Hilux or Ranger (also how much for an R reg 90)

[Head Ranger Pete]

We curently have an 06 plate ranger on lease but we are in the process of swapping our lease hire vehicles for purchased ones (and renewing the old purchased ones which i'll come to in a minute)

 

Until recently I had intended to get a hilux crew cab to replace the ranger at the heart of the fleet, as you hear lots of good stuff about them (the vehicle top gear couldnt kill etc) but I was talking to a colleague from another team last week and he reckoned that his hilux is gutless when pulling heavy trailers and he was set on swapping the other way and getting a Ranger

 

What do you guys think ? (incidentally we've looked at other options but Landrovers are too heavy on the fuel, and I've had L200s before and the clutches were apparently made of soft cheese -5 replacements in 3 years on two vehicles)

 

On the second part of the question what do you reckon an R plate defender 90 hard top with 60ish K on the clock, and a recent head gasket/timing chain, is worth ? (ive looked at autotrader but theres a big variation) - Just to be clear i'm not selling this yet (when we do I'll certainly put it on clasifieds), but its budget setting time and I need to give my boss an idea what I reckon we'll get for it if we sell it next financial year ?

[Mark James]

Remember the modern Hilux isn't the same as the old one like they had on top gear. The Rangers would be sore enough on fuel to but imo they all are.

 

Not sure about the defender as you say there is a big variation on the prices, but someone on here who knows more will let you know am sure.

[gensetsteve]

Hilux 2.4 non turbo upto 1997 slow even solo and will struggle on motorway hills built like brick privvy

 

hilux 2.4 turbo upto 2001 ( our tipper ) pulls at 70 even fully loaded I would not tow with ours 170k engine getting tired and gets hot solo above 70mph. Dreadfull on fuel 24mpg but would not be without it. Still reasonable build quality

 

hilux d4d 100bhp just about adequate for towing but excellent on fuel 35mpg or more if careful. Mk 5 still reasonable build quality with better engine.

 

hilux d4d 130hp Mk 6 good for towing. Dont know about fuel. Had a demo one was not keen, felt big with hard suspension noisey and revvy in the cab for a 25k motor. Well finished with some quality nowhere near as tough as original hilux.

 

For some reason the single cabs only have a load margin of 700kg the extra cab and double cab nearly 1100kg. My choice would be a Mk 5 extra cab with d4d engine. Or I would try a isuzu Rodeo the rest I personally would not even look at no matter how cheap.

[Aaron]

id have hilux all day long, good mate of mine has just bought extra cab and its pretty impressive, handle trailers etc with ease, plenty of poke to boot! rangers are a good option as well, all ill say is that the depreciation of toyota is very little compared to ranger, youll loose plenty of money on the ranger.

[Head Ranger Pete]

, youll loose plenty of money on the ranger.

 

good point - but that should also mean that a 1 -2 year old ranger will be a lot cheaper to pick up than a hilux of the same age

 

also good point about the isuzu i'd forgotten about them (although are they basically a mitsibuishi L200 with a different badge)

 

I think i'll sort out a few for test drive - ive got a little while as the lease on the ranger doesnt run out til somepoint next year

[tommer9]

Rangers are cheap ish on parts if you can get them, and anecdotal evidence would suggest that the newer hiluxes are not a patch on the old ones as workhorses- they have compromised on the school run/ building site manager car attitude. I am dedicated to landrover (IME nothing comes close in toughness and ability to do the job, but this is irrelevant to your question) bub having had an old hilux and been near newer rangers, I would choose a ranger over the present toyota offerings, they just seem more utilitarian to me. That said, my land rover garage service all the vehicles that work in the cornish china clay industry (a harsher environment would be hard to find) and after 6 months on rangers they found them not to be nearly tough enough, and parts were a problem, so they went back to landrovers.

My point being that rangers were the vehicle they chose to try in place of defenders.

