Faults:

Reliability is legendary.

Seats have worn off, bumpers rusty and bumped, insulation worn off, close ratio gearbox a bit hard to engage, transmission grinding sounds, but it's 690000+ kilometres.

General Comments:

Quality unmatched by anything I have seen up to today.

I have had no engine or gearbox failures since I bought it, 18 years ago and 690000+ km after, done mostly in fields.

Engine torquey, but no power.

Gearbox works fine, close ratio gearbox hard to engage nowadays.

I have the Club Cab version, so it's not so roomy in the back.

Stereo, electronics, dash, lights; all work fine.

I changed the engine and it's been 2300 km since then. Changed it not because of damage or failure, but after so many km done, it had lost over 40% of its power and the car struggled to move when loaded. Changed it with a used one with 100000km, it was a bargain and the car is now restored in terms of performance.

Faults:

The fact is, don't buy one; avoid 2.4lt turbo diesels. We had two separate ones, as the car dealer exchanged our first for another one, as we had problems with the turbo losing power shortly after purchase.

The second one was better, but despite always being maintained/serviced as required, after 30000kms the motor was stuffed; it was blowing black smoke a lot. Very disappointing, as we were told we should of gone for the 3Lt diesel version, which is better.

A lot other owners had blown head gaskets, which are known to happen - very expensive to fix. We were fortunate this didn't happen to us!

General Comments:

Very disappointing, Toyota does make very reliable vehicles, as we owned many Toyota's in the past, but these Toyota Surf 2.4 Diesel 4Wheel drives were a nightmare!!! They are not as good as cars.

In fact you'd be better off with a Morris Minor!!

We had horror repair bills with the Toyota Surf.

Faults:

Replaced both batteries.

Front wheel bearings replaced.

Front suspension arm replaced.

General Comments:

When purchased I took it in for a full service and MOT because the previous owner hadn't done anything since it was imported a year ago. Cost £600 to rectify everything, but well worth it. Absolutely mint condition for its age, and no sign of corrosion (except the after market bull-bar). Great load space, with seats down 2 people can comfortably lie down. Fuel economy isn't great like all 4x4's, drive is less than reponsive like all 4x4's and its off road capability is great NOT like all 4x4's. I use it for pleasure and work to cart all my tools around, only problem with it is I don't want any other car again!