Thread: What is wrong with the D3/D4?

Originally Posted by PAT303

The JD power survey is a waste of space.I found it funny Toyota and Lexus stayed on top for reliability and customer satisfaction even when they recalled 12 million of them. Pat

Funnily enough we replaced our 4 year old Toyota (owned from new) with a 2005 D3 last year as my wife had lost confidence in the Toyota. Aside from some muppet not tightening up the oil filter after a service, it's been perfect.

One of the main reasons you see more Landcruisers in the outback is because they sold more of them! Its all about marketing.

When we were in Africa a couple of years ago they were more Defenders than anything else.

Also when you count the Landcruisers outback you find the majority are 80 or 100 series. The 100 finished in 2007, the D3 started in 2005 so the real vehicle you should be comparing with is the D2. But then, any reliability issues aside, the D2 can't really be termed a 'touring' vehicle in the manner of a Landcruiser on size alone.

Compared with the number of 200 series on the dirt roads, I'd think the number of D3, D4s would be similar.

In fact a mate of mine, Toyota man, bought one of the last 100s because of all the issues with the 200 series for outback towing.

The JD power survey is a waste of space.I found it funny Toyota and Lexus
stayed on top for reliability and customer satisfaction even when they recalled
12 million of them. Pat

Sigh I am not trying to be combative , but the JD Power survey is a survey of owners of cars , and they note the number and severity of faults that owners experience.

The fact that Toyota has had large recalls may mean that Toyota is very responsive to their reputation, but that very few owners actually had the fault. Contrast that to VW .

For a true example Honda recently recalled my 2006 Jazz to replace the drivers power window switch, and this was also one of the large Toyota recalls so it looks like they used the same switch. I had no problem whatsoever with the switch but some blew up after being soaked in Armorall.
This is very different to a JD Power survey which I understand logs the number of faults per vehicle experienced by owners in the first year of ownership, and sometimes subsequent years. So it is an actual measure of all faults not potential faults as a recall is.
Regards Philip A

Oh.
This thread again.

Originally Posted by PhilipA

Sigh I am not trying to be combative , but the JD Power survey is a survey of owners of cars , and they note the number and severity of faults that owners experience.

The fact that Toyota has had large recalls may mean that Toyota is very responsive to their reputation, but that very few owners actually had the fault. Contrast that to VW .

For a true example Honda recently recalled my 2006 Jazz to replace the drivers power window switch, and this was also one of the large Toyota recalls so it looks like they used the same switch. I had no problem whatsoever with the switch but some blew up after being soaked in Armorall.
This is very different to a JD Power survey which I understand logs the number of faults per vehicle experienced by owners in the first year of ownership, and sometimes subsequent years. So it is an actual measure of all faults not potential faults as a recall is.
Regards Philip A

JD Powers is very subjective and like all pure stats they can be skewed or the water muddied.

Admittedly it's been a while since I looked at one in any detail but the last one I recall didn't actually look at the severity...well I don't think so anyway. What it did do was record all reported faults, even if they were actually caused by user error .... which in the case of a D3/4/RRS can be many.

So for example, if you had a run of faulty blinker bulbs supplied by the bulb manufacturer the survey would show 20,000 failures against that Marque....hardly what a potential buyer wants when trying to shift through the myriad of details, reports, rumours...

And of course "my car wont raise after I've knocked it to access height and up to off-road every 20 seconds"....

Originally Posted by Disco Muppet

Oh.
This thread again.

Yeah, it's been at least three months....LOL!!!!

I think you may find that the reason Toyota has been and will continue to be is the size of the engines they have.

If you look at the Towing aspect, Toyota has had the 4.2ltr diesel for donkeys years, the engine seemed to be a good solid engine, so people looked at them for towing, and really what other option did you have... Nissan patrol 4.2, most likely the next most popular amongst the nomads. Look at what has happened to Nissan since they ditched the 4.2.

There is very few people who would tow a decent size van with a 300tdi , not saying it couldn't be done , but the reality is not many would.I did read someone say fuel capacity is also better in the L/C , well it had to be because of the engine size, just imagine a 4.2 cruiser with a 90 ltr tank. After market accessories came because Toyota has always had this large sales due to really being the only tow vehicle available for lotsa years.

L/Rover where never going to be a market force because they fell under the E U rules which punished car makers for large litre engines.

As for the reliability issues well I will leave that to others to argue, but all cars have problems, just finding out what are real and what are inflated thru chinese whispers is another story.

I remember when we were planning the canning trip in our D2 I was told I was mad and would never make it back.. Well the answer is in the trip reports.

Cheers Ean

Originally Posted by Silenceisgolden

I have just returned from 18,000 k's around Central Australia and the deserts. I saw literally thousands of Toyotas, maybe a hundred Defenders, a couple of dozen Disco 1 and 2's, one lonely D3 in the Gibson desert, and two D4's at Poeppels corner.

So what is wrong with these cars? Why aren't people using them? I have never had the opportunity to try mine seriously off-road. Are they any good for serious heavy corrugated outback work, or do they fall apart?

Hello all. I'm just catching up with things. My brother and I returned last week from our trip which included crossing the Simpson. We crossed the desert from west to east and travelled north to south twice and south to north twice. Nearly 700 km in the sand dunes We were at Poeppel Corner about the 4th or 5th of September. We each have a white D4. Could it be that we were the two you saw? We were the ones planking on the corner post

The total list of mechanical problems that we suffered between us:

A low beam headlight globe failed on my brother's car.

The bolts on the catch on my rear wheel carrier we're a little loose and needed to be tightened to latch securely.

Nothing else. No tyres were harmed.

Why don't we see more Discos out there? The answer is of no interest to me. The corrugations were bad near Mt. Dare, but seemed worse for others. We both drove the desert without difficulty. We climbed Big Red on the hardest line we could find while several others struggled and gave up (even on the easier pathways). It was great fun all round. We came home via the Inside Birdsville Track, Walkers and Old Strzelecki Tracks etc.

If you want to go, do your homework and prepare carefully. We believe you make your own luck.