Which Ute?

[Bodgy]

Thinking about giving business away for a bit. Thought a Ute would be a good idea. Which one?

For the twin cab, with a bit of comfort, choice seems to be Nissan, Toyota, Holden, Ford or Mitsubishi.


1. Petrol or diesel? Diesel seems to the obvious choice, for better economy but it seems you only get around 20% better and diesel costs 20% $$ more. Is there any point? The Germans have small deisel technology off to a fine art - witness the new Golf diesel, but those utes listed above seem not to offer any compelling perfomance/economy.

2. The Mitsubishi uses a very old engine design?

3, The Toyota seems over priced

4. The Nissan Navara turbo diesel looks good.

I'd appreciate any comments, particularly from owners.

[doug the slug]

WHile diesels are supposedly cheaper to run, they are far more expensive when they dont run- repair costs have to be seen to be believed. i owned a diesel vehicle once. it was a lemon. i estimate that it cost me $80,000 to own it for 3 years.

Get a Triton, an orange one of course

[Mirboo]

My 2-year old son has a ute like the one in the pictures below, only his is blue. It's made by Little Tikes. He reckons it's great. Very cheap to run and much cheaper to buy than the likes of Toyota and Mitsubishi etc.

[DJ’s Timber]

G'day Bodgy

I have a '05 Toyota SRXTRA CAB V6 which I absolutly love
I bought the petrol cause I also tow a tandem trailer on the highways which involve a lot of hills, and will often have 2 tonne of wood in it and also 3/4 of a tonne in the ute as well and it just purrs along beautifully
If I wasn't towing I would have got the diesal
A mate of mine has the Navara diesal Dual cab and he often drives from Melbourne to NSW towing as well and he is quite happy with his as well
My brother has just bought the Nissan as well. He decided on the Navara cause he was after a bit more of the comfort and more car feeling of the cab so he could use it for work and going away with the family as well. He also picked the diesal too.
From memory I think the Navara diesal is the most powerful in its class as well
Hope I haven't confuse you :confused: :confused:

Cheers DJ

[savage]

http://www.ssangyongaustralia.com.au/musso.html

G'Day Bodgy,
I've have had my Musso for just over a year now and tow my boat which goes a tonne clean (before fuel and gear). I was a bit reluctant in the performance comparison as I had a V6 Izuzu powered Jackeroo, which I sold. When I first towed with the Musso I was very suprised how easily it coped in all situations, normal roads and freeway, just cruised and very comfortable.
What sold me was the amount of things that come standard on the Musso in comparison to other makes and models. Check out the link above, I bought the 2.9 turbo diesel 5cyl, as the motor is Mercedes and the rest is made under license in Korea for Mercedes. It was made a few years back by Dawoo in there factory, but many problems where caused through quality control or lack of. So Mercedes bought the factory, kicked out Dawoo and formed the Ssangyong Co who now make exclusively for Mercedes.
I'm excited!....

[Andy Mac]

Hi Bodgy,
We've got a Ford Courier dual cab, just a 2WD, 95 model with a 2.6 EFI. Before we got it, we did some market research mainly looking at legroom for a growing family, and the Ford had heaps more to offer! I don't know if that's still the case. It goes pretty well, even tow a small caravan, but fuel consumption is a real issue, and it pings with normal unleaded. In 5th gear at 100kph the engine is doing a touch over 3000rpm, so gearing as a problem...but maybe the small wheels add to it.
Hope this helps.

Cheers,

[Tonyz]

If your gonna take friends in your dual cab get someone to drive you around while your asse is in the rear seat .....shikes never again..... Tonto

[ozwinner]

Get a real ute

Al

[Auld Bassoon]

Get a real ute

Al

Hi Al!

I'm toying with the idea of selling the Audi and getting a ute (for woodie stuff ) - is that blerry great big F250 ok? Is yours the monster (7.3l V8) diesel or the puny (!) 5.4l petrol V8 - and how many hundreds of litres per Km does it consume :eek:

[ozwinner]

Hi Al!

I'm toying with the idea of selling the Audi and getting a ute (for woodie stuff ) - is that blerry great big F250 ok? Is yours the monster (7.3l V8) diesel or the puny (!) 5.4l petrol V8 - and how many hundreds of litres per Km does it consume :eek:

Hi Steve
I have the small punny girlie 5.4l motor.
Im not sure if the 5.4 is available anymore, I think the girlie motor is the 6l.

I get 20l per 100kms from her.
I heard somewhere Ford are going to stop selling them.

I hope that is true, it will make the price rise.....

Al

[Auld Bassoon]

Hi Steve
I have the small punny girlie 5.4l motor.
Im not sure if the 5.4 is available anymore, I think the girlie motor is the 6l.

I get 20l per 100kms from her.
I heard somewhere Ford are going to stop selling them.

I hope that is true, it will make the price rise.....

Al

Still advertising - but may be run-out stock - which may mean a reasonable deal???

I've requested a test drive

[ozwinner]

Still advertising - but may be run-out stock - which may mean a reasonable deal???

I've requested a test drive

Yep just got the request.

Request denied.

Al

[BrisBen]

I have a 3 year old ST-R turbo diesel Navara Duel Cab and I can say it was a decent change from a naturally aspirated 4.2l diesel GQ Patrol as far as road driving is concerned - Navara drives like a car around town, GQ like a tank. (off road you could probably only beat a well fitted out GQ with a military vehicle as far as capability is concerned)

Anyway I've been watching the progression of the model over the years and guess what - not only has the overall package improved (air bags, electric mirrors etc) the latest price is actually lower than what I paid 3 years ago!!!

As far as maintenance goes - 1 set of new tyres (only got 45k out of the factory tyres but they have been changed on subsequent models) and regular servicing - oh on the tyre issue you need to check that the tyre/rim set suits the payload/speed rating when replacing, this can be a bit expensive with a 16 inch rim with 100km speed rating and a 2t load rating - you pretty much only have BFG's or Coopers to choose from.

I get on average around town 660 km to a 65 litre fill up (75 l tank but I don't like going under 10l)

I've done a little off road work on the FIL's farm but haven't really challenged it to assess that aspect.

Apparently the turbo diesel technology for the engine was bought from Renault. (Am willing to be disproven on this one but a small diesel with 1800 rpm highway speed and decent torque hints European design)

My thoughts anyway

Bb

PS Did BMW do well at Le Mans with a turbo diesel vehicle?? Anyone know

[graemet]

1. Petrol or diesel? Diesel seems to the obvious choice, for better economy but it seems you only get around 20% better and diesel costs 20% $$ more. Is there any point? The Germans have small deisel technology off to a fine art - witness the new Golf diesel, but those utes listed above seem not to offer any compelling perfomance/economy.

Bodgy,
1. ULP and deisel are both about the same price at the moment - $1.41.
2. My 2 litre deisel (car) is using 6.5l/100km for the last 8000km as opposed to 9 or 10 for the average Commodore.
3. Towing torque is great. My TS goes about a tonne on the trailer and I hardly know it's there, even pulling up the F3 from Hawkesbury River bridge to Cowan.
Cheers
Graeme

[Slow6]

as long as it aint a v6 rodeo.. I had the unfortunate experience of towing an empty cage to nsw and it came in at just over 4k per ltr.. a 19ton coach I used to drive for a living gave me just under 4k to the ltr :confused:

that ute was just wrong.. aparently its just the v6 tho.