The car
Our experience with a Toyota Hilux was good, but we're looking at the 4WD market again. Interestingly, we are looking at a bad time for buyers. Used vehicles are often really old with a lot of kilometers driven and are still extremely expensive. Since we have no experience as a mechanic other than Wolle with his motorcycle, we shy away from it. The market for new and “young” cars is almost empty in spring 2023. Planned new model series at Ford, VW and Toyota and the associated order stop for dealers as well as a Toyota factory in Durban that was flooded last year are leading to a significant shortage. Automatic transmission would be convenient and has also proven itself off-road – the cars are shifting better than you could do it yourself. Or do you have to change to manual transmission because driving a petrol engine would avoid the problem with bad diesel quality? At some point our heads are spinning so much that we ask a friend to help us sort and evaluate the arguments.
Since the question of “long-distance travel with Euro 6 standard diesel” concerns us intensively and for a long time and is so fundamental, we have dedicated a small chapter to this topic.
We are looking for a Toyota Hilux with an automatic transmission and after many phone calls we find it at the Weigler car dealership. We can at least take a look at the different equipment lines (Comfort, Executive, Invincible) of a Hilux Extra Cab. Even if the car with the Comfort equipment has already been optioned for a customer and the Invincible has already been sold, we take the train to Leverkusen-Opladen.
The Weigler car dealership also has an off-road division. And so we are lucky to have a very competent and pleasant conversation partner in Swen Weigler, who takes about three hours to explain the essential things to us, completely inexperienced beginners. It's about payload, chassis, load, lift, tires and rims, underrun protection... The list of things you have to deal with is getting longer and longer.
The topic of the EURO 6 emissions standard and long-distance travel was also addressed by Swen Weigler – the relevance is only gradually seeping into our considerations.
Since the Executive is too expensive for us and also has many features that we don't need, Wolle continues searching. Toyota Wahl has a used car on offer in Neubrandenburg, 45,000 km back from leasing. We decide to look at the car and drive to Neubrandenburg on Friday to do the test drive on Saturday – and we're not convinced. The loss of quality is too great and the price difference to a new car is too small.
A new car with optional equipment is also up for discussion: a Hilux Extra Cab automatic from the Comfort line and with our desired color, the very cool manganese bronze. Additional features include the Toyota navigation system, parking sensors and trailer hitch. The car was ordered on February 16, 2022 (almost exactly a year ago). The delivery date in the Toyota system is April 5th, 2023, but the order says the end of May because the dealers are probably not entirely sure at the moment. We take the risk and buy the car!
The details for the tray conversion and the cabin have been clarified with Stefan Decker from Fiftyten, we are waiting for his final offer to get the job started – but what does the car do? The inquiry to the dealer reveals something positive: the car has just been handed over to the shipping company in the port and is expected in Neubrandenburg shortly.
The invoice arrives promptly the following day and immediately after the amount has been paid, Mr. Engler confirms receipt with the information that the vehicle registration document has been requested by him and will be delivered to us.