I paid $40,000 for it last year, did 34,746kms and including lease payments of $1,300 per month its cost me a bomb!!!
My lease deduction is $945 per fortnight to run it, service, rego, insurance etc.... Its cost me well over $3,400.00 over and above the salary sacrifice amount!!!!
In other words, to do 34,746 kms its cost me $27,970.00 - thats just running costs not including extra fruit ive fitted!
With all due respect, either I don't understand the above, or you don't understand leasing... if it is a novated lease then you are actually paying the vehicle off (like a loan). You are not paying $28k a year just on running costs.
I bought mine on a two-year novated lease. I pay a little less than you each fortnight (as I bought a 2 year old one rather than new, with 17,000 on the odo), and after two years I pay out the residual and own it. The fortnightly payments cover rego, insurance, projected fuel use (I'm perfectly on target there), servicing, and one set of tyres over the two year life of the lease. I am paying interest (as you are, a lease is basically a loan with value-adds) but that is offset by the fact that all running costs are pre-tax dollars, meaning I have a lower taxable income and so pay less tax.
It's still costing a bomb, of course, but I have the vehicle I wanted so all is good.
Also yours appears to be a current CRD model? They don't go bang, generally speaking. And on offroading, mine has taken some severe punishment and the only thing that has gone wrong in 43,000km is a broken rear swaybar link.
Patrols are great machines (as are Landcruisers). It makes little sense to make decisions based on a few anecdotal stories about issues people have experienced - every car on the market has issues, period. Much like humans, it's a wonder more things don't go wrong given how complex they are.
The ZD30 problems are from day one of the ZD30 through to around 2005. They don't all go bang, someone said 1 in 10 but its nothing like that. It just seems like a lot because people love to spout about problems they have, but if they have no problems you don't hear boo from them.
They went to CRD in April 2007 and that is the one to get, but you pay accordingly.
Personally I wouldn't buy a 2001-2004 ZD30 but if that is where your pricerange is at, there aren't many vehicles that come close for toughness, offroad ability, and practicality. This is no guarantee of course, but if you change the oil at 5000km, clean the MAF sensor when you change the oil (10-15 mins work), use only Nissan filters and don't flog it, you should have no problems with the motor going bang.
