Thread: Service and running costs Merc vs Jag.

I friend from Nelson is shifting up this way soon and drove his pride and joy up recently and parked it in a shed at my farm - late last week he calls me and asks me to drive it back to my home near Tauranga because he has sold it and needs it back in Nelson for the buyer
So Sunday, after a lot of stress and head scratching, I managed to get it moving and 50km later I was glad to park it up and hand it over to the next shift driver heading south
It frightened shit out of me every time I touched the accelerator - what a power house - I was scared a cop would stop me and figure I must have stolen it - the only thing good about it was the indicator stick was on the LHS - same as my Cruiser that was built for the Euro market
I sent my Son a text and this picture - saying Xmas has come early - he was not impressed - but we had a laugh later
I figure that if a car hasn’t got a big T on the back - best not to own it! - I got my Cruiser new in 2000 and my Camry new in 2003 - only thing that has ever gone wrong with either is the Cruiser needed a new transfer case after about 8 years and Toyota replaced it free - I just had to pay for the install - how many manufacturers would do that????????????

Originally Posted by Sideshow

Not really true @Tommy what is happening in the UK and I suspect the in other countries is that your encounraged to get a loan and buy new every few years. Only need to drive around to one of the housing estates and see all these new cars parked outside (no garages are built to fit cars in the uk well you can park in them Just but ya can’t open the doors.)
You see all these new cars and think how can they afford them there on there bones and can hardly afford a house?
This will cause you the next big financial crash!
The second reason if your car doesn’t last long ten years is because salt is spread on it the roads over winter. You drive up and down your local beach every day for four months for ten years your cars not going to last ten either

you will also find allot of euro cars have biodegradable plastic in them such as the dashboard. problem is that we keep cars over 10 years old in nz and it degrades before it hits the landfill

My family are kind of nutty about cars. My parents and siblings all have or have had late model euro cars, mainly BMW and Audis, mainly v8's or turboed models, and every single one has had what I'd consider serious issues well before one would expect in a car this day and age. Old man had a V8 jag, it burnt out on him for no reason while cruising down the highway! Lol. What I can't understand is they keep buying the f'n things!

The old man has an HSV Grange with a Wilkinshaw spec's V8 in the shed that he bought as a 'collectable' a few years ago, it comes out every couple months and it's as nice to drive, has just as much grunt as any of their euro cars, but it is actually reliable. Roll it out of the shed for a service or WOF and it flies thru.

I've only ever had cars that were Subaru's, Toyotas or Fords and never ever had major issues with them. My wife's (actually mine) current car (Ford G6e turbo) is tuned to a comfortable/mild 420-430hp and is a daily driver, that's fuel efficient, reliable, super comfy and will challenge most high spec European and jap cars you see cruising the roads today at a fraction of the cost. It looks like a family car but smokes tyres if you're that way inclined.

I must say I love the look of some European cars but the cost of owning them scares the shit out of me!


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@JoshC you need to drive them. There just really nice to drive and most feel great! They feel like there not going to brake.
Yaer they do but what's wrong with owning something nice if you can afford it!
Anyway stick with your truck if I threw a carcass in the back of the wife's BMW she'd have me guts for garters give the dog a laugh though
I'll stick with me L200
How's the Hunting going?

Originally Posted by Tommy

Nope. They are just Toyotas with Euro bills. Went to buy in a wing mirror glass last week and it was $850+gst. Laughed and said to the parts monkey "nah bro, not the wing mirror assembly, just the mirror glass itself"..... Turns out the assembly was $3500+gst and that WAS just the mirror we were talking about. This wasn't a flash Lexus either, a gs300 or some shit, 10 years old (a glorified Camry ffs). It's Toyota cosplaying as BMW, cos they can.

I should have guessed. Still do they break down as often?

Originally Posted by 300CALMAN

I should have guessed. Still do they break down as often?

They have heaps more shit, which is heaps more shit to go wrong. I forgot to mention the $2500 headlight hahahahahahaha

Originally Posted by Tommy

They have heaps more shit, which is heaps more shit to go wrong.

You are bang on with that.
I'm a Land Rover nut, most people love the older Land Rovers, Disco, Series, Range Rover Classic, but wouldn't touch a newer one with a barge pole.
Basically the more electronics and gadgets, the more things there are to go wrong. Especially if it's relatively new technology.

Originally Posted by Tommy

@Beetroot have whittled it down to 2 now. Waited 3 weeks for a fuel pump to arrive for one, which is fucking ridiculous. They are/were (roughly) 1 x 2005, 1 x 2007, 1 x2009, 1 x 2010. I call them Xmas trees cos of all the coloured flashing warning lights on the dash

All L322s then, I'll tell my brother in law he was right to get the warranty.

