Landcruiser v Pajero Shogun V LR Discovery 05/06 Models

PN14

Lads,

Looking for some feedback here. Considering changing the car for a 5 seated commercial 4X4. 4X4 would be of benefit for work and need it for some towing on farm but need seats for the kids.

Which of the above would be the best option & why?

On my own thinking / experience / limited research to date these are the pros/cons I have come up with

Landcruiser -- best reputation but expensive, issues with injectors, good works jeep but not too refined as a general vehicle (used to have them at previous work so have a decent knowledge of them)

Padjero -- know little about them to be honest, pub talk heavy on fuel, similar years cheaper than landcruiser (prob for a reason), see plenty of them on the road so thats a plus

LR Discovery -- most upmarket, most refined as road vehicle, higher towing capacity, heavy on fuel, reliability, parts cost (sister had freelander 1 diesel while actually reasonably reliable any thing that did need replacing was expensive)

Anything to add to the above.

Thanks in Advance

kay 9

Have a pajero, can't fault it tbh. Pulls a trailer most days and used as work van and car. Rated to 3.5 ton so same as the disco. The dmf can give issues but that's why I have an auto. Wouldn't drive anything else now.

Flood

PN14 wrote: »

Landcruiser -- best reputation but expensive, issues with injectors, good works jeep but not too refined as a general vehicle (used to have them at previous work so have a decent knowledge of them)

The injectors is part blame to the owners imo, people running them on farmers wine. Out of a few lads i know with them only a couple gave trouble injector wise but they were running them on wine. Not scientific I know.
Alot of farmers moved on from driving old 3.1 troopers and the older cruisers that would take upteem abuse to softer jeeps yet kept their driving style the same, also servicing.

101sean

Discovery 3 generally very reliable but must have decent service history. Make sure timing belt inc the fuel pump one is changed, a lot get sold when this is due as the FP one is a body off job (there's a way round it and TBH body off isn't a big deal, needed for anything major).

Suspension airbags should be treated as service item, don't ignore settling suspension or you'll end up needing a compressor. Needs professional 4 wheel laser alignment if any funny tyre wear.

PN14

Thanks lads. Just knocking around the idea at the minute. Fuel consumption not a huge issue as company cover most of fuel costs for me. I would have fairly high work miles though 20k miles plus per year (my own private miles for tipping around farm and related works in evening and weekend would be modest). Therefore I'd prefer a 4X4 thats easy to get on with/comfort/drive at those type of miles and something I wont be wrecked after climbing out of at an end of a 300 mile driving day, when they occur.

On cruisers like I said we had plenty at previous work and most gave injector trouble and none of them ever saw any "wine" as you call it. They had high miles though and may not have had the easiest of lives to be fair.

I think the pajero would suit me for the actual 4X4 work I need it for i.e. towing, bit of off roading on farm tracks and generally tipping about but I'm not so sure it would be suitable for significant car work i.e. long driving days. I may be wrong here though must try and get a decent spin in one somewhere.

The discovery probably suits my needs best but I'm a bit doubtful on reliability issues. I know the disco 3 is rated as being reasonably reliable but I know a few lads who have had Range Rovers & Range Rovers Sports and they have spent plenty of time in maintenance depot. One lad in particular but he may have gotten a Friday evening effort so may be skewing my perspective a bit. To be fair I know one lad who has disco 3 commercial and he reckons its a serious machine and nothing but servicing required.

Car is due NCT in two months if it pass's I'll prob solider on with it but want to have a bit of homework done in the meantime in case a change is needed. It won't keep going forever either way age and mileage will eventually tell.

Anything suggestion of something other than the above I should look at. They would need to come into the 5 seat N1 commercial class.

7810

I'm slightly biased towards the Discovery. We are on the third Discovery in a row and current one is a Discovery 3. I wouldn't look at a landcruiser or a pajero. If you are doing 20k plus a Discovery on air is the motor for you. Muck and 4x4 in fields all week and a bit of flash for going out at the weekends. Either a Discovery 3 or a Discovery 4 for absolute comfort and its off-road will beat all the others. It will pull a train and the Sound of the V6 will make you smile everytime. I've a manual but the next one will be an Auto.

Theanswers

Land Rover.
Most definitely ahead of the rest in every department.

Flood

PN14 wrote: »

On cruisers like I said we had plenty at previous work and most gave injector trouble and none of them ever saw any "wine" as you call it. They had high miles though and may not have had the easiest of lives to be fair.

I don't want to be bogging down to much on this but what years were these cruisers?

TrailerBob

The injector seal issue was only a problem on a limited 6-7 month production run of the 120 series around 2005/2006. It's like anything else, lads say the d4d engine is crap, but it's a sweeping generalisation...

Having said that, if the discovery proves reliable, it's a fine machine. It's the curse of the td5 that still haunts them. By all accounts the TDV6 is a vastly superior unit.

As for the pajero... It's a design that's 15 years old now... With only some trim updates in that time. I found them tractor like and not very comfortable compared to a landcruiser.

So for me, the disco is the better road car, very smooth and refined for a big machine...but for a tough, reliable all rounder, the Toyota does it best

Theanswers

TrailerBob wrote: »

The injector seal issue was only a problem on a limited 6-7 month production run of the 120 series around 2005/2006. It's like anything else, lads say the d4d engine is crap, but it's a sweeping generalisation...

Having said that, if the discovery proves reliable, it's a fine machine. It's the curse of the td5 that still haunts them. By all accounts the TDV6 is a vastly superior unit.

As for the pajero... It's a design that's 15 years old now... With only some trim updates in that time. I found them tractor like and not very comfortable compared to a landcruiser.

So for me, the disco is the better road car, very smooth and refined for a big machine...but for a tough, reliable all rounder, the Toyota does it best

Indeed the Disco is the best road car, however it's also the best off-road and towing vehicle (2 Chassis) which dampen the vibration.

I'd go Disco.

PN14

Work cruisers were 04, 05 & 07 mainly. The 07's gave no issue but they were only 2 years old when I changed jobs and like I said the 04's & 05's (probably 10 in total only half of these gave any bit of trouble) had hard lives with high mileage and lots of heavy off road work on Motorway construction jobs. Had older ones as well 99, 00, 01's which were generally more reliable. To be honest any thing that could last 4-5 years of the type of abuse I seen some of those landcruisers take deserve credit. They were the only type of 4X4 that we bought on road jobs from around 04 onwards as everything else weren't as good to be fair.