mrbishi

Nice one there Takahasi, some nice shots too. Good to hear youre really happy with it so far. Thats great economy too. I wouldnt expect it to handle like a sports car, bit hard when youre moving 2 tonnes around, buit I think it handles very well also for the type of vehicle. Cant remember if you got the AWD, and wonder if an AWD might haver different front end feel?. We will be taking ours up to QLD during Christmas and will try and get an idea on economy and driving.

Funny how it won people mover car of the year.... bit tough in the 4wd category having to go up against the land cruiser...otherwise Im sure it could have won that too

I think its a good idea to use higher octane like V-Power, Ultimate or Vortex, because you always seem to get better "kilometerage" using the better fuel and makes up for the extra cost. Weve only been using the Caltex Hi Octane I think its the Vortex, so I cant comment on consumption yet, plus weve only got just over 1000km on the clock. I also have an old Volvo 240 , dont laugh, I think its the best car in the world, but fuel consumption on normal unleaded is very bad I can almost see the needle moving, but when I run premium fuel I really notice a huge difference in the days between going to the petrol stations, I have no idea on the km's saving because my odomoter stopped working 8 years ago.

And welcome slow sam

Still waiting to see how our economy goes we are using Caltex Ultimate. One thing I noticed though is that you get much better fuel economy, or so it seems, if you use the cruise control on highways especially when going up hills. It seems to be a lot more gentle on the accelerator and the live fuel consumption bar graph is below maximum when going up hills, but when I drive it never drops below full scale???

Thanks Takahashi, It looks like another basic function Toyota forgot to include. The Camrys have it, so why did the Kluger miss out on it. I really think its an essential function because its so easy to speed you dont even realise how fast your going. But then again you might be right - the speed could be way over stated because I was thinking the same thing doing 80kmh and everyone was overtaking me real quick. Does everyone speed or is my speedo out???

Just wondering if any one knows if the new kluger has a speed alert or warning that you can set that will beep or chime once you reach a pre-set speed that you entered. Ive had a quick read of the instructions and played around with the display info but cant seem to find anything obvious.

Whats the advantage, is there any extra power gain or better fuel economy, cheaper? Wont void the warranty will it?

Sounds pretty good to me. I might be interested it just depends on cost, how dificult it is to adapt/install into the satnav unit and if its a generic MP3 compatiple interface or - by the sounds of it, may be only Ipod brand compatible because it allows to go into the ipod menu??-. I prefer Creative in the MP3 dept so if its creative compatible Id be very interested. Ive got to say Im a bit dissapointed in the limited functionality and adjustment of the sound system in the Kluger. I would have expected better equalisation controls, speakers and at the very least an auxillary input.

Looks like a nice day out.....great pics. I cant say weve pushed ours too much, I dont think the tacho has gone over 4k yet, but hope to give it a good run real soon, some nice bendy stuff. Not bad feul economy and I suppose it will only get better as things start to wear in. We took ours for a run down to the 'Gong on Sunday, but it was a real Sunday drive. I was almost sure our speedo was out it was reading approx 110km and felt like less than 80 until I wound it up just a bit to get a reading on those overhead speed warnings that picked us up okay. SO IS THIS NEW KLUGER UGLY :D......NO WAY!, infact the more I see on the road, the more they make all the other SUV's on the road look old, bland and outdated. They look a whole lot better in the persona than they do in pics.

Now I am thinking a way since the younger one (1 year old) does not seems to grap the concept of headphone. I think of a way to put the sound to the general speakers FM transmitter! Using the headphone plug to a transmitter and receive it in the FM radio. Perfect! Just have to find a strong one. Im really suprised as well that theres no auxillary input for the audio system. I think its available on the KX-S and R ?? not too sure though. So its dissapointing that its no available on the grande. More investigating may be required. I cant say Im a big fan of those cheap FM transmitters, their quality leaves a lot to be desired. They fade in and out and are prone to interference. Theyre a good idea and are an easy way to get your MP3 on the car audio but personally Ive put the few I tried into the round filing cabinet....LOL

Congrats on the new beast, we expect to see a pic soon. We got front and rear park assist also but cant comment too much as yet...still also trying to get used to them. Whatever happened to those wire parking (SENSORS) that they uesd to put on cars many years ago, you know those ones with the springy end and when you got to close to a gutter it would make an awful noise in the car while it was rubbing against the concrete gutter...?? Tried a DVD in the SATNAV unit but wouldnt recognise the DVD, so it would be very interesting to see what is required to get it to work. Funny thing though is I distinctly remember the salesman saying that you could play a DVD in there only when the car wasnt moving or in park??? I havnt been able to figure out how to do it so if anyone knows it would be handy. You might be able to do a little better, when youre really serious and ready to buy, cheque book in pocket ready to put down a deposit, thats when they should negotiate some more. If they gave you the best price so far then give them a go with a figure you have in mind and see where it ends up. Good price for the sunroof.

Hey Takahashi thats great to hear. I thought it should do well and looks like the Yanks were the fist to put it through their NCAP (obviously). I would still like to see results of Australian ANCAP when and if they do any tests as well as the EuroNCAP if they ever get sold in EU. But it shows how serious toyota were this time.

