:
Now with MOAR link...

Cummins.com > News Article (http://investor.cummins.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=112916&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1298028)

[Homestar]

Vehicle is built in China, last I heard India was still had the small low HP production facility, but you may be right, I haven't worked there for a while. 😁

Yes, don't think they'd risk it, but just pointing out to the OP this is no USA built engine.