Kesawi

What about the Kluger Altitude which was selling earlier this year?

Screenshots look different from the fly audio, and it is also half the price.

I'm sure there would be a legal case somewhere that has set the precedent for rattles. I know in the Subaru I had prior to the Kluger, the warranty specifically mentioned 20,000km as the limit for rattles, but I can't recall seeing anything similar in the Kluger warranty booklet.

So did they rip the dash out and replace the clips?? Nope, that will be the next step.

I mount mine in the same location, and had an additional 12volt outlet fitted under the dash so I don't have cables running everywhere.

Depends whether the scratch is through the clear coat or not. I believe the general rule is, if you can feel it with your finger nail then it is through the clear coat. If it isn't through the clear coat you could try something like ScratchX 2.0. If that doesn't work you'd need to get someone to repair it. I've seen reports on other forums that car manufacturers have switched to more environmentally friendly paints, which are more scratch sensitive (Hence why your BA falcon may not have scratched). I don't know whether this is true of the Kluger.

There were plans for quite a few freeways in Adelaide (see http://www.ozroads.com.au/SA/freeways.htm), but for some reason Adelaidians don't like change (which is why I left). Keep up the posts as I'm enjoying reading them

Well my rattles are back <_< Had it checked again and the service centre secured some wires beneath the dash but it is still there.

If a medium car with a boot is all you need from a practical point of view, then go with that rather than a Kluger. It will be cheaper to buy and have better fuel economy. As for safety, there are quite a few medium cars that outscore the Kluger in the ANCAP results. Large cars do not necessarily equate with better safety (http://www.howsafeisyourcar.com.au/car_size_and_colour.php)

!!!! something wrong with me . mine is one month old and average is 13 ~ 14 city driving using premium 98 Have a read of the thread Fuel consumption TOO HIGH what do I do? I was averaging 14-16 until I changed my driving style to be more calm and relaxed with acceleration and braking rather than racing everywhere. Nett result is 11-13 around the city on regular, and I still end up getting where I'm going in the same time but with less stress. Adelaide has no traffic and most of roads are 60kph until you get further out from the CBD, so you can pretty much coast around everywhere and achieve good consumption :P On another note, I just had my oil line replaced as part of the "customer service initiative" and my fuel consumption has dropped from the spike it had after the previous service.

A good place to start is to go to Canstar Cannex web site which lists rates for vehicle loans from most lenders (http://www.canstar.com.au/interest-rate-co...loan-rates.html) I don't know of a similar site which compares lease rates. I found a really good 5 year fixed interest rate when I purchased the vehicle and the dealer reduced their rate from their original offer by 0.5% but couldn't match it. Always haggle over the finance rate as some institutions have flexibility in what they can offer.

Don't know what's available aftermarket, but I had the Toyota ones fitted to mine. The genuine ones are quite easy to remove when detailing the car.

My partner is looking at buying a Mazda3 and Graphite is her preferred colour. For those of you with Graphite, how do you find it looks after a while. Does it hide dirt, swirls and scratches well? Does it get hot like black?

Just because the software has the option, doesn't necessarily mean the hardware will feed the signal to it from the FM antenna. Also, does the fly audio unit have dead reckoning if it loses the GPS signal?

To address some of your questions: As far as fuel economy goes there are some people who are averaging 16L while others are averaging 9L. I'm 12.4L/100km with AWD based on regular over 10,000km. It really depends on driving style and you should read the thread Fuel consumption TOO HIGH what do I do?. Please note standard disclaimer applies to the following in relation to not being advice, seek own independent advice, depends on your individual situation, etc. Luxury car tax (LCT) kicks in at 30% (or is it now 50%) once the car including all accessories exceeds a value of approximately $58,000 (check www.ato.gov.au) for exact numbers. It is based on the average list price of the car before any discounts are applied, not the sale price. If you are going for a Grande or AWD KX-S you will get hit with LCT. If you want a lot of accessories, one way to avoid LCT is include them in the negotiations with the dealer, but arrange to have them fitted one month after delivery (the rules may have changed so you will need to verify this). Also, you will not be able to make any deductions for depriciation above the LCT threshold, and lease payments on luxury vehicles are treated diffently by the ATO (again go to www.ato.gov.au). I have 7 seats and the vehicle spends 90% of its time in a 4 seat configuration, 6% in 5 seat, 3% in 2 seat and 2% in 7 seat. I still wouldn't give up the extra two seats as they come in handy when we have visitors or when the kids want to bring a friend along. It was the reason I went with a 7 seat vehicle like the Kluger over a 5 seat vehicle like the Subaru Forestor. It's up to you whether the capacity is worth the extra money. I have AWD and have been an AWD fan since driving a Subaru Forestor for 4 years and wouldn't drive anything else now. Read the thread 2WD or AWD. In relation to size, the kluger takes a little getting used to if you've come from a smaller car, but the reverse camera definitley helps. My partner doesn't like driving it becaue of the size, but I'm used to it now. You may not be able to fit in the odd parking space becuase the vehicle is slightly longer, but I've only had this happen very rarely. The downside to size is that it will always use more fuel and have higher emissions than a smaller car. We're going through the whole negotiating strategy with the dealer now on a new car for my partner. Will be taking the approach that we have $X plus a trade in and we want a specific minimum configuration and it's up the dealer how they package it. I tend to work on a rule of thumb of 5-10% off the list price is what you should be aiming for, but then I do't know how reasonable this is. You could also try one of the many car brokers out there or if you or your wife belong to a union or professional association then you could try the unionshopper service.