3 weeks is a bit mad for a fuel pump, did you purchase through Land Rover themselves?
I buy Landrover parts all the time from the UK and usually takes less than a week for them to arrive.

everyone is swallowing the gimmick gadgetry pushed by the salesman. YOU HAVE TO HAVE, YOU NEED TO HAVE, and so on and so on.
All you really need is brakes, steering, seat belts and lights.

ABS, traction control, stability control, and whatever else you can imagine is perhaps nice, but unnecessary. and if you want to take it a step further.... it is just plain environmentally unfriendly! If people brought cars that were a bit simpler then they would last a lot longer (this does not mean a sacrifice on reasonable comfort, but minus a heap of electronic dorkery)

Ill prefer to drive without all that bubble wrap safety shit. Even if I did have it, my Hiace would see to it that I am sufficiently crushed into the steering column that deployed the air bag, point blank into my shooting eye.

Get a simple vehicle that does what is needed.

This logic applies to all sorts of things, Cell phones, the laptop I'm typing on, etc etc (excluding shooting related hoo dakeys)

Originally Posted by 40mm

everyone is swallowing the gimmick gadgetry pushed by the salesman. YOU HAVE TO HAVE, YOU NEED TO HAVE, and so on and so on.
All you really need is brakes, steering, seat belts and lights.

ABS, traction control, stability control, and whatever else you can imagine is perhaps nice, but unnecessary. and if you want to take it a step further.... it is just plain environmentally unfriendly! If people brought cars that were a bit simpler then they would last a lot longer (this does not mean a sacrifice on reasonable comfort, but minus a heap of electronic dorkery)

Ill prefer to drive without all that bubble wrap safety shit. Even if I did have it, my Hiace would see to it that I am sufficiently crushed into the steering column that deployed the air bag, point blank into my shooting eye.

Get a simple vehicle that does what is needed.

This logic applies to all sorts of things, Cell phones, the laptop I'm typing on, etc etc (excluding shooting related hoo dakeys)

Funny you should say that. When we finally found a manual 4x4 Hiace we found two. One had ABS and half the km's. The other had the left mirror sticking out the front with a mirror that let you see across the front. The mirror was more useful. Cannot think of a single occasion in nearly 40 years of driving where ABS would help me. With the extra height you can see trouble coming further off.

Originally Posted by gadgetman

Funny you should say that. When we finally found a manual 4x4 Hiace we found two. One had ABS and half the km's. The other had the left mirror sticking out the front with a mirror that let you see across the front. The mirror was more useful. Cannot think of a single occasion in nearly 40 years of driving where ABS would help me. With the extra height you can see trouble coming further off.

Man I wouldn't want to be caught out without ABS, sure you don't need it most of the time but the one time you need to do an emergency stop and their is a wet road or a patch to gravel you didn't see you would be thankful for it.
ABS isn't particularly unreliable anyway and using that logic may as well get rid of power steering and fuel injection too. I know someone who bought a 2wd non turbo Navara because 4x4 and turbos are just another thing to break. Whilst I can see an argument against common rail diesels, there's no way in hell I'd by a diesel without a turbo.

The Latest Land Rover Discovery I bought has air suspension in the back and a hydraulic anti-roll bar system (ACE) and I absolutely love them.
The air suspension in the back is great for towing and loading the boot up, no more arse sagging on the ground.
The ACE system is fantastic, there is virtually no body roll in corners which is amazing for the size of the vehicle. The system is pretty reliable too, seems to have less problems than the ABS system, which is hardly a problem.

I did have an issue with electric windows for a while in my first Discovery, but I wouldn't go back to manual windows, reaching back to do rear windows is a mighty pain in the arse.
There was a problem with the window ECU and a bad solder joint, a common problem that was easily fixed. The circuit board has printed on it 'Made in Japan'.

Originally Posted by Sideshow

@JoshC you need to drive them. There just really nice to drive and most feel great! They feel like there not going to brake.
Yaer they do but what's wrong with owning something nice if you can afford it!
Anyway stick with your truck if I threw a carcass in the back of the wife's BMW she'd have me guts for garters give the dog a laugh though
I'll stick with me L200
How's the Hunting going?

I have driven a few. Sure, they feel like they're not going to break, but they do

I'll always have a truck-most likely always a landcruiser-especially when mine is this sexy



But a car that moves is a nice change for weekend trips

Huntings always good - just depends how much I get out, which has only been a couple times a week recently.


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Year I’m about the same. Just cleared the silt out of our ponds on the water meadows here so that should get us some more ducks and geese coming in for next year
While doing it I see we have some Munjac moved in so could get some close venison

funny you should mention the extra height and better forward vision... i'v been harping on about that for as long as iv had a van! it is true though, and the fact that any frontal would be bad, I think it makes me more aware of whats going on ahead of me (maybe like being on a bike?)

ABS can go to hell and I miss my little round mirror, it is MIA.

My partner just brought a 1992 70 series cruiser to replace her 2006 navara. good move, its got leaf springs all around so drives like a tractor but is fine if you drive and actually pay attention to what you are doing.