The D23 Navara, also sold as the NP300, arrived in 2015 and changed a lot about how a Navara drives. Dual cab models got coil springs at the back in place of leaf springs, and there was a new 2.3 litre diesel, available with one turbo or two. It’s a comfortable, capable ute, and it has a few known weak points that are worth understanding.

A Perth summer is hard on a car’s cooling system. Days well past 35 degrees, stop-start traffic, the air con flat out and the climb up into the Hills all push it close to its limit. If something in the system is already tired, that’s when it lets go.

The 150 series Prado was sold in Australia from 2009 until the new 250 series arrived in late 2024, so there are a lot of them on Perth roads. Most are tough, long-lived 4WDs. Like any vehicle that stays in production for 15 years, though, it has a short list of known problems, and they depend heavily on which engine you have.

The D-Max has earned a reputation as one of the simplest, toughest utes on the market, and its 3.0 litre diesel is widely regarded as close to bulletproof when it’s looked after. That reputation is mostly deserved.