Welcome to the club Nada. Unfortunately there is no generic answer as it depends on your exact situation such as what tax bracket you are in, how much of the vehicle use is business (remember you have to be able to justify it), how long you will keep the car for, what rate you can get for a loan, what the lease payments and residual will be. A buy vs lease analysis can be undertaken in excel using discounted cash flows (DCF), but unless you are familiar with doing DCF calculations it is easy to make an error, and it can become confusing when dealing with pre and post tax issues (I've completed a Masters of Applied Finance and it still takes me a while to get my head around an analysis). There is plenty of information available on the web if you do a search for "lease vs buy car" which will discuss the advanatages of each finance method. In theory a lease can provide a lower cost under the following conditions: Where the lessor is able to tax deduct the costs of the vehicle at a higher rate than the leasee. The lessor can obtain a better price for the purchase of the vehicle than the leasee due to the fact they buy 1000s of vehicles each year. The lessor can obtain a better finance rate than the leasee, again due to the volume of capital they borrow. I'd find another accountant who can provide better advice. Sorry I can't be any more specific.

I worked in PNG for a while building roads in some pretty rough places and have seen all sorts of vehicles make it up tracks far steeper, muddier and worse than this. Got to be something wrong with the driver if a FWD kluger can't make it up the slope. 2wd hiaces were getting through this (apologies for poor picture quality but it was taken some time ago with an early generation digital camera):

Had mine replaced yesterday. The workshop manager was pretty honest and said cost was the primary reason why Toyota were not replacing it with the all metal line. He did say tha Toyota had taken the issue seriously as they did not want to have to do a second recall if the fix failed.

It is also particularly frustrating as an early 2008 build owner to read on this and other forums, that a lot of the defects have been identified by Toyota and rectified in later builds, but there appears to be no program in place for existing owners. It is also even more frustrating when some defects are rectified under warranty in the US, while in Australia they won't touch them. I pretty much have just about every production defect identified, and Alex (Kruzenvax) is correct, in isolation they are not so much of a drama, but with all of them it is a little too much to stomach. I understand that at the end of the day Toyota are a business and not a charity, and will run the numbers and go with the option that will cost them the least in the long term. It doesn't mean that I'm happy with the outcome. The rule about never upgrading to the latest version of Microsoft Windows for at least 6-12 months until the bugs have been ironed out also applies to cars as well. I still think the Kluger is a great car for what I need and would recommend it to someone else but with caveats in relation to its faults and the level of quality and customer service to expect. I would also strongly recommend that they read this and other forums so that they are educated before they buy and don't have false expectations. Unfortunately I found this forum too late to assist me in buying the vehicle. Andy - How about pinning some of the threads with discussions on the most frequently asked topics to the top of the forum? Would be happy to give you the topic numbers.

If you read his sig, he does work for a Toyota Dealer.

While not jumping in on the vibration issue, there are a large number of other problems with the Klugers documented within this forum and on others that should never have made it to production, and only really become apparent once you've owned the car for some time or read about them on forums like TOCAU. They are all unacceptable for a $50K vehicle and particularly from a manufacturer such as Toyota, who traditionally have a good reputation for quality. A number of owners, including myself have also experienced pretty poor service and responses from thier Toyota dealers. All of these issue have put a lot of Kluger owners off ever owning a Toyota again. While I may not agree with udor that the Kluger is a POS, I agree with his sentiments and those of other users express elsewhere in this forum that Toyota need to lift their game.

I see Toyota is releasing a hybrid camry here, so maybe the hybrid kluger could be coming as well. I can't see them changing the line up until the next edition of the Kluger is released.

It will work ok as long as you don't come to any sudden stops and then Newton will take over.

Anyone have the Alpine TUE-T150DV mobile digital TV receiver? I'm considering adding it to my screen and would like to know how it performs.

Welcome to the club. What accessories did you get?