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Toyota Hilux Surf (4runner)


LRDefender

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Guys,

Do you think the Toyota Hilux Surf (models after 1995) is a good option for a person who wants to do some decent off-roading and also use it as his day to day work horse as well???

Has anyone used it and if so what are the pros and cons of it.

And please please give me some good and trustworthy vehicle importers contact details in Sri Lanka. Trying to import a reconditioned Surf from Japan and is running into all sorts of trouble :(

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HI

Surf's after 1995 is not a road runnner version, that was the older version.

Well I used a surf (well 2 one pre 95 and one 99 with the newer engine) for some time for the

same purpose as what you are looking for and below are my comments.

1. Day to day to work horse - yes it's a decent practical helpful vehicle.

but the decent off roading was bit poor as what I had was an auto, most of them are Auto.

Also, the 4WD selector is by a switch (not a manual diff lock). Switch works on a Solgnoid and if you don't use it

regularly the switch may not work properly, which actually happened to me and got stranded in the middle of

nowhere and Police came to my rescue.

2. Turning circle is bit poor for city traffic.

3. the 2.5 L turbo engine version pulling power was bit poor, the later version with teh 3 ltr engione was better

4. Fuel consumption on both was bit too high in city doing about 6-7 kmpl.

Other than that its a quite practical and bit more comfortable than the double cab.

As Devinda feels I believe most of the English numbered ones are locally assembled.

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Hilux chassis so should be good - but the bulk of them around now on English plates have been locally assembled i believe :mellow:

@Devinda:

I was planing to go for the pre 95 model assembled at minuwangoda, but as Tikiri mentioned, I came to know about the poor pulling capability of the engine and decided to go for a 95-02 model. But would you believe that only 5 or 6 were imported to our beloved SL!! :o Anyway i haven't seen one of them. Now i cant import them coz their manu. year is not within 3 years that is allowed into SL.

Anyway the reason i was going to go for a surf is that i gave up the idea of assembling a defender for myself. Would you believe that the going price for a defender in an army auction was around 2 MIL???!!!???$%#^ I couldn't believe!!! (the one Im mentioning had a chassis that was falling apart and the body was a heap of scrap metal)

@Tikiri: Thnax for the info mate

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@Devinda:

I was planing to go for the pre 95 model assembled at minuwangoda, but as Tikiri mentioned, I came to know about the poor pulling capability of the engine and decided to go for a 95-02 model. But would you believe that only 5 or 6 were imported to our beloved SL!! :o Anyway i haven't seen one of them. Now i cant import them coz their manu. year is not within 3 years that is allowed into SL.

Anyway the reason i was going to go for a surf is that i gave up the idea of assembling a defender for myself. Would you believe that the going price for a defender in an army auction was around 2 MIL???!!!???$%#^ I couldn't believe!!! (the one Im mentioning had a chassis that was falling apart and the body was a heap of scrap metal)

@Tikiri: Thnax for the info mate

There was an article in the weekend papers about the people currently embroiled in the issue of not being able to register vehicles that have been purchased from the Minuangoda place!

Hmmm the Defender route is always a costly one - leave aside the chassis, the bits don't come cheap either.. :mellow:

But you can get yourself a restored well running short wheel base "90" for that kind of money - pristine 110's are double that and will stretch all the way upto 6 Million or higher for new English plate original imports! - keeping mind that Bran new 110's will be well over the 15 Million mark afaik :(

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Tikiri listed out most but to add a bit..

1. if u want decent offroading having a solid axle would be better than the ifs

2. u abso'ly need good mt tires for a hilux to make it a decnet offroader ..having a/t in a hilux may not be enf in some mud .. but having m/t for daily is a hassle

may i ask why a surf and not a d'cab?

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There was an article in the weekend papers about the people currently embroiled in the issue of not being able to register vehicles that have been purchased from the Minuangoda place!

Hmmm the Defender route is always a costly one - leave aside the chassis, the bits don't come cheap either.. :mellow:

But you can get yourself a restored well running short wheel base "90" for that kind of money - pristine 110's are double that and will stretch all the way upto 6 Million or higher for new English plate original imports! - keeping mind that Bran new 110's will be well over the 15 Million mark afaik :(

Someone's selling a Defender in Halaawatha, complete with "snookles" on the AL classifieds for 5 million. Is this realistic (in our crazy price system, not in worldwide terms)?

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Someone's selling a Defender in Halaawatha, complete with "snookles" on the AL classifieds for 5 million. Is this realistic (in our crazy price system, not in worldwide terms)?

OT:

what i found even more amusing is the 32-0XXX defender thats selling which happens to have a YOM as 2002.

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Someone's selling a Defender in Halaawatha, complete with "snookles" on the AL classifieds for 5 million. Is this realistic (in our crazy price system, not in worldwide terms)?

its unfair for me to comment as such but just judging by just the pictures it doesn't seem original - note that the YOM doesn't tally with the registration number.

Ideally a Brand New import on the 64- 65- plate & a 300 Tdi would be worth that kinda money though :mellow:

Originality is what will determine the price in the long run - accessories can be added along the way for not a whole lot of money so its best to not get distracted by all the bells & whistles

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Guys be carefull if your'll are going for defenders...... Please check the book carefully since now all the Australian Model & Maleriya Model LRS were converted to Defenders with few modifications.....Before buing my Bj43 I checked out few.

