newbie with a few questions

[nordic venture Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close nordic venture]

hi,
i live in scotland and i'm looking to buy my first landcruiser. the colorado (prado) is by far the most popular version over here.
i'm torn between the auto and the manual boxes, again the manaul is more common. are there any specific problems with either?
also for my price range, i'm looking at a vehicle about 10 years old. these all seem to have a least 100,000 MILES on them. is this considered high (most in the u.k. would shy away from this sort of figure).also, what are the change intervals for the timing belt on the 3ltr TD?
i'm still finding my feet with the landcruisers haing been a landrover man for the past number of years, however its time for a little more comfort and speed on the road.
any advice that you can give regarding the colorado ( i believe its the prado everywhere else) would be great.

many thanks.

[Yota Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Yota]

Welcome to pradopoint
My prado is now 11yrs old with 200000Km on the clock and is faultless. You shouldnt have any reel problems if you look for one that has been pretty well looked after. Its a Toyota, it will last forever.
My diesel is 100 000 Km timing belt change, but I beleve this was changed to 150 000Km about 1996-97.

[nordic venture Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close nordic venture]

thanks for that Yota. i'm looking at one tomorow which has 120,000miles on it but has a full toyota service history and just 1 previous owner.
all i need to do is convince the family who have become familiar to the huge ammount of space that we currently have available in the landrover110. might need to get a roof bag or something! still we'll take it for a test, i'll get it up to 70mph and point out that the landrover won't do that sort of speed, and when it does it feels like an edge of death experience!

i like to do most of the basic servicing myself (fluids/filters etc) are the filler/drain plus all easy enough to get to? does the gearbox have a seperate filler? transfer box?

how about the suspension? i may change to OME or bilstein is it easy enough? the landrover was a doddle!

again, any advice would be good.

cheers.

[Snaga Wishing I was lost Find all posts View Profile Close Snaga]

how about the suspension? i may change to OME or bilstein is it easy enough? the landrover was a doddle!

again, any advice would be good.

cheers.

When my mechanic did my suspension a couple of months ago he made comment that he lost a bit of skin doing the back end but the front end was easy.

From what I've heard/read... the 90's are a pain at the back and the 120's are a pain at the front.