Review 2008 Toyota Prado

[foreveryoung]

Just after a bit of advise, time for a change of vehicle. I have a work car but need a home car, looking at trading the 2007 hilux for a 2008 prado, my hilux only has 101,000km where the prado has 220,000, the 8 seats would be handy and is a much nicer ride. So I guess I'm after some good and bad reviews.

 

[Adam79]

Just after a bit of advise, time for a change of vehicle. I have a work car but need a home car, looking at trading the 2007 hilux for a 2008 prado, my hilux only has 101,000km where the prado has 220,000, the 8 seats would be handy and is a much nicer ride. So I guess I'm after some good and bad reviews.

We just sold our beloved 2009 diesel prado. Fantastic car couldn't fault it. Only had 70k on it. Is the prado petrol or diesel? 220k is a fair amount for a car of that age.

 

[foreveryoung]

It is a diesel, and am a bit concerned with the Kms, I have been told to get the car yard to do a compression test and have the gear box looked at, like most I don't like parting with the coin to easily lol

 

[Adam79]

I would also check log books/service history. See if the timing belt was done ect. If it was me buying, I would keep looking as the kms scare me a little. Just my thoughts.

 

[Ligedy]

Yeah I'd be checking the service history and get on the pradopoint forum - I'm sure there's plenty of Prado owners who'll give you good advice. Might pay to get a diesel specialist to the test the engine and just take it for a drive and listen to the engine instead of taking the car yards word...

If the price reflects the amount of KM's it could still be a good buy but make sure you weigh up the options - a lower KM vehicle may cost more now but save you more in the long rung on maintenance costs.

Funny - I drove a 2009 Prado with 406,000km on it 6 months ago and it's still pool car on site - I remember checking the compliance plate to see what year model it was because I couldn't believe my eyes. I thought it was going to be the worst drive ever, but 00km later it still rode and drove great and was still good on fuel - so much so I remember telling my wife our next car is going to be a Prado if they hold up this well. It was being driven at least 400km a week on site for inspections then 1200km on bitumen for the drive home and back at the end of the week. This one never missed a service or maintenance (but you get that when the company has it's own mechanics on call and spare parts are a given). I can't say how much work or money was spent it had to keep it going at over 400k but I would expect it's current value would be relative to it's condition - as would one with 200k, 100k or less on the clock...

 

[Heath74]

Have an 09 prado d4d super car, best I've owned. The biggest flaw ( maybe the only flaw IMO) is the injectors, and if they require replacing you are up for about 3-4k. Doing a clearance check will give you your answer, engine needs to be cold, but it's a straight forward test.
Not testing and fixing can result in significant engine damage, with little or no warning.

There is a 200 page thread on the issue on prado point!

 

[foreveryoung]

Well you have gotta love favours, went down to the mechanic that has looked after it since new and asked them what it was like, "off the record" it's just about to need $11,000 worth of work something to do with injectors, hence why the previous owner got rid of it. I guess I now owe a return favour . here I was still thinking Toyotas lived forever, apparently not anymore due to Australia's crappy fuel and Diesel engines being so high tech, so we are going to leave it a few more months and buy a brand new one, one without any issues (hopefully).

 

[gspy4u]

nice save there, yeh they are great cars, we've had our 2007 since new and has done 196,000k's on original brake pads, original clutch and basically never had any real problems with it. You do as with ALL new diesels these days have to change out the injectors when they get the milage up and throw up the wrong values.

Cost me $1600 for new Injectors, pipes and all seals from NZ toyota and had a diesel mechanic put them in for me and do a full cleanup of the throttle body etc for another $1,000. (got 180,000 out of the original injectors and they were still within spec)

But considering it pulls the 17.56.2OB so well and carries 8 people and can do about 1,500 -1,700k's per fuel stops I'm not complaining at all.
The earlier D4D motors (07 120 series, 150 series prado, hilux, even V8 cruisers) had bad injector seats / sheets and got blowby from the cylinders which in turn fowled up the oil pickup screen in the sump which in turn made your engine go "bang" and cost you up to $18,000 to fix.
Newer seals not having that problem so as long as you service them properly (thank you crappy Oz diesel fuel) they will last you a long time.
If you are concerned with the diesel still then the V6 motor in them is a great motor and there are owners out there with close to 700,000k's on them and still going strong.