[zooktheworld]

Hey guys this is my first post,
I'm looking for a Jimny as a daily and to be a good weekender to go with my mates MG410W. Definitely going manual and am looking to spend under 10k
What model should I be looking for, g13bb or m13? stick shift transfer or push button and is there a difference between those transfers other than how they are engaged?
Cheers

[Gwagensteve]

with the current pricing situation for used cars, buy the cleanest, best condition car you can. A jimny under $10K is in the lower price bracket so expect to have to do some work. The M engined cars are better and easier to upgrade down the track as they were iin production much longer (as was/is the M engine)

There are a range of different internal configurations for the transfer case in the jimny. Without more information about your plans for the car it's hard to be more specific, but the condition of the whole car is more important than how the transfer is shifted. In any case, the lever engagement case is only on the earlier cars anyway.

[zooktheworld]

So if I got offered a 2006 Jimny, front and rear locked, long range tank, snorkel, xrox bar and other stuff for 10k do you reckon that would be worth it? I saw that the vvt engines had more expensive gearboxes to fix/replace but dont know how true that is

[Brenno]

That seems pretty decent given the specs. Only you can be the judge if it meets your quality standards for the price however.

[Gwagensteve]

Condition is far more important than what's on it. If it's been built with all that stuff on it, You'd have to assume it's done the off road km's to justify it, so has the maintenance been kept up? Do you want a Jimny with all that stuff on it considering that means it's likely in poorer mechanical condition than one that hasn't been off-road? I'd be looking over the car very, very carefully. It sounds too cheap to be true, looking at current pricing, which makes me assume there's lots of work to do or it's in poor condition. If you have the tools and time to work on it yourself that's fine, but that doesn't really fit with it being a daily.

As an aside and just my 2c:

Daily driving AND off road work on the weekend with the same car is a myth and at best a short term proposition. Cars used like this just don't last - they don't get the time spent on them to keep them in good order, then the road kms between the weekends grind away at seals/brakes/unis etc and then the next weekend it's back in the mud. If you can do all your own maintenance and are willing to spend lots of time in-between going bush on going over the car and making sure it's in top order that's fine, bit sooner or later, you'll fill an alternator with mud or collapse a wheel bearing (or worse) and won't be able to get to work on Monday. I've been there back in the mid 1990's and I've seen it play out time and time again since. It's not worth the stress in my opinion. Depends a lot on how much you can do yourself and how much you're willing to work on the car between trips.

[zooktheworld]

I think the cheap price comes from faded paint as its red and he has kids and is looking to get a family car, other than that looks like a good car.
Everything you have said makes sense, it would probably be only short term but if it works it works.

[Gwagensteve]

This isn't directed at you zookthworld, but I picked this up working on my car the other day and it made me think of this thread. Here's some evidence to support my opinion about weekend off road driving AND daily use.

Here's my rear brake caliper slides. One has been wire wheeled, one hasn't.

The slide seals have been passing mud and it's jammed the slide, leading to poor brake performance. The slides are corroded because the seals hold water and mud in them which can't escape.

This is a common failure. In this case it's on the rear of my car after 5 days of total driving since the last caliper rebuild, and very little mud. I don't like mud so don't choose to drive it. There were a couple of black soil creek crossings on adventure tour and some holes on Bill's block, nothing was all that long or deep - generally below the axle centreline.








Yes, these are old calipers and could do with all new seals and pins through them, but, for example, a 2006 jimny is still 15 years old so nothing is box fresh anymore either*. This is exactly the sort of failure that bites the daily driven/weekend warrior car. Take it out on the weekend and on Wednesday's commute the car starts to pull to one side under brakes because the mud has dried. What do you do? get it towed to a shop? wait to the weekend to pull it down and have a look, assuming you have the tools, time and knowledge to diagnose and fix the problem? What happens when you need to order new seals, do you put the car back together and pull it apart again then next weekend once you have the parts? if you took it to a shop, how do you get around? int he meantime?

You can see how this ends up a short term thing. You start missing trips because the car needs work, or you start driving around in a car with mounting mechanical issues until your hand is forced and you buy an AU falcon to get around in and the 4WD sits in the driveway with two flat tyres from bead leaks until you can face doing all the jobs in one hit. Then you can't justify paying reg and insurance on it because that's the $2K you needed to fix it and there it sits.

I know this is a worst case scenario but I've seen it play out a heap of times, and I've basically been there, wearing out a fairly new Hilux trying to daily it and do trips, and at the time I was living at home so I had the cash and time to (if not the skill) to work on it.


*Normally what happens with these seals is they twist with the bolts when the brake pads are being changed, and that's when they tear or come unseated, letting water and mud in, so the origin of the failure isn't through 4WDing, it's through normal maintenance, 4WDing just accelerates the failure.