Big boofa-mobile

To aid my pursuit of gobbling carbon credits I've decided to buy a BIG SUV.

I've researched the living sh*t out of these things, and have gone almost full circle. My starting position was to get a Toyota Prado. Why? Reliability, off road handling, indestructability. And the Dog & Lemon said that they are excellent in all areas with the exception of fuel consumption, where the petrol models are akin to a greedy pig awash in a trough full of sloppy stuff that piggies love eating. So I thought - hell yeah, a diesel is where its at.

Then somehow, Pajero's got on my radar. They seemed to be a lower price than Prados, and to tick most of the boxes. Except off road, handling is described as "boat like". And they are less reliable than a Prado (let's be fair, I should say Toyota). Dog & Lemon says "Its Okay... but don't say we didn't warn you"

The biggest catch is that the list of stuff that goes wrong with a Pajero occupies a full page length column - with the prado its a cm and a half. Exaggeration - but you get my drift.

Then I noticed Challengers. Brian's got a challenger. So I got on the blower. He's had his for about 10 years and used it hard. Even I've towed his boat (2 tons) with it. It's basically an L200 on stilts. A good wagon - his has chewed through brakes from towing his boat, he's replaced wheel hubs because of corrosion (salt water exposure) but he's happy overall. He reminded me that when he bought it, diesel was $0.82 per L so it kicked the crap out of petrol as a towing machine. Then he said to me - if he had to buy today, he'd go petrol. The annual "A" and "B" servicing that diesel motors need to stay in tune, the Road User Charge - well it's all a big hassle son, init?

So petrol got back on the radar. Then Tim told me that Munster's been selling his. Plus he told me that some kind soul had researched fuel consumption and that to get a break even from diesel these days you'd need to be running 40,000 km per annum. Which I wont be.

So I'm talking to Aaron. He reckons that by driving that puppy carefully, you can get 700km out of a 95L tank. Subaru gives me 430km out of a 45L tank (or ~400 around town). Its $1.74 per l for 95 Octane.

So Subby: $78.30 to fill and gives me 9.5 Km per L around town - which isn't good, but that's fulltime AWD for you.

Prado: $165.30 to fill and something like 7.4 km per L. Which is atrocious!

Lucky my boss will be filling it, isn't it?

Talking with Guy today, he got his Range Rover and BMW about the same time as his olds got their Prado. Both his cars blew up last week. Beemer got a hole in the radiator and ended up cracking the head (OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW Mein GOTT! Schweinhund!) Range Rover lost its computer, air suspension failed and he ended up riding round on thge neoprene suspension sock thingies. Well he had that coming, everyone knows those air suspension things are shit, don't they? Oh yeah, his parents' Prado. It caught fire once because of a short in the (aftermarket) burglar alarm. And that's all.

So if you hear Roooaaaaarrrrrrrrrrr glug glug glug, you'll know its me, in my new Prado, slurping gas like a gas slurping hog.

And I'll be loving it!