With the arrival of the other halfs vw company car, we been looking to trade in our 2 privately owned hatchbacks for something else.
ive always fancied a pickup (grew up driving them on a farm) and was looking at the latest shaped L200s.
would fit our lifestyle well, plenty of room in double cab for our large dog. Camping/bike and kit/chopped wood etc in back. Like the ability to transport loads outside of vehicle cabin.
Latest warrior/barbarian spec seem alot of truck for the money. With good comfort levels and a few toys. I will be able to claim the Vat back on any purchase.

Any owner horror stories or words of encouragement 🙂

Edit: dammit wrong forum! Mods please move 🙂

My neighbour has one.

His diesel froze last winter (AA bloke says it’s common in L200’s)
Crap fuel consumption.

On the up side, he didn’t need to dig his drive.

I don’t mind digging, so I win.

🙂

Cheers for the info! Had’nt heard of that one about the diesal freezing!
Was looking at a manual over the autobox, which should return marginally better mpg. But not by much 🙁

The Navara is better than the L200

I’m currently driving a Navara (middle eastern spec) and if it’s anything to go by, I wouldnt touch one with a barge pole!!

Had an 05 till the crankshaft went and took the engine with it, It was slow noisy and the turning circle was pathetic. Currently got an 07 and it’s a totally different vehicle, nippy, great turning circle and a lot more comfortable. If it was my own personal choice id rather go for a Toyota Hi lux.

Problem with pick ups for use as a normal car is they’re not designed to be used as a normal car…

The back end is sprung to deal with a pallet of bricks, without said bricks they’re not terribly comfortable.

They also tend to be a bit tail happy due to the lack of weight over the rear wheels.

The 4wd system in most (all?) pick ups can’t be used on firm surfaces, so you can’t use it as a precaution in unpredictable conditions (no centre differential).

Load capacity is great for pallets of bricks, not so good for long loads (I’m guessing you’re looking at a crew cab), as you can’t fold the seats down as you would in an estate.

Not to say they can’t work, but there are quite a few drawbacks to consider.

Thankyou all valuable advice well worth considering. I am looking at hiluxs as well. Yes im looking at the double cab, load length wouldnt be a major priority. But all good advice about handling and on road 4×4, which I will have to investigate.

Mate of mine ordered about 10 for use by the engineers at Gatwick and they all pretty much hate them, had to eventually bolt concrete blocks in the beds to stop them skidding about. Handy for work but you need to load the axles as mentioned above.

They’re changing back to Defenders afaik.

My riding mate has a newer Hilux and we have done loads of biking trips in it. It’s a crew cab, the back seats fold up so loads of space in the back I f required. We comfortably did Verbier and back with 4 up and 5 bikes. The Hilux is the best of the bunch from my experience, decent size crew cab drives prety well in my opinion.

Ed

Nowhere safe to really hide anything, at least with a car you’ve a locked/sealed boot.

Better to just get a decent 4*4, it’ll do everything and more plus be comfy – but obviously you can’t get the VAT back.

I had one for two years as a company car – shit to drive, thirsty, crap turning circle, sideways in the wet……

But lots of room for bikes etc.

I’d choose a big estate car every time.

I’ve driven a Navara quite a lot, it’s a similar overall size to my 90 series Land Cruiser, and for all round use I’d choose the LC every time. Bikes locked safely in the boot, good ride, permanent 4wd, similar fuel consumption to the Navara on a run despite being petrol, option of 8 seats or seats down for 2 fully assembled bikes, 3rd row seats out and 4 bikes in the boot with just the wheels out, and comfortable seating for 4/5 of us to go to Wales.

As I said you can work around the limitation of the pick up, and there are times when they’re perfect, but for all round duties probably not the best alternative.

No one seems to have mentioned the image, its one of the naffest vehicles on the road.

Better get a proper 4*4 or a van if you want real practicality.

I had a Hilux 03 for about 4 years, I loved it. They can be tail-happy in the wet but its nothing you can’t catch. I looked recently at a lot of big 4x4s and they are extortionate to run. With a pickup you get your VAT back, if you pay BIK its dramatically reduced. I’ve now got a VW Amarok on order.

Bear in mind.

A 4×4 van is going to be expensive.

A full-height hardtop gives you a ridiculous amount of secure lockable storage.

I had a Navara which was actually pretty good to drive and very, very handy… but the engine kept blowing up in it (and various other parts). This led me to try the current L200 earlier this year, and it was bloody terrible! You got sea sick on the road with the fore/aft yaw on the relatively smooth A590 through South Cumbria. The turning circle was as bad as ever too.

I went for an Outlander instead in the end, lost almost all the off road ability but still good enough for 99.9% of what I need (rough farm tracks and the like), but with good fuel economy, comfort and plenty of real world practicality.

We’ve just been looking for a vehicle that would carry our two dogs, bikes, camping gear, could carry 5 people and would have enough room for two of us to sleep in overnight.

We spent months looking at vans, pickups and estate cars before finally deciding on a Transporter Kombi purely due to the extra space, especially height. The rear seats either fold forward or come out completely giving loads of room and the load area can be accessed from the front cab without having to get out.

We did look at an L200, but thought that the load space was too small and it didn’t drive particulary well. We found it a bit bouncy, uncomfortable and the steering was a bit vague.

