Anyone have experience of these. 2000 to 2004 years mainly.
Been looking at them for years as a larger replacement for a Vitara.
Thanks pennyless
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Anyone have experience of these. 2000 to 2004 years mainly.
Been looking at them for years as a larger replacement for a Vitara.
Thanks pennyless
You will be pennyless if something goes wrong with it.Good luck in yr serch.
Good rule of thumb with euros - if you can’t afford it new you can’t afford it. You won’t be able too buy a mechanical warranty on anything older than 16 years either.
Run as far as possible.
Father in law had one a few years ago said it was wonderful, and blamed the mechanic when it shit itself all over the road.
Our doctor had a V8 MERC 4x4,backed boat into lake,all go.But water got somehow into the computer system under the merc driver seat on the out side.Driving along highway a few time,merc would just shut down total.Dealership came down and took merc back to chch on a trailor.Cost insurance 60k to have all wiring electronics out and rewire and set the electronics,computer chips up.Great heap of shit for a 80k second hand 4x4.
Hunter friend had one - went badly wrong for his wallet.
A vehicle that was probably 150 Grand new and now selling for 5 to 10 grand should tell you how good they are.
Yes I'm aware of the reputation. Which is probably why I'm still dreaming. :)
I mean what could possibly go wrong.:D:D
If you are not pennyless now, you soon would be..
Buy a old nissan patrol or landcruiser,easy and cheap to get parts for.Dont break down much.Bugger all depreciation.
Depreciation?????Quote:
Originally Posted by Trout
They are appreciating like crazy. 2 years ago a 5K rough bush truck is now fetching 8-10K
I paid 7k for a cruiser 20 odd years ago.
One went for 60k the other day.
I have made a fortune if I forget the fortune I have spent.
Be lucky to break even in all honesty.
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Have a look at a Gelanderwagon if you like Merc 4X4s.
Basic and slow in the N/A Diesel variant but bombproof and excellent off road.Merc still supports all the parts and you can get pattern parts easily.
823,000km on the original drive train,200,000km off road....
https://www.outsideonline.com/advent...172-countries/
(standing by for someone without any first hand experiance of G wagons to tell us all how shit they are)
I think Kim dot Com had one so they must be good?
There’s a fella in tirau with a red flat deck one, look pretty bombproof, very different to the late model g wagons in terms of simplicityQuote:
Originally Posted by norsk
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I've got a LN106 with 500k+ for simple & slow. :)
No electrickery is definately a plus.
Most euro cars come with a glovebox full of receipts, that's enough to ring alarm bells.
That was certainly an interesting article , wonder how it ended.
They were a 80 k car in 2004. Made in Mexico I think and not one of Merck’s best. I’d avoid the temptation and look at a diesel Pajero or Prado
Some of the imports came with optional Off Road packs.
Guarding , axle difflocks & rear mounted fullsize spare wheels.
I haven't seen any for sale for quite awhile.
Would be the pick for serious work.
Maybe the electrics got wet once to often. :)
Chuckle
I will pass wouldn't know what to spend my profit on.
and he would have given it hard work in the mud and water no doubtQuote:
Originally Posted by zimmer
My wife had one of the first ML430s ( 4.3 petrol V8) and it didn't give any real trouble but needless to say, it was a kid hauler and didn't get to see any proper action. It had pretty damn impressive on ice traction just with the electronic control- we followed a grit truck up the Turoa road first thing on a super icy morning with no chains. The truck eventually slid sideways into a ditch with the ice but the ML was quite happy. You couldn't walk on the road with the ice, got sat on my butt when I got out to have a look..
Euros appear to be ok under 100k when def still under warranty. Mechanic mate tells me they're designed for 7-8 years, not 20 as we expect.
Repair prices can be shocking. Two examples: my neighbour likes sports cars and bought a 5-7 year old BMW with the V10 in it - 500+hp model. It was a low mileage car and he paid $80k or so from memory. He showed me one receipt from previous owner for a complete new gearbox - price was $34,000 plus change. Told me yeah the gearboxes have a weakness!!! :o I could buy 3 good sportscars for that gearbox repair alone. And diesel shop mate told me of a Porsche Cayenne diesel they had in the workshop - needed a injector and pump overall which required new parts ex Germany. The bill $24,000.
I'll stick to jappers thanks - there are good and models but won't need new mortgage for a repair bill.
