Kruzenvax

Thanks Scott. The sales guy in SuperCheap yesterday only managed to say "You've obviously got a new car" :D

As long as its clean, try not to drop it or get any grit into it.

Just got this fluffy lambswool mit is at any good?

Thanks

Thanks. Off to SuperCheapAuto :D

Hi yeah, wheel cleaner from Meguiars, and get a brush for your wheels too. DONT use the mit on the wheels! :)

Tire black just makes the tyres look shiny and new. (makes car look newer too.)

Whhel cleaner - also from Meguiars?

Always wondering why people black tires - e.g. this is just for good looking, right?

Thanks

You also want a cleaner for your wheels and some tire black.

Thanks Scott,

I'd like to leave the issue of waxing for now - apologies if it sounds rood; what I mean I'd like to complete the washing discussion 1st.

So I need:

- Meguiars NXT car wash

- Meguiars Quick Detailer

- bucket, sponge (for the wash) and chamois for wiping the water

- microfibre towels to use with Quick Detailer.

Would you mind if I ask you - what's the best way to clean the glass - from inside especially (fingers!!!!!!)

Thanks

Alex

I highly recommend the Meguiars products; http://www.meguiars.com.au/ Many car fanatics use this brand.

The NXT car wash and accompanying NXT Wax are the way to go; http://www.meguiars.com.au/productdetail_2...tect&show=1

THe NXT wax is good in that its a polish and wax in one, you wash the car, then apply this stuff in the direction of the car. Then go back to where you started and towel off the haze.

Generally, you only need do it at the change of each season, and should only take about an hour to do so. I bought a Mazda brand new a few years ago, and after putting the NXT wax on, the car paint looked even better if thats possible. The car was shiny enough being new, but the NXT made the paint look kind of wet all the time. (deeper colour or something)

The other thing you want is the Quick Detailer, its a lubricated cleaner that you can use to wipe off bird poop, bug splats etc, without having to wash your car. You just squirt some on, and use a cloth to wipe off. Really handy for removing spots between washes.

Other than that, get a bucket, a mit and a chamios to wipe the water off. Also get a few of the microfibre towels. THese can be used with both the NXT wax and the Quick Detailer. (not at the same time!)

Oh, and this sounds a bit like an ad - I dont work for Meguiars. :)

Could anybody please siggest the car care kit - e.g. car wash, glass cleaner, interior, etc? Suggesting the brand as well? What do I need apart from the hose, busket and sponge? I used to wash my car in car wash cafes... But with rupours water restrictions will be softened I might end up washing my Kluger muyself.

Thanks

My 1st thought on it was "why the hell didn't they allow the voice dial button to activate the phone screen instantly?". After all this is the only thing (e.g. phone) yoiu can controll with voice. Then I realised, perhaps in US models you can control more than a phone with the voice; in that case 2 buttons might make sense...

What I have noticed is - if I press the voice dial button on the steering wheel when GPS screen is on (and its on all the time ) - I get "Voice control is not avaliable on this screen" message (or similar). If I press the "handset up" button, or bring the phone screen forward by any other way, and then press voice dial, everything works fine. Is that normal?

True, but I don't deal with that kind of dealers anymore

My preferred trick is when I'm looking at a car with the missus I ask about colours and what interior would match, etc, while she asks about towing capacity and bluetooth connection... works magic on them.

And they all use that one... you'd think they'd get a new line. There's two ways around it. You can either:

a) Tell them that when they manage to sort something out to ring you, or:

B) Ask to deal with the boss directly, since the salesman has no idea what is going on...

I'd even say "Don't want to get a new car till I get rid of thsi demo, that we haven't been able to flog off, but we are paying for".

And as soon is the buyer mentiones the possibility of buying the demo model the little greed indicator inside turns amber and here comes the story "can't discount much, got to ask boss"

Now it seems that they are also going to try the old "Can't get your car for a while, but I have this great demo that we haven't been able to flog off" trick on you aswell!

100% agree. Same story here - 6-7 weeks promise, 3 delivery. Yes, it as Grande AWS as well, but 3 month seems excessive for any model. I suggest you go for a 2008 car, indicate you are NOT taking a "demo" model (that's how would I call that car) and ask to put a reasonable delivery time (say 8 weeks max) on a contract. I'd guess how long would it take for a dealr to back away from 12 weeks. And if he insists... go for another dealer.

Inless the car is alreafdy dscounted heavily - but 3k is not good enough IMHO... and the dealer should offer the discount 1st.

I had the same story... didnlt realise 1st why the dealer is pressing hard for a demo when he can sell a new car; then he admitted that they pay interest on demo cars. Needless to say got my 08 car from a different one, no dramas.

As you have pointed out, an 07 plated car is already one year old. If you bought it it would be worth about $8000-$10000 less than an 08 build. I certainly would not entertain it for less than $6000 off the new car price. I just took delivery of a Kluger Grande AWD, the dealer quoted 6 weeks delivery. They delivered it in 3 weeks. So providing you are flexible about the colour and configuration I am sure you could get one in less than a few weeks.

Thanks Taka,

That's a very useful info.

I have 36 psi now.

Alex

I was told my the defensive driving course (whose company started with an M....). I am not promoting them now since Kevin (whom I have known for a few years) is holding similar driving course. At least he is doing at lot of stunt courses

Having said that, it is common knowledge being pass on in any driving course I have been to.

The recommanded psi is aimed for comfort. But for safety you should get the tyres up to 36 psi for city and 40psi for highway. The reason being that even the modern technology of our tyres, the side wall is still relatively weak. Strong side wall tyres (the one more hardcore then sports, say R spec *semi slick tyres) will have disadvantage of road noise. New compound and thread now make it much stronger than ever before, but it is still not a substitute of good old fashion air power. The increase pressure will in fact flatten the rubber in contact with the ground. Hence, there is more rubber on the road.

