Faults:

Exhaust heat shield came loose after some off-road work - nothing serious, just made a rattle until I found it.

One of the dual batteries went flat and sapped the other one.

General Comments:

This is a tough off-roader, built to last.

The Recaro interior provides more comfort than most luxury cars, and you only find this out when you drive over 1000kms without any back soreness.

These babies also have shift on the fly - auto locking hubs - so that when you go from sealed to unsealed roads, you can switch from 2x4 to 4x4 without getting out and messing around in the sand or mud.

Towing is a breeze, you can even forget that you have a trailer on the back because it makes so little difference to the torquey 3lt turbo diesel.

These SSRG Surfs are fully optioned, and provide the utmost in comfort. While they are no performance vehicle, for a diesel 4x4 they handle extremely well on road.

I have seen brand new shiny black V8 Jeep Cherokees bog themselves in sand that the Surf just chews up!

Brilliant motoring and largely responsible for the huge crackdown on grey imports in Australia - essentially because these cars were hurting domestic 4x4 sales.