Only the suspension methinks:omg:Quote:
Originally Posted by 6x47
That's the one I had. Those sequential manuals were a pain in the arse and you really had to to drive it with manual selection (either the paddles or the little stick) as the Auto mode was laggy as hell. The clutch also didn't like slipping. We had a holiday house in Taupo at that stage and you had to back the boat up a steep driveway. I soon found out you had to carefully line it up and "drop" the clutch else there would be this terrible persistent burning smell.. I never had to have the clutch redone but it was a common issue.Quote:
Originally Posted by mudgripz
While I'm at it, might as well tell you a little story about potential repair bills of which I had a lucky escape. I had sold it just out of warranty over the phone to a Russian in Akl for cash(!!) and was heading up to Akl the following day to deliver it. Driving sedately round town, the system gave a warning ding and the Engine symbol came up on the dash. Just another faulty sensor I thought. Took it into the dealership and they couldn't put a finger on exactly what it was other than the No.1 cylinder had shut down. BMW NZ had to get the tools in to pull it down as no-one had needed to do it before. Two weeks later, they arrived and the local dealership ripped the heads off which is a major with those engines. 40 valves with VANOS, bloody impressive to look at . Anyway, ultimate diagnosis was the spring on intake valve No.1 has collapsed. The valve had remained up ( must have slightly tweaked the stem) and hadn't pinged the piston. They consulted Germany and their advice was "Replace the whole engine" which was bullshit given the evidence. A crate engine was gonna be a mere $70K but before they tried to insist on that, I made it clear to the dealership and BMW NZ that it could end up a major PR disaster if they didn't come to the party. It took a top mechanic the thick end of a week to rip down both heads and replace -all- springs. The valve stems on those are only about 5mm diam (8250 redline) so he used a fair bit of motorcycle gear doing it. In the end, it cost me nothing other than about 6 weeks off the road so I had to drive the ute.
As has been said, if you can't afford to buy a new one, you probably can't afford to own an out-of-warranty one.
6x47 - you are bloody lucky :).
A good thing you got stuck into the BMW dealer. Alot of people wouldn't and would have been stuck with a $70,000 motor bill - a house deposit until recently :o The flash euros are a huge risk...
Family friend had the Audi S8 (V8 saloon). Good grunty motor but VERY costly to service. Was at his place and told him had just had my Nissan 350Z sportie (VQ35 motor, 287hp) for about $150 all up. His routine Audi service over $800.....
$800 is pretty average. Have had S5, A7, S7 Audis. The basic service cost on my current E63S AMG was about that but then there was a mere $2600 of "longer term maintenance" (diff filters, etc, etc) on top of that. If ya wanna play, ya gotta pay.
It’s not a truck
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:beer::beer::beer:
continue.
All Euro vehicles are great off road, spend most of their time off road,,, broken down.
Keep calm and....Carry on.
Jesus, you're a bit of a wanker aren't you mate?Quote:
Originally Posted by mimms2
seen two in russia owned by german over landers 1992 diesel tough as old boots very sought after modelsQuote:
Originally Posted by norsk
I don't know anything about that particular vehicle, but have lots of experiecne with a particular British car brand.
Thing with Euro cars is if you don't fix them yourself then make sure you have a friend who can, as your average garage doesn't like working on anything that isn't Japanese and you'll be charge accordingly.
My mum has an Audi that failed a wof on a bunch of things including a indicator problem that apparently needed a new wiring loom (that doesn't exisit) to fix it, long story short took me 10 minutes to diagnose the real problem and 30minutes with some solder and a few lengths of wire to fix it.
The other problem is parts, Land Rovers are easy for parts a bunch of places ship from the UK and parts for older models are dirt cheap.
I don't even think about trying Repco or a normal shop, parts are either not available or ridiculously priced.
If you can find a supply of parts and technical data for the vehicle then it's just another car, other than any inherint design flaws or problems with a particular model.
A friend of mine is having gearbox problems with his Santa Fe, was quoted 5k+ for a rebuild, money he doesn't really want to spend.
I've spent countless hours trying to source information about the bloody gear box, bugger all information on any forums of any use and trying to find parts is like pulling teeth.
If it had been a ZF gearbox I could've found out everything I needed to know is about 30 minutes to an hour and been an internet expert on the damn thing.
I guess it comes down to what you are used to working with but any vehicle that isn't a Land Rover is a nightmare (for me at least) to find techincal data for or find out what parts are needed, where as Land Rovers are a piece of piss for me.
Long story short, unless you know someone familiar with them I'm not sure I'd be buying the vehicle in question, but if you do your homework and are prepared to get your hands dirty it may not be a problem.
Hi Beetroot ,
At this stage the ML idea has slipped well down the list. :)
I'm sticking with the vitara for now.
And trying to get the rangie up to scratch for a two week Sth Island trip.:psychotic: :D