Buy one here - you don't want to go down the road of importation... the government red tape is redunculous.


The one you are looking at is a petrol motor - and one I would probably recommend to someone if they didn't have a great deal of mechanical aptitude... as long as you can stand the fuel bills
It has the same motor as the V8 that was fitted to the BA Falcon V8/XR8/GT (different heads/intake/exhaust though), so parts won't be hard to come by, nor should it be hard to find a mechanic to work on it - and anything that was different to the Falcon can be bought very cheaply from the US.

I personally don't like a lot of things that was done to that truck (style wise), but that's my taste, yours might be different.
The "Motor has been computer tuned on dyno" would scare me a bit though, make sure you get receipts for it, and check that it is a reputable person that knows what they are doing.


Manual transmission is the preferred option, but they were only available with the 4.2 or with some of the later (low spec) 7.3's... as they are bullet proof, but a petrol engine doesn't have enough grunt to destroy the auto trans (unlike the 7.3). The rest of the truck is very reliable and simple to work on.
A 7.3l diesel makes the truck a beast, I love them - they sound (and go) really well, particularly once tuned, but your chances of finding a mechanic that knows what they are doing on one is almost impossible (they use an injection system that is the same that Caterpiller fit to their bulldozers/truck engines - i.e. a bit more complicated than an old diesel landcruiser).
The 4.2l is a much simpler (and slower) motor, that an average diesel mechanic could get his head around.

The petrol (5.4) is simple and only available in 4x2 (which given you said you don't want to go off-road probably isn't bad), only potential problem is it blowing a spark plug out of the head - which sounds bad, but there are simple fixes available.

The only other thing worth mentioning is running costs, remember these are commercial vehicles, so if you are thinking it will cost the same as a Falcon to fuel/insure/service fuggetaboutit
The one good thing is if you look after it, they hold their value very well. I still can't get over that people bought a truck 10 years ago for 60k, put 200,000km on it, and then can sell it for 50k.