Hi Scotty! greetings from singapore. I am looking to buy a used pickup truck in Malaysia. My budget would allow me to get a decent 3-5 year old pickup truck. I am considering Toyota Hilux, Nissan Navara (Frontier), Mitsubishi trition, Ford Ranger, and Isuzu D'max.
Toyota Hilux are great but they are very expensive. If I choose a Hilux, it has to be an older model. I did research on Nissan Navara, Mitsubishi trition, ford ranger, and Isuzu d'max. But my research shows that Nissan Navara and ford ranger is the least reliable with Mitsubishi being the most reliable.
I am using it as a weekend, leisure pickup truck for road trips. I personally like the ford ranger but I wonder about the reliability of the 2.2 Duratorq diesel engine. And is Mitsubishi 2.5 4D56 diesel really that reliable? Or is Nissan (YD25DDTI) that unreliable? Is Isuzu (4JK1) generally reliable as well?
What will be your yearly running? Atleast 10,000 kms? Will you be driving it only within Singapore or will you cross the causeway often?
Mitsubishi makes good diesel engines (especially for trucks), but I'm not sure about their cars. I would stick to the Hilux though.
The engine (2.4D) is actually the weak spot of the Mitsubishi Triton, It's diesel has VVT (unusual for a diesel) and it seems to have some injector issues.
Hilux is extremely popular here in OZ, only recently been outsold by the ranger.
Budget wise Mitsubishi and Isuzu as long as they are diesel, (lot of heavy equipment are under these brand) they are also pretty popular in Asia. Fords are not that great in Asia. Best bet would be Toyota but like what you said prices are pretty high on those.
I do like the Mitsubishi triton, looks great and seems to have a good reliability reputation on diesel vehicles in Asia. Of course in the best case, I would prefer Toyota Hilux but they are really really expensive due to the popularity hahaha. I reckon that I wont be driving too much, I am guessing I might not need to get the best (toyota)...... Besides if you noticed, Toyota generally have less features and not so great interior design albiet their strong mechanical reliability
I'm also been looking for a small truck and I’ve been working on somewhat of a “guide” to small trucks, Can’t guarantee this information is 100% correct – much of it is from online research. hope this helps.
The Mitsubishi Triton (KJ/KK/KL) isn't a particularity good truck.
- The 2.4L "MIVEC" Turbo diesel seems to be a troublesome engine, ludicrously expensive and unreliable injectors, chain stretching issues and just insanely complex thanks to the useless variable timing system. that being said, with good maintenance - you can get about 200k miles.
- The smaller "MIVEC" Turbo diesel has the same issues as it's 2.4L counterpart but according to the internet is more expensive to maintain - adjusting valve clearances should be done frequently and it is a labor intensive process.
- The 2.4L Petrol is an old school Mitsubishi motor - It was developed in early 80s and heavily modernized throughout the years and is durable as long as you change your oil very frequently. BUT, this engine does consume a lot of gas and it does have a timing belt.
As far as the automatic transmissions,
- here's either what seems to be a "Aisin AW Series 5-speed" (which I find confusing, as the AW55 was FWD and not RWD, and it's known to be quite unreliable (the AW55-50SN was terrible) perhaps this is a new variant? maybe it's not based on the old AW 5 speed series? - no one truly knows what it is and if it's any good.)
and there's also a quite ambiguous "Aisin R6AWH / V6AWH", this model number doesn't seem to match to any gearboxes I'm familiar with - so I can't comment on it's reliability.
But the Nissan Navara (D23) is genuinely a good truck.
- The small 2.3L Diesel called YS-series is actually the well-built Renault M9T engine. Although the timing chain and EGR valve do have some issues, and there are some oddities that include water sipping under the engine cover and issues with the intercooler pipe - Overall, this is a very solid efficient modern engine (although I’m skeptical of the twin turbo version, seems a bit much to me) (youtu.be/PDMPC9MZu38)
- The bigger 2.5L Petrol called QR-series is considered to be unreliable – It is very easy to overheat and that will be the end of that engine. (youtu.be/fEveljZ2vF0)
- The bigger 2.5L diesel YD-series is alright, but nowhere near as good as the smaller YS. The turbocharger isn’t well built at all (can fail quite early on) and the fuel system is of questionable reliability.
And the automatic transmission is good (some don’t like its shifting characteristics, but I think it’s fine) It’s the same 7 speed conventional automatic you’d find on all great Infiniti models. Change the ATF and filter (if possible) frequently (But this is true in the case of any auto)
The Ford Ranger, from what I’m seeing people really don’t like the 6 Speed ZF 6HP (but that's up fro debate) and the 10 speed Select-Shift, and when it comes to the EcoBlue or the DuraTec 25 (as far as I know it wasn’t made for the last 20 years so It’s weird to see it listed as an engine option) engines it’s too early to know yet.
The Toyota Hilux (AN120/AN130) is known for the reliability of its previous generations
- 2.0 and 2.7 TR-series Petrol is one of the best engines you can get
- The bigger petrol V6 GR series is also a good engine.
- The diesel 2.4 and 2.8 GD series are not great at all – but I guess they’re decent enough. the diesel 2.5 and 3.0 KD series have issues with the fuel system, so if you want it with a diesel get the 3.0L 4 cylinder 5L-E – but note it’s underpowered and has a timing belt that needs to be replaced frequently
The 5 speed automatic is great, probably the best transmission you can get on a modern small truck,
but there is almost no information on the 6 speed “super Intelligent ECT”.
If it’d be you, I’d either get a Hilux with the small petrol and 5 speed automatic, or the Navara with the small diesel and 7 speed automatic.
oh yeah, forgot about the D-Max, can't comment on the engine although isuzu diesels are usually great - on the current generation - the tranny seems great. from what I gathered it's an (AC60E/AC60F = AWR6B45) meaning that's the same one as in the V6 land cruiser.
Older D-Max models also used transmissions from the land cruiser meaning they're also decent (although watch out for torque convertor issues on the old 5 speed if the truck was used for off-roading / towing. It's not uncommon for Aisin torque convertors of that era and model to fail)
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The isuzu is most likely also a great choice - the new generation has such nice and luxurious interiors while the Triton's interior still looks like it's an '08 mitsubsihi outlander.
The new Hilux has also a very nice interior but although the Navara is decent, the the interior feels a bit cheap .