Good used review on 95 series 4wd monthly site

[minh Member Find all posts View Profile Close minh]

http://www.4wdaction.com.au/articles...ion?fid=113039

[EasyCompany24 Member Find all posts View Profile Close EasyCompany24]

"expensive to run" ...that's certainly correct

[K & M McF Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close K & M McF]

Compared to what? Cheap compared to Nissan Patrol or LandCruiser 80 or 100 series.

[kjs Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close kjs]

CONS
Small size
Expensive to buy
Expensive to run

The cons are stretching it a bit ....These 95's are deadset cheap 2nd hand now, cheap to run compared to nearly any other similarly aged 4wd and the smaller size is one of its virtues !

[Steve M Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve M]

Geez they need to get their reports write before they publish them, blown heads is common, will blow without over heating, (mine went at 103k and was never over heated) the diesel was available in 2000 not 2003, the rear door cracking have only ever seen that on 120 (first of them) then they were modified, the belt on the V6 is done at 150k on the series 2 and 100k on the series one, ""chains, what chains ?? 90L tank was only on the 2.7 petrol even the RV6 still had duel tanks"", ""GRANDE 1999–2003 climate control, not in a diesel grande 2001 model didnt even have duel air, didnt come in the diesel grande till 2002, ""and trip computer"" what trip computer, had the same as any other prado, klms the vehicle has done and your normal extra readout where you could reset by pushing the button, certainly no computer, and not on my petrol grande either, They certainly contradicted them selves with that report !!!!!! The 95's are a great 4wd, the 1kz diesel is over rated by a long shot especially in auto form, the maunals go heaps better. The V6 is only slighty thirstier then your commdore of the same vintage, 15 round town down to 11/12's on the freeway, wow a whole heap thirstier by about 1 to 2 litres over a family commodore. And freeway driving will see the petrol on par with the diesel, get a humid muggy day and running aircon and the diesel will jump to 14L per 100 freeway, never have this issue with petrol, and 110 on the diesel you always have your foot planted, the petrol will do it easier, towing, mmmm Ive been behind two 95 petrols and they will out tow a diesel, easy, without towing even the petrol will out do the 1kz, on the sand the petrol will eat the diesel hands down. I am referring to auto here as I never had a manual, the manuals definately go better, better gear ratio's. I had two grande's one petrol one diesel, the only thing i reckon the diesel did better was steep down hill decents off road, I now have 120 petrol, yes thirstier to run then a diesel BUT take into consideration, servicing, more frequent oil changes, the diesel been dearer at the pump on most occasions, eg this week got proper unleaded (not e10crap) for 1.28c per litre, diesel 1.40, pick up shit fuel in a D4D and $1000 per injector and 5k plus for a pump, petrol reco injector $100, petrol pump under $600. The 1kz is a bit more tollerent to crappy fuel but can still stuff the pump if bad enough, at least you can reco the injectors on the 1kz, Then take into consideration how much dearer the diesel is to buy over the petrol will give you some good coin left over for the extras you want, Expensive to buy ?? 10g now will get you into a good GXL petrol easy maybe another 5k for a mickey mouse extra low klm gxl /grande, yes you can buy a pajero petrol cheaper but you will pay for it in repairs and oil leaks every rego and have seen prado petrols with water over the bonnet and still going, try that with a pajero..... All up the 95 is a great all rounder, versatile people will comment on their narrow wheel base and say they tip over easy, all comes down to driver, play stupid and go beyond your capability and chances are you will tip any thing over.

[wooley Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close wooley]

thats a really easy to read post, Steve...