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Also, one of the main UK exporter to SL LR's in either container loads

or as cannibalized has got caught in the UK as most were stolen vehicles.

Police has cracked down on the last shipment and the team who was assembling

were raided by the Mirihana Police.

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Also, one of the main UK exporter to SL LR's in either container loads

or as cannibalized has got caught in the UK as most were stolen vehicles.

Police has cracked down on the last shipment and the team who was assembling

were raided by the Mirihana Police.

Are these the ones in Hyde Park?

It was rather blatant with the full bodied 110's on L plates

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Guys be carefull if your'll are going for defenders...... Please check the book carefully since now all the Australian Model & Maleriya Model LRS were converted to Defenders with few modifications.....Before buing my Bj43 I checked out few.

Agreed

Use a chassis no decoder for a start -

http://landroveroneten.com/cgi-bin/vin_checker.cgi/

http://www.expeditiongear.co.za/cu5/Decodi...N%20Number.aspx

http://www.landroverchassisplates.co.uk/page10.htm

http://www.motoverse.com/tools/vin/landRover.asp

that'll help find out exactly what on earth the machine started life off as... i've seen a fair number of patchwork jobs..

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& guys I found out few they were registered saying Leyland Rover instead of Land Rover......

Dnt knw how? One in Gam5 & 2 in Tissamaharama &1 in matara

Land Rover was sold to an Indian company. Not sure whether it is Tata or Leyland. But i dont think think have started as of yet. If they have, how come brand new landrovers ended up being in Tissamaharama and Matara and not in Colombo where there is a huge group of wanabe Land Rover owners. I smell a Frankenstein :D

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  • 3 years later...
HI

Surf's after 1995 is not a road runnner version, that was the older version.

Well I used a surf (well 2 one pre 95 and one 99 with the newer engine) for some time for the

same purpose as what you are looking for and below are my comments.

1. Day to day to work horse - yes it's a decent practical helpful vehicle.

but the decent off roading was bit poor as what I had was an auto, most of them are Auto.

Also, the 4WD selector is by a switch (not a manual diff lock). Switch works on a Solgnoid and if you don't use it

regularly the switch may not work properly, which actually happened to me and got stranded in the middle of

nowhere and Police came to my rescue.

2. Turning circle is bit poor for city traffic.

3. the 2.5 L turbo engine version pulling power was bit poor, the later version with teh 3 ltr engione was better

4. Fuel consumption on both was bit too high in city doing about 6-7 kmpl.

Other than that its a quite practical and bit more comfortable than the double cab.

As Devinda feels I believe most of the English numbered ones are locally assembled.

How is the spare parts availability for the Surf?

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How is the spare parts availability for the Surf?

The HiluxSurf from 95 onwards (ie series 180 onwards) shares the chassis and all others with the Prado of the same vintage, not the Hilux as indicated in some post. ranted Pre-95 the Hilux Surf was based on the Hilux.

I had a RZN185 (1998 model with 3RZ-FE) and a TZN 215 (2004 with 2TR-GE) it has the same engine and drive train as the Prado of the same vintage so should not be a problem with engine/mechanical spares in SL. In fact when I was in East Timor (where the RZN195 was) I would buy parts for it from SL.

Body parts might be difficult to find in SL since there aren't many around. But I was able to find some basic body parts for it during a certain period of time, and I was asked if I was "building one" cause some shops had some parts.

the 180 series only came in a 2.7 ltr (RZN185) or 3.4 ltr (VZN185) gasoline engine or a 3ltr diesel engine where the prefacelift version (pre-99) came with either a NA or a Turbo engine (KDN185 - TB and NA were identified but a letter following the 185) and then the later facelift version all came with a turbo charged engine. So no idea what the 2.5 ltr engine is (perhaps the pre 95 one ?)...the 2.7 ltr gasoline was decent but obviously not quite as powerful as the 3.4 ltr. But personally I felt it was a lot better than the Prado with the same engine as the Surf was much lighter. But then the 3.4ltr is a lot thirstier as well.Yes..around town I got 6-7 kmpl...

Where 4WD is concerned, yes it was electronically actuated (weren't most systems following the 80s? I personally haven't had any issues with the system, but had a friend who waded through muddy water and didn't clean the car up later and got all the actuating switches underneath spoilt...but then had quite a few people who messed up their Pajeros the same way too). It had high and low range selectors,came in two variants, with or without a center diff lock, have seen both around equally in Japan...Most that were available were part-time 4WD (most of the time it is in 2WD mode and goeson to 4WD only when you select it), but there were some early models that had what Toyota tagged as "Full-Time 4WD" where it had an "Auto" mode (sorry i don't know what the power distribution was in the Auto mode or how it worked) but was not very successful as I have seen only a very few.

The 4wd versions are <some letter>185 and the 2wd versions <some letter>180. There was a "Sport Runner" version of the 2WD.

The 180 series was good value for money in its days, kind of like a basic entry level 4WD and a stripped down LC Prado. The 210 series changed it...it became as expensive as the Prado which apparently was the reason Toyota scrapping the HiluxSurf out as they were selling more Prados than the Hilux Surf.

Where the TZN215 (RZN215 before the facelift) I had...well....it was a lot more bulkier...came with a 2.7 ltr VVTi engine still was able to average the same fuel consumption levels, but felt a lot more smoother and bit more peppier. But personally, I felt it to have a lot less feeling than the older 185.

Edited by iRage
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