Thread: Discovery or Prado

Having sat in the back of a praydo and also a D2, I would pick to be a passenger in the D2 every time.

The Toyota is very easy to drive and feels lighter (car like even) and I know it is better serviced in the bush however they do have issues with diffs, (broken on easy trips) but the main issue I have with the Tojo range is they are BLAND.

I know a few 120 Tojo owners that now wish the bought a Landie D2 update.

Whaddaya mean you're getting rid of the L wagon?

That's just wrong.

Loved my L wagon. Only two problems:
Everyone else hated it - and showed their hate with sledgehammers and bigger, heavier things.
Cops look at an old L wagon in the wrong place at the wrong time and see dope courier.



Simon

The seats in the toyota a terrible especially the 2nd row, suitable maybe for my dog. Seriously the Hilux has better 2nd row now. Fuel economy from the 1KZTE (I assume that your not looking at the new ones) won't be close to a TD5.

But at the risk of being shot - I had a heap of trouble with my D2 TD5 however since I stopped going to the Landrover Dealer all my problems seem to have disappeared. Landrovers sure do have their problems, my opinion is they have more than the average Toyota BUT Toyotas are not trouble free, and often when they do have issues - they are big issues - Jap parts are more expensive too.

You should be able to get someone to service it anywhere but ensure if you go TD5 you get the right oil for them to use.

End of the day it's your money and given your location, with a D2, you would need to comfortable with maintaining a "rare" breed.... I'm not going to say it...

Sounds like you maybe in a situation where your family holiday time is limited and precious. In this situation - I guess it comes down to a trade-off between the higher cost of having a service agent maintain the toyota versus your time in doing the same for the disco. As others have said, no rocket science involved in keeping a disco up to scratch - just time. Although there maybe times when you need to take the disco off-line until you find time for repairs, or wait for parts to be flown up, so you would need a backup option such as the series bus to take the pressure off you having to keep the disco on the road at all times. If the family doesnt like that option I'd be going for the yota.

Originally Posted by djam1

Well the Discoveries are 8-10k cheaper than the others but could I realistically run a Discovery in a place where the nearest dealer with diagnostic equipment is 1600 ks away.

Know how you feel as I am 1200kms from Darwin and even there its a lottery for quality servicing.

I have another bloke in town with a Rovercom but if not I would get a nanocom to feel safe. If you love the series and have the time you should be able to look after the D2 - especially given the advice to be gleened from this site.

Ultimately your decision as only you know your own circumstances fully.

I know three people who own d2's around our area(2x td5's 1x v8) and to date they havn't had anything go wrong.
And i have been on trips in the back seat of them and find them very very comfy.
i am useto the back seat of our county though

CHEERS TIM.

In my last job, I had 4 Prado's over 7 years up until November last year.

Over the same period, my own vehicles were Ford F100 with Chev V8 diesel, then a D1 V8 Disco auto, and now the D2 TD5 manual.

Of these - the F100 was definitely the best tow vehicle, but the worst to drive. The Prado diesel (90 series) was gutless, chewed the fuel and not particularly comfortable to drive. The D1 V8 was great to drive, but not that flash on fuel consumption, and had bugger all luggage space. The 120 Prado (had 3 of these, all 4 litre petrol V6, two 5 speed manual and the last one a 6 speed) was a great car to drive on the highway. Pretty useless off road (the 90 series was far more capable off road). Luggage space wasn't too bad (with the third row of seats removed altogether - even when folded up they take up a lot of room). Front seats were not too bad, but not as good as D2, back (middle row) seat was pretty ordinary. Fuel consumption was about the same as the D1 V8.

The D2 is the most comfortable and economical of all of these by far. Rides well, great seats, very comfortable on long trips (I have regularly been driving between Perth & Kalgoorlie for a few months this year until I got new work car in Perth). And mine is the el-cheapo. Hasn't got the fancy suspension etc. Reliability - I've had no issues with any of the vehicles listed here, except for losing the steering once in the 90 series Prado (that was scary).

Given the choice you're looking at - I'd go the D2 any day.

Having just returned from a 9000km holiday up north with a 3 litre Prado in the group I can say it does do alright off road. The only problem was clearance and this was handled by careful driving. It was taken over some pretty rough terrain and it made it OK.

Lack of interior space meant the owner had to have some stuff on the roof-rack and by jingo did it have a drink! 6kms to the litre average or thereabouts - I can ask him, he kept records sometimes as low as 5. We decided to take 10kph of our cruising speed and rolled along at 90 kph.

He used to own a Tdi Discovery which he loved but it got too old and had some bad things happen which meant it had to go. His mechanic told him he needed to get a diesel Prado and nothing else should be considered.

The Prado does what is says on the box and there a millions of them around, but it's not a car to love. Beware of its thirst, though.