[Steve M Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve M]

"expensive to run" ...that's certainly correct

I presume you mean a bit thirsty ?? Mine use to use 17.2L per 100 round town but that was running bigger tyres, steel ARB winch bar, lift and all start stop traffic, freeway would see down to 12's towing camper doing the speed limits, and under when not towing. You should be in roughly the 15's without bigger tyres and bullbar etc. If you drive them like you stole it you will see 18/20 round town but general driving and been easy with the loud pedal 15 and 11's can be achieved............patrol 4.8 will see you in the mid to high 20's round town, and cruiser 4.5L 22/24 round town. The prado motor is a great motor and very reliable, only thing annoyed me was the droning exhaust at around the 2800/3000 mark but is common so just turn the CD player up lol. Have seen these motors do over 400k and still going well, bet people arnt getting that with there t/d motors without spending some serious money on servicing etc.......Regards Steve

[Steve M Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve M]

Insurance, they must be referring to some one without any no claim bonus ?? I presume this is the case other wise they need to change insurance companys. I never paid more then over 1k for any of my prados and had all the mods insured, my last one was the 95 diesel grande and was insured for 30k and was just under 1k, My 120 petrol I have now is insured for 38k and is $180 cheaper then what I was paying for the diesel grande, the newer the vehicle the cheaper not the other way around like they have stated. Mine have all been insured with NRMA the reason they told me the 120 is cheaper is because its newer and safer ?? Not sure on that one my diesel grande had duel airbags/abs, and sability and traction control, my 120 has duel airbags and abs only, so no traction or stability control which I presume would be classed as safety..........Regards Steve

[wooley Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close wooley]

my quote for the 150 GXL w/ mods is 1800, even though i have a rating one no claims bonus, being 22 is a problem...

[Steve M Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve M]

Thats pretty good wooley, as you said considering your age an the vehicle is probably close to double the value of mine. Not sure what rating one means by your insurance company, possibly 20% maybe ?? "" they quote"" A 30-year-old male living in western Sydney could expect to pay between $1135 and $1654 for a 1996 2.7L petrol RV Prado per year, and around $2430 per year for a 2003 3.0L turbo-diesel, so going by what they are saying yours is pretty good really. Hey anyway what you doing with a 150 at 22 ?? lucky bastard lol I was driving a shit box nissan blubird at your age LOL 60 odd grand back then would have nearly bought me a house, now Im showing my age, Good on you and hope your happy with it, prados in general are a great vehicle some have some issues but dont they all, not sure when you bought it but you could possibly make some $$ out of it at the moment as no more available till at least Feb next year was the last report I heard....My neighbour paid 63 for his 2010 last year, sold it due to business reasons and got 63 back for it, bloke put a deposit on it over the phone come up from down south and paid him cash for it and drove off, he even had dealers ringing him as well..............

[minh Member Find all posts View Profile Close minh]

Steve I agree with you totally on the 1kz-te motor.
After selling my 95 series VX. I bought a 1996 Toyota Surf with the 1kz-te. What a mistake that was.
Rough cold starts. 14.5l/100kms fuel consumption and thats normal. Not to mention the dodge factory temp gauge so you dont know until its too late and the head will crack.

1kz-te is so slow too. Idle is slightly rough. Not to mention expensive diesel now and yes 5000km service.
Injection pump is the heart and soul of the car and yes Injection pumps are soooooooo expensive to repair when something goes wrong. Everything is inside the bloody thing like timing, sensors. speed sensors etc. Dont get me started on leaking units making the car hard to start in the morning.

I dont know how much better the D4d are but I would not buy another 1kz-te for the life of me. I have a 1999 series snowy and a 120 gxl now. Both petrol and Im loving the power and smoother ride.

Also you mentioned series timing belts had to be done at 100 000kms? Would that include my snowy? Its a series 1 1999 model before the fog lights.
Though I have a belt changed at 150 000kms sticker on it.