I think the load length on an L200 is 1505mm against a Transporter which is 2353mm and the width is 1470mm against 1692mm in the Transporter. The main difference though is the height which I think from memory was around 900mm with a hardtop fitted, whereas the van is 1394mm.

We did very nearly buy a Renault Trafic LWB crew van purely on price, but the fact that it had fixed rear seats and bulkhead put us off. It meant that we couldn’t access the load compartment from the cab or remove the rear seats; unlike the Transporter.

Just for reference on prices, a 140ps Transporter Kombi with all electric, metallic, alloys, cruise control etc etc was around £20k +vat . A LWB Renault Trafic Sport crew van which comes with everything but the kitchen sink was £14595 +vat.

Unless you are a builder, no. Just no.

😉

Couple of mates have had them. It will carry a cubic meter of concrete in the back. Which stops the bleeding thing bouncing !

Terrible for towing caravans. Even loaded up its still fidgety.

Rear suspension leafs break even without heavy loads.

The ltd edition Animal comes with lovely leather seats. And they are as uncomfortable as hell. You sit on them, not in them.

Buy a Legacy estate instead. Though they do snap cranks (diesel) and it’s 20k to repair !

I find it tows fine but I think i’ve just got use to them after driving one nearly every weekday for the past 7 years. but as others have mentioned unless you need the 4×4 get a decent estate or van.

My mates cab has the most awful fit onto the body, needs redoing every 1.5/2K miles, leaks in heavy rain when driven over 50, the fuel economy is crazy low. If it wasn’t for the tax benefit he gets and his company paying for all the fuel he’d be getting shot of it fast. The barbarian does have good toys though.

cheers for the feedback guys, really just what i was after, looks like i may well be re-considering by the sounds of it. Again valid points from all.
i do like the legacy estates, and i will also look closely at a VW T5.

I’ve got the L200 Recidivist. It’s like the other L200 Animals, Sodomists, Dominators etc. but even more likely to turn you into a Dave Courtney / Vinnie Jones wannabe.

VW Transporter, get the right one and get the vat back too. Kombi would do all you need I think… 4Motion available if you really need it. Pay more but better residuals.

Thought this was going to be a request for advice pertaining to poorly Tarmac’d driveways…..

All the Jap pick-ups are much the same and the issues are above.
We have a base Hi-lux at work and the only reason to choose it over the Land Rovers is the heater. Bit of a gutless tow vehicle, but probably because it is the cheapest model. Not great to drive, senseless power steering, odd bouncy ride. Our Caddy van gets better traction off-road.

Our Caddy van gets better traction off-road.

Might want to put some decent tyres on the 4×4 then 😉

Just to give you an idea on size, here is our SWB Transporter Kombi.

The rear seats can either fold forward or come completely out.

The better half has an L200 warrior edition. She works with horses and it’s very much a work vehicle, it gets loaded up with feed and hay bales etc….works really well in that role.
I sometimes use it and it has a poor turning circle…but that’s the only negative I can come up with. It’s been reliable, is better on fuel than the Isuzu Trooper she had previously, the 4×4 feature was a godsend last winter too, the leather interior is a nice place to be, easy to sling the bike in the back etc etc…
Comparing it to things like a Subaru Forester or Legacy is pointless as they are cars and you’d royally mess up the interior of something like that if you tried to use one as a proper utility vehicle. The beauty of a pick-up is that anything smelly or dirty is in a separate part to the passengers, they aren’t for everybody but we wouldn’t be without it now.

I bought a 12 month old L200 with 80,000 miles on it, did another 40,000 in the next three years and apart from two M.O.T. fees I never spent a penny on it and it never let me down. Not as practical for biking as the VW Transporter that replaced it though.

1freezingpenguin

The van is on road tyres, the hi-lux has BFG muds which seem to work perfectly fine on the Land Rovers, the hi-lux just can’t get its traction down and that is why it is so shocking.

Jap diesel engines were never as good as the petrols they make. If your buying from new VW have just launched their Amarok maybe worth a look.

I’ve got one, had it for about 4 years now- I don’t notice the poor turning circle or choppy ride, if you drive something you get used to it.

Although my head gasket went about a month ago and quite a few others at work have gone, leaf springs often crack as well and very thirsty.

I like it though, great in the winter but the main selling point for me is the BIK.

navaras and L200 much of a much ness thier trucks not pickups they dont want to be used to travel in comfort in, they love been back at the garage.. if you want looks, go anywhere ability, a comfy ride, style, and reliability.. VW Amarok

My old one had BFG all-terrains and were pretty impressive off road though my L200 always has a fair amount of weight in the back of it. Current ones got a Michelin equivalent and they are utter crap.

Used mine for a 4×4 training and it went everywhere a Landrover went apart from one section where the instructor said a LR just gets round it if you get it right and the L200 would never get around.

I’d normallY say Toyota, as they rule the pickuP market in truly rugged countries for good reason, but the new VW Amarok does indeed look like it might be the bees knees in this category soon.

Anyone driven one with the walkenshaw suspension upgrade ? Boy at work has un swears it makes it much better than his old warrior for that fore aft bob thing ! – but at 3k at purchase id hope it did

I was going to say “get a transporter instead” but I see someone already has, no nothing to add, other than “Navaras are shite”

@amplebraw – will the SWB Combi fit bikes in the back, wheels on?