1999 Holden Jackaroo review from Australia and New Zealand

Faulty master cylinder at 30000 km.

Front passenger seat has started to tear, exposing a piece of wire.

Uses approximately 2.8 litres of oil per 10000 km.

Clutch shudder on takeoff.

My Jackaroo feels like it was designed as more of a tough off-roader than a family 4WD.

I regularly take it on the beach and it's almost unstoppable, even in high range.

I don't tow anything with it, so I don't know how well it behaves when pulling a heavy load.

Once the tacho reaches 2500 RPM, the big Jack feels like all it wants to do is just get up and go. And believe me, when you drop it back into 3rd at about 100km/h and floor it, it fairly gets it's butt moving.

I find that the original Goodyear tyres last nowhere near as long as the Bridgestones I have now. I get around 35000 km per set.

The seats aren't really supportive in flat out corners, and the kids always complain about the porr legroom in the 3rd row of seats.

I believe it uses oil because the engine is a DOHC, not OHV. With the exception of the Generation III LS1 V8 made by Chevrolet, I find pushrod engines much more reliable than multivalve engines. Even my lawnmower's OHC Honda GC Series engine lasted only 11 months, eventually being replaced by an OHV Briggs and Stratton Vanguard due to massive oil problems, which caused the engine to wear rapidly, which wasn't my fault.

Apart from that, I am very pleased with my Jackaroo. If I went to buy another one, I would choose a turbo diesel automatic.

My advice is to buy pushrods while you still can.