What would you buy.......

[HPLP]

Hey,

Im looking for abit of advice or comments if you wouldnt mind.....
Im living in Ireland at the moment but Im looking at coming over the Auz in the new year (for a while 6-8 months at least) and touring around. Im thinking of buying a vehicle out where you are for the time that I would be there. Now bearing in mind that this is a land rover forum, Im expecting the answers to be nice and biased towards land rovers but what would you recommend? Im leaning towards diesel as thats what I know but am open towards petrol/LPG if the sums add up.

Im looking to spend $5-7k but not really much more and I would need to be able to sell it on when I finish so resale unfortunately has to be considered.

Current things I have seen and like are a early (70s) range rover V8, TDI Disco or 60 series Land Cruiser.

I have a LHD Dormobile Defender 110 and Discovery in Ireland so am familiar with them.

Open to suggestions/comments!

Thanks,
Hugh.

[CraigE]

It depends on where you plan on touring. If you are planning desert treks I would lean towards a diesel, maybe a late 90s tdi Disco. Defenders command higher prices here than Discos. Probably try and get one with a roof rack and some history.

[langy]

Howdy

Since you already have one - 300 tdi disco. Fits the price, has plenty of range, easy on fuel and will be half decent. If you want to sleep in it, a defender of the same age, but it will be the upper limit of your budget.

You can get decent rangies aged about the late 80's early 90's at similar prices, but they are all v8's ( heavy on fuel) and even if they are on LPG, gas is hard to get in remote areas.

Whilst a 60 series may be a option, there's an old saying "Go with what you know'.

Have a look in 'markets' (top toolbar). It should give you a better idea on what members of AULRO sell their LR for.

Good luck

[LWB123]

Hello.

I guess 101% of the AULRO membership will genuinely hate me for this, but I have worked across northern Australia for 40 odd years including many isolated areas - and Oz is a big tough place - only too ready to find faults in old vehicles. I don't, of course, know where you plan to go or what you plan to do but most visitors seem to want to cover a fair bit of territory while they are here.

If you are only here for 6-8 months with the budget you are talking about, and really do want a 4WD, I would suggest you look at a Toyota Hilux diesel in as best a condition as you can afford. It is likely to be more comfortable to drive, is more likely not to kark it along the way, parts are available pretty near anywhere and the ability to offload it quickly afterwards is probably better than for any Land Rover you will get for AU$5-8K.

To be quite honest, unless you really want to go serious bush, I would look at a 90s model Holden or Falcon wagon for even less. There are heaps of them around, they have loads of space, comfortable to drive, are pretty reliable, easy to fix if something does go wrong and generally speaking will go pretty much anywhere that common sense dictates, including most outback formed roads. You only have to look at what the first nation folks drive through Centralia to get general endorsement for that mode of transport.

Your call - and the rest of you can calm down since I'm sensitive to abuse...........

Cheers

[roverfan]

If you want to get your money back, easy to get parts at a decent price ie. not ordder them from the Uk which is hard when you are travelling id say go a 60

[abaddonxi]

Check out Car Prices - Search Car Prices & Values Online - Red Book for a general idea of how much cars sell for.

Older V8 Discoverys seem to be valued lower than other spec or models. I don't know if it's still the case, but last time I looked Toyota four wheel drives seemed to be more expensive on the second hand market than the equivalent in other marques.

Fuel gets more expensive the more remote you are, double city prices or more.

Used Cars & New Cars for Sale | Car Sales & Car Reviews - Drive.com.au

Used Cars - New Cars - Search New & Used Cars For Sale - carsales.com.au

MotorMouth - Fuel Prices and Petrol Prices Australia

[HPLP]

Thanks for all of your comments. The reason I wanted a 4x4 was simply that I like them and have always had one. Secondly I have found that for the slight off-set of a lower economy the larger size etc is far more useful. I could possibly stretch to abit more but the main quiery is whether I should get a land rover or not.

Are there few parts suppliers at all in Auz or would I mostly have to get parts from the UK/Europe?

Hmmmmm food for thought.....

[loanrangie]

We dont have the large aftermarket spares network that you have in the UK but the ones we do have are pretty good and will get parts to you where ever you may be, no hilux will ever be as comfortable as a landrover product bar a series 1/2/3. I 2nd the tdi disco, you will get a good one for your price range and parts are inexpensive compared to the jap equivalent . If you are travelling solo then a disco will be fine space wise and all you will need is a cargo barrier and maybe some home made drawers to get a well setup rig.

[Redback]

Parts for Toyotas in the bush are easy to get, this always amuses me, 20yrs ago maybe, today, it's a myth.

They don't stock spares the way they used too, it's not economical to do this, all parts are ordered on demand and the older the car the harder it is.

Yes there are more dealers, that doesn't mean parts are easier to get.

What I have noticed is that mechanics in the bush are more willing to work on Nissans and Toyotas, but only because that is the majority of what they know and what they normally work on.

My 2cents

Baz.

[Yorkshire_Jon]

Tdi disco.
As baz says, all parts are ordered in now-a days.

Also just how much do you expect to go wrong that you don't have parts for?

You'll be carrying a spare wheel and probably couple of tyres plus basic tools and gaffer tape (bush mechanic stylee) and your clearly used to tinkering with them given your current drives.

Final note is that your traveling, not in a race. If you have to wait a couple of days in an outback town for parts to arrive so what, chill and make friends with the locals whilst you wait for the postie if you get atuck in the middle I te bush it doesnt matter what your driving!