A query from Franco

[Franco Cozzo]

Good evening ladies, gents, he/him, they, her/she, spaceships, non binaries, LGBTIQIAXYZ+, unicorns and ASIO - I’d like to begin by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the internet on which we meet today. I would also like to pay my respects to trolls past and present.

A friend of mine is moving to the NT and has asked me for some advice on buying a 4x4, the budget is $12,000 and we're going to go out car shopping soon (my favorite kind of shopping).

Now, I'm thinking there are a few forks here where they can go:

Real 4x4 (ie Landcruiser/Patrol)
Claytons 4x4 (Thailand special)

Then within those two forks we've got diesel and unleaded engines.

Given the budget is low, its going to put us square in 20+ year old vehicle territory for the real deal and probably around 10-15 on the Thailand specials.

Now that they're going to the NT the first thing that come to my mind was Landcruiser and Patrol - but the unleaded variations because of the budget, so 80 or 100/105 series with 1FZFE I6 or GQ/GU Patrol with TB45/TB48 I6

For this budget it seems we may be able to get an early 4L V6 Hilux of the 2005 onwards model and the rest are the diesel variants with many more kilometers for the spondoolies.

Method to my madness is that given the cars are so old, its probably better to cop the circa 100% increase in fuel costs but the benefit is that they're cheap to fix when they start acting up compared to CRD engines.

Also I figure that location means that parts availability and local repair knowledge on the Toyota/Nissan 4x4s is going to be better than anything else.

I'm not sure if they plan on going on mad desert expeditions but I'll find out, I imagine that fuel availability in whoop whoop means unleaded would be off the cards.

Recap of requirements:

4x4 non negotiable
$12,000 budget

Any automotive advice and general commentary on everything 4x4 would be appreciated.

Thanks