What to do?

[oldmacdonald]

Originally Posted by rupicon

Take 30 seconds under a ifs 100s LC whats that designed for ?

Towing the horse float to the pony club.

[davidd]

and driven by a horses hoof??

[Lushy]

I have a 4door CRD and love it. Tows well (camper trailer), gets me where I want to go in reasonable comfort, and has the room to take the camping gear as well. I had a TJ and it was too small, a fridge and bed roll was it. A 2 door JK is the great weekend fun machine and good for driving to the office during the week. IMHO

[dhard]

Does USA not have rugged conditions? From what i've seen I'd say it does. Every vehicle has people who have a run of bad luck, it's just the niche brands like jeep or landrover you'll here more about. I love my rubi and for the purpose i use it easily beats the opposition hands down. Though it's forte is not Outback touring with aftermarket suspension it would be more than capable of the job. Range would be it's biggest killer don't think load capacity is as towing anything over two tonne across roads like the gibb river rd is something best left for trucks. Seriously why do we bag our vehicles so much every vehicle make forum is littered with it. Constructive critism is good but people who don't own a vehicle or work on them should leave un helpful remarks to themselves.

[Von Depner]

Australians think that other countries dont have rough terrain go to africa, russia and the states etc there is places that make simson gibb river look like play parks. Jeeps are built light so that they can go places Toyota's cant. Toyotas are built like trucks on truck chassis which makes them heavy and when you heavy you have to reinforce every thing which make people think they tough. If you over load a jeep it will break. Remenber travel light and move fast. cant wait for the flaming

[davidd]

you're quite right mike. the swb wrangler was always a small vehicle with a large motor and geared up for high speed driving. you had to be really moving to get it into top gear. absolutely on their own in off bitumen dirt roads driving at high speeds others couldn't drive at, coupled with an excellent off road ability. not a giant killer but a good all purpose tough little off bitumen vehicle.

[Yom]

Originally Posted by carvesdodo

Exactly right Von Dep.

All places have their rough spots ... But the U.S. with its population density - which is the main jeep market - doesnt have the same lack of jeep facilities on a 1000klm trip that africa and here etc. have tho.

There is also the underlying mindset that Cairns to Perth is just a drive between two cities in one country ... whereas overseas it involves different countries / climates / terrain for the same distance.

Those factors ( checkpoints/travelstops if you prefer ) affect the "design" need for the constant, long, non-stop travel ability, expected of vehicles used west of the great dividing range here.

American vehicles are designed for their biggest market .... AMERICA ... used successfully over a long period of time anywhere else, they will need some fiddling. Perhaps in time they will make suitable mods for what is becoming their second biggest JK market ... Australia ... but chrysler being chrysler ... I doubt it.

toyotas AWD are now no longer "designed" for australia ... they used to be - but having established their reputation here in the 70s/80's... they have moved on to the larger money markets of Europe and the U.S. relying on myth and legend from australia to bolster their sales in those areas.

Now they are just big overpriced soccermum cars with just enough, built in strength to maintain some of the stories from the 70s/80s ... and lets face it ... all those people who have swapped from sedans to 4wd as their daily driver in recent years ... would have to think their new vehicle is "tough" ...... wouldn't they ???

except toyota tend to stand by their product when it breaks.

But toyota have been weakening their product for years. Infact it started with the Landcruiser 80 series. The front diff centre on these vehicles is literally the same item they fitted to the solid axle hiluxes of the early 90's....!

At least they kept big engines though. Navaras, Patrols and Skylines have all shared the same engines... Pathetic nissan.