BigHeavyVehicle

Just from experience rather than knowledge of the design, S5 is the same as "D" in fifth gear. Torque Converter locks just the same to give the same 2,000 rpm at about 108kph.

...By the way, two of us walked this flooded creek twice before deciding to drive through. ALWAYS walk through to determine depth, rate of flow, and road surface conditions!

Update: the car had its 40,000km service late last week which included changing the transfer case and rear differential oil, and checking the transmission and front differential oils. Presuming the dealer did all of this, there was no indication of water entry.

Drove through some recent floods in central NSW, and was wondering if there is a danger of water getting into the diffs or transmission. Water depth was about 60cm - well above the axles.

Faulty "snow" button could be the cause of the sluggishness. Holmsie is correct re the lock-up torque converter; drops revs by about 400 as it locks. On cruise control, a slight hill will cause it to unlock, thereby increasing the revs by 400. (in fifth).

With an interior so large it has its own postcode, there's no surprise the aircon condenses so much water. We have water running all the way out under the garage door after a run on a humid day. The aircon system must be an impressive thing!

Hi Taka, re tweaking the ECU, I'd love to program mine so that it would NOT kick down below 4th on the highway with cruise control on. Presuming all wasps are flying in the one direction that motor should be able to pull up any hill in 4th at 90kph or above. How hard would this be to program? Logic would be: IF speed >90 AND Cruise "on", no gear below 4th.....

Kx.R 4wd 7 seater: Sydney to Melbourne on 91 octane, 3 people, luggage, dog, etc: Indicated 10l/100km. Return trip with an extra 100kg of weight on board, 98 octane: 9.2l/100km indicated. Computer reads higher by 0.5 on highway travel, and underestimates true fuel economy by the same amount around town (presuming the service station pumps are accurate........). Mostly on cruise, set to a true (GPS) 110. Temperature about 16 degrees, few showers both directions. Tyre pressure 42psi.

Information from some people I know who work in "production quality" is that the Melbourne Camry plant produces vehicles at a quality no less than Toyota's other sites. They were reluctant to discuss sites in quality order but my take on their information was that Melbourne is at the upper end of the quality scale. You do not need to be genetically Japanese to adopt the continuous improvement concepts of the Toyota Production System, Lean manufacturing, and the Kaizen culture. Would I buy an Australian-made Kluger? Yep!

OK, I admit to borrowing Mrs Kluger's car to take it for a spin in the wet. With rain so rare in Sydney, I just had to take the opportunity to check the full travel of the accelerator and the 4wd system. How good is the grip!! No wheelspin, no beepin' traction control warnings (it WAS "on"), just whoosh and we're off in a BIG hurry. So far the car has proven itself in the dry; highway, city, 100's of kilometers of corrugated dirt and bulldust out near the Darling River, a little bit of genuine off road down near the Murray River, and tracks in the Deua National Park. Now for the wet. The grip reminds me of my old Audi quattro - way beyond what you think sheer physics would allow.

The tubes are most likely two of the drain tubes from the sunroof. You would also find tubes running down the A-Pillars into the front wheel wells. All the best!

KX-R 4WD seven seater.... Just back from 3,500km trip from Sydney, Cobar, Broken Hill (about 250km of fast dirt along the Darling River), Mildura, Ballarat, Gundegai, across to the coast (another 125km of rougher, slower fire-trail), and home to Sydney. Overall average AS INDICATED on the computer was 10.2l/100km. For some of the slower legs, say, 90 to 100kph, the indicated economy improved to an indicated 8.6l/110km. The car's only done 6,000 now, and I will calibrate the accuracy of the trip computer over the NEXT few tanks and let you know. Air was ON all the way, and outside temperatures were from 35 to 42 during the day. All this was running on BP98 (half a tank of 95 in there somewhere). Tyre pressures were 40psi on tarmac, 30psi on dirt.