I might be biased, but If its in your price range then yes I do think its woth while going for the Grande. It has a few more creature comforts that make it quite convenient. A few that come to mind that I thought were great, Auto Dipping mirrors, SatNav, Bluetooth, electric power tailgate, rear entertainment DVD, and the best thing is the large 8" satnav screen that becomes your reversing camera monitor that makes everthing behind so clear and easy to see and even works fantastic in the dark. Not sure if the KX-S has the sunroof but if not thats another plus. But I am biased we picked ours up Thursday and totally love it. Attaced is a pic.

I hope you picked it up on schedule and are enjoying a nice long drive and "maybe have a sleep out tonight in the back, Im sure the wife and kids wont mind" Besides you have to read the manual and part of reading the manual is to practically try what it says, it could take a while. We want pics too.... PS Thanks for the quoting tip, Ill have to keep experimanting.

Cogratulations on the new car and may I say a very nice choice indeed. I will have to reserve my judgement on the handling until we take delivery of ours, but we test drove a few of them and had our hands on one for quite a few hours and I thought it was okay, its not like sports car handling, but hey what are we buying here. Im coming from an Alfa 156 and Ill be sacrificing a lot of the sport car benefits, but hopefully it wont be too bad. Like Takahashi said it may be a good thing to have a bit of roll, the safety features and dynamics would be taking this all into consideration, so it might be good to have a think of what the side effects might be before we starting to stiffen up the suspension ??. Hopefully the Toyota boys will have a sports setting they can dial up or upgrade to?. PS I still dont know how to use all the forum quote thingos yet......

A white EVO X towed by a Crystal White Kluger That is what I want, but prob not what I will get BTW, there is one sage colour in the lot today (I am loving the lunch break walk now). We can all dream..... That Sage doesnt look nowhere near as olive/green as I thought it would, I thought it was graphite when I first saw the pic. Is that rear window wiper really as small as it looks...I never payed that much attention to it before.

100 views and still no reply they must have all purchased Territories or something. 3/4 of the way through the first tank......still early day yet, very nice car. I would not like to drive it every day as its too big and slow compared to the XT. The wife and kids are happy thats the main thing......The center seat still concerns me on week one with 3 boys as luggage will be always in the boot section (wifes tool box). We came from a Berlina wagon huge tool box area and better middle seat. Any one else got a new one yet? Auto entry/start takes a bit of getting use to still go to turn the key off on the right side...makes the process very quick when starting in the morning. Got me scratching my head on the "0" response. Maybe there might be a few more around in the next few weeks seeing that there has just been a big delivery of them. However, I wouldnt call this the most active forum Ive seen thats for sure, and I was thinking if there was one with a little more activity especially with regards to Toyota SUV's. Anyway were still waiting, dealer confirmed its arrived and they should get it by the end of the week with an expected delivery of next Thursay. It would have been 2 months from order.

It is pearl white and it does look silvery under the Melbourne spring sun.. 2 colours for the price of one I keep going to the dealer which is just across the road..... What disc are you going to put in the audio. I think it will take anything so I am putting some TDKs... I used crappy CD-R for my RX-8's MP3 player and it never has trouble (tell you Mazda is using Pioneer with Bose speakers -- cheap ) Two colours for the price of one I would have sworn that was Silver from the top Bonet shot. Our is defiantly a BLUE ONE.... I bet you cant wait? Could be 4 colours for the price of one, I saw one in the showroom and as I was walking up to it I thought it was light blue and then from another angle it almost looked like a light purple. I saw a classic blue WRX today and noticed the similarities with the new Kluger Tidal Blue...... I was wondering why the colour had a familiar look to it.

looks very nice there takahasi. bet you cant wait. Is that the pearl white ? - it almost looks a bit silvery. It will be interesting to see what you think. Our dealer confirmed we should be getting ours next thursday.

If we could have a source of additional parts from the US it would be real good. I like the tail lights on the Hybrid but not too sure about the grille though. I think our Grande's might be more similar to the Hybrid??, but I think we still get more standard options on ours?? One thing I saw on the US site was that the Highlander has tyre pressure monitoring, is this correct? Not sure about the colours, I saw a white pearl KX-S in the showroom and it looked pretty good, also saw the graphite at some dealers and it looked pretty good too. I have to say my favourite out of the lot was graphite which is what we ordered, but I must say I saw a burgandy/red one yesterday and I liked it.

Looking Good there. I knew I should have convinced the Mrs to go for the bull bar though. looks goood.

maybe have a look at this link, not sure if it helps. http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=199700

Spot on boys, If you consider it and want to spend the money every car has potential to a certain degree. But when you start modifying and pushing with all that power things are going to break, your warranty is out the door and youll always have your hand in your wallet for one reason or another and you might start running into trouble with emission/environmental laws. Its not practical at all no matter what anyone says. No way the majority of people will base their decision on purchasing one or the other on the performance potential of an SUV. Anyway Ive read in one of the drive reviews that they actually think the new kluger is not that much slower than a tt and will give it run for its money in the performance area. Now thats really saying something about the overall kluger package, totally practical yet powerful enough straight off the showroom floor.

Congratulations PC XT, great to hear you picked it up on schedule. I guess youll need to spend a bit of time to get used to it and get the feel of it. Do you have a picture of it?, any plans for any additions?. I already have plans for our one addition and I think it will really set the look off and give the front a bit of a boost as well as enhancing driving on the long dark freeways and country roads. Two or three 8" Hella Rallye 2000 pencil beam spotties behind the front grill, it should fill up the back of the grill and hopefully not restrict too much air flow.