[Steve M Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve M]

If its a series one its due at 100thou, if its series 2 then 150k BUT the funny thing is there the same part number for both belts ?? If its a series one then I would do as the service books suggest and follow it. The 120 V6 doesnt need any timing belt changes. The d4d is a totally different injection system and while very economical (8L per 100 freeway) and are quit willing to revout like a petrol they are not without some issues especially the first of them, injector isues, engine mounts (vacuum controlled). They have modified the injectors 3 times before the current 150 so hopefully they have it right as at roughly $1000 per injector would cost you a fortune (non servicable) if they screwed up out of warranty. While diesel is obviously the way to go if doing a lot of towing (no doubt about it) way more economical, for the amount of towing I do a year Ill cop the exta fuel costs in petrol. If in extreme outback some places dont allow petrol at all but I wont be going there in the near future, those places I will dodge around till Im retired then maybe I will get a diesel when I will be towing a 20 footer more then 4 weeks of the year. Regards Steve

[Derb Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Derb]

Hi Minh. I feel sorry for you fella. You must have owned 2 real dogs of 1KZ-TE's. I have had 2 bloody beaut's and when/if I ever tire of my present KZJ95R my next Prado will be a 2006 manual - last of the 1KZ-TE engined ones. You can stick your D4D engine with it's issues. My only real grizzle would have to be the poor top end speed of the manual box. I can live with that though because the rest of the package is pretty darn good. As for rough starts - never happened to me and usual fuel consumption 9 - 10 litres/100 long trips and max of 17 litres/100 towing about 2-1/2 tonne trailer on long trip. Petrol over here up to $2-00 per litre and diesel at present $1-49 per litre with 4.52 cents per km road user tax. i would not expect lower than 13 litres/100 with a v6 petrol. Heavens know would you could suck towing a heavy load. Every now and again you may be unlucky and pop a head but the new ones are cheap and good quality so whats the prob? Ah well - there's my rave. I love 'em. Cheers.

[Steve M Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve M]

Hi there Derb, must admit I never had any rough idle at starting or any other time even when the head went. The head seems more common on the auto prados but if you go across to the hilux forum there blowing on there two and the 1kz in the hilux's never came out in auto so Im not sure on that one. I only ever once got under 10L per 100 with my 1kz grande and that was driving like an old lady going to the corner shop, I sat on 95k most of the trip (800k round trip) and just cracked the 10's 9.8 to be exact. On general it would range between 10.2 to 14L per 100 without towing sitting on the speed limits freeway and roughly 13/14 round town. The current 120 I have now which is petrol last trip of 800k (same place again) and running aroun town for 500 as well I got 12.6L per 100. If It was all freeway I would have got under 12's for sure. And when I mean around town I mean 18k to and from work, local shops, little one's daycare etc so all within 20k, not bad for a 4L petrol.I havnt done an exact check on just all city driving but Im expecting probably around the 14/15L per 100, I have no mods on the prado yet except bullbar,off road tyres, no lift etc. There is a member on here (wont mention name) lives round corner rom me, he averages 15L per hundred from his 1KZ 120 series but is auto. He will even admit the fuel economy is crap for a diesel, he has since put a chip in it and exhaust and reckons was all a waste of $$, he said with the chip all it has done is blow back soot all over his camper trailer and yes it pulled better up hills but spent all day cleaning the black sooty crap of his camper the first day of his holidays so the kids wouldnt get it all over them. he has since dropped the setting back to stop the excess soot but as expected so the power has dropped off two, he wasnt impressed at spending over 2g for buggar all. Regards Steve

[samo Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close samo]

in defence to the 1kz even though i have a 120 mines got 170k on the clock and it is going like a swiss watch, all i have done is services plus timing belt and replaced an egr gasket, while it isnt the fastest engine on the planet to is reliable and gets me there, bang for bucks i think a dump pipe and decent exhaust is the best for gains, as for fuel economy mine does around 12.5l/100km combined city and hwy, thats with 70 series tyres and a roofbaskets on all the time and 5 speed, a while ago i towed a fully loaded camper to qld and back, averaged 14.5l/100km sitting on the limit, last year i borrowed a steinbauer chip for a trip to vic and back and it was set on 120% and i flogged it all the way and back and got 13.5l to 100km. So in a nut shell i have had a great run out of my 1kz, im happy and thats all that matters, if you want more power buy a d4d, these are just my opionions based on my experience. cheers samo