[Head Ranger Pete]

yep - i agree about the defenders ruling supreme offroad- however I doubt i can sell our GM on a 110 crewcab - unfortunately we are always going to be compromising because our estate is quite spread out so it needs to be good off road but still relatively economical and fast on road , and the defender falls down on the latter option

 

we could just buy the existing lease vehicle from lex when the lease ends, or we could get another lease, or we could buy used or new - so long as I stay inside the current cost+inflation the world is my lobster

 

Has anyone used the VW Amarok ?- i'd never encountered it before but we recently bought a caddy van and saw them at the dealership at the same time

[Landrover130!]

Being a lucky sod and getting to drive a brand spanker defender 130 tipper, I woulod have to say that the landrover is always going to be the best vehicle. In my previous job, the transprt manager swapped from a fleet of landrovers to ford rangers. Big mistake! I used to tow a ransomes triple mower on a challenger double axle trailer, it struggled like buggery to pull it, you had to gun it through the gears to get it up to speed, and with the soft suspension it actually made some of the guys feel a bit travel sick. Plus when it came to fuel consumption, the ranger used to do 10.2mpg!!!! Obviously used to get more with the trailer off, but we used the trailers all the time and the ranger wouldn't cut it. They also trialled vauxhaull (isuzu) and isuzu troopers. They are now thinking of going back to landrover as they have the new ford engine and the off road prowess is there. If I were you, I would go Hilux or landrover and give the ranger a miss, they look the part but I don't think they deliver as a work horse.

[Head Ranger Pete]

Being a lucky sod and getting to drive a brand spanker defender 130 tipper, I woulod have to say that the landrover is always going to be the best vehicle. In my previous job, the transprt manager swapped from a fleet of landrovers to ford rangers. Big mistake! I used to tow a ransomes triple mower on a challenger double axle trailer, it struggled like buggery to pull it, you had to gun it through the gears to get it up to speed, and with the soft suspension it actually made some of the guys feel a bit travel sick. Plus when it came to fuel consumption, the ranger used to do 10.2mpg!!!! Obviously used to get more with the trailer off, but we used the trailers all the time and the ranger wouldn't cut it. They also trialled vauxhaull (isuzu) and isuzu troopers. They are now thinking of going back to landrover as they have the new ford engine and the off road prowess is there. If I were you, I would go Hilux or landrover and give the ranger a miss, they look the part but I don't think they deliver as a work horse.

 

As I say we are currently running a ranger on lease hire and it isnt too bad - we get about 30mpg average so long as we dont cane it, and it tows adequately and is okay offroad (it would i suspect be a lot better with decent tires - its curently on road spec kumos)

 

We definitely won't be going to landrover because we, and other teams, have run defenders for years and we know all about their good points (off road performance)and bad (on road performance, lack of comfort, fuel cosumption)

 

As i already know about ranger performance the point of this thread was basically to see whether hi lux are as good as people say -and whether its worth the premium over the ranger.

Edited October 3, 2011 by Head Ranger Pete

[Head Ranger Pete]

my job was to buy landy's, we used to hunt down v8's - but also bought diesels.

 

age range was 08 plates back as far as B reg - late landys stick to a book value but older ones are dependent on condition - so a B reg can be worth the same as R reg.

 

for a rough one £1000 to £1500 - for an out the box £7000 TO £8000 - Thats a blanket job on everthing older the 7/8yrs.

 

around £5000 is the going rate for a tidy one.

 

people will pay, dealers wont!! so watch out for sharks:sneaky2:

 

 

Cheers that's useful - Ours has a few minor dings and scratches, plus its signwritten so there'll be marks where that comes off, but on the plus side there's a roof rack and winch and it has full landrover service history, and its been looked after mechanically speaking.

 

I was thinking between 4 and 5k so that tallies. We won't be selling it to a dealer (unless we get a damn good deal on part ex) as there are a couple of farmers/contractors locally who've expressed an interest