If you want observe it more closely. Spray a patch of water in your street outside (Government forbid it in Vic so you use your bath water to do that). Have the car with underinflated tyres (say 25psi). You will see the side of the tyres will imprint more water and the tract of water will show you that, after your Kluger went over the paddle of water. If you overinflate (say 50 psi), you will see more imprint in the middle. Yes it is very subjective still, but that is the theory.

The reason of why they recommend 40psi on the highway? Well during high speed crusing, the tyre will heat up no matter what. The pressure will increase at the same time, to the same level despite the different amount of air you have in your tyre (so they said it will roughly be at 44psi while crusing). The amount of heat you generate is somehow in relation (although may not be in portion) to the amount of air inside of the tyre. So more air inside, the cooler the tyre will be. Logical since more air to absorb heat.

I use that theory in my track driving as well. So after every session I went back to the pits. My wife and i will measure the tyre surface temperature with a laser gun. If it is too low (for my tyre it will be 65 degree for best grip), then I will lower the pressure to get more heat to the tyre. The converse is also true.

Sorry that it is a long post but I am sure I can keep going on here.

Also wheel alignment it also important but I am sure it is a different topic all together.

Thanks Taka so you had abour 1900 kg behid in 35C and you did how many km's no drama?

Interesting and agree the transmission will suffer first in towing.

FYI, the day I went up to Benalla it was 35 degree C

Airbags?

I do a lot of country night driving and unfortunately, as careful as one can be, there is the occassional wild life road kill. Putting aside the personal risk/danger. the damage to the vehilce can be substantial. The nudge bar is just that, a nudge bar designed for urban driving and will not protect the occupants and/or the car but a bullbar such as the one on the attached picture may well do the job (I am not into offroad 4WD purely highways and country roads)

Any comments/views on pros and cons would be appreciated

I assume this works when driving?

Thanks

Can anyone give me any info on the voice recognision operation of the phone system in the Kluger Grande sat/nav?

In order to add a voice tag you must;

1. Select the number you want to add from the Phonebook,

2. Select Edit.

3. Press the double arrows point down the edit screen to get to the second screen.

4. Select the voice tag option

5. Select the Rec button.

6. Wait for the Voice asking you to say the voice label you want added

7. Wait for acknowledgement acceptance.

Yep. I can't tow for another 700 km's but I hooked by boat in the garage - the car looks as solid as a rock. 200kg's of dowinforce is great.

But I won't be surprised if Toyota releases some cooling accessory here sooner or later.

BTW 5000 lb is about 2267 kg's? So with this kit (in US) towing capacity goes up by 267 kg?

I don't mind extra cooling, but the car is towing fine within the towing capacity.

Thanks guys.

So, against 32 recommended psi's I have 36 and 38. Guess I'll be doing that instead of 32. Now need to inflate them back

Taka, what about the defense driving course - e.g. how is related to tire pressure if you don't mind?

Thanks

Manual specifies 210-220 kPa (for all models). WHen mine cam from the dealer all 4 had about 250 kpA. So what's the right pressure?

Thanks

Still some extra cooling is a nice when towing a boat a lot. I guess...

Would love to get this!

For the US Highlander, they offer the following option for towing.

Towing Prep Package [3]:

l 5000-lb. towing capacity

l Heavy-duty radiator with engine oil cooler

l 200-watt fan coupling

l Transmission oil cooler with water cooler

l 150-amp alternator and prewired harness

Do they offer this here as well when fitting a tow bar?

Is it necessary or would it be a good idea?

Would not like to pay for this its oviously a yanky over kill!

For carring a big V8 mussle car not a nibble RX8 .....LOL

Bigger isnt always better

Would love to get this!

For the US Highlander, they offer the following option for towing.

Towing Prep Package [3]:

l 5000-lb. towing capacity

l Heavy-duty radiator with engine oil cooler

l 200-watt fan coupling

l Transmission oil cooler with water cooler

l 150-amp alternator and prewired harness

Do they offer this here as well when fitting a tow bar?

Is it necessary or would it be a good idea?

Well, dash mat is not on Toyota accessory list and Toyota's fllor mats are made of kind of velour or something - easy to spoil. DOes anybody know where to buy dashmat and rubber floor mats (similar to the cargo mat)?

Thanks

Alex

My experience is that professionalism of the dealer does not depend on age. And I've purchased my Kluger from the most preofessional and helpful dealer, not the biggest caryard or most talk. Happy to recommend him (PM or something, he is in Sydney). And I believe that is how it should be. Some notes:

1) Greeted my wife - othe rdealers were not even noticing her

2) Organised a long test drive of exactly the model I wanted. Other dealers were like "the model you want is so popular/unpopular (depending on the dealer story) you can't have it for a drive. Drive the one we have).

What they didn't realise that with that approach I'll never get OK from the missus!

3) Answer all technical questions (except one). For ones he didn't know the answer he didn't lie and got back to me with the answers the same day

4) Gave me an honest trade in price. (I got less from the dealer who was selling and servicing all my cars for the last 8 years and was claiming "this is special for you only").

5) Managed well a non-Toyota extra (iPod interface). Isolated me from all the hassles (when I took the car iPod adapter was there along with all manuals for the adpater and working straight away, done exactly how I wanted it), yet providing me details of the car sound guy should I have any need to talk to him myself.

6) Car arrived one week earlier than he predicted initially; he gave me enough notice about it though.

7) He notified me about the pick up time 2 weeks upfront (e.g. "Friday in 2 weeks 4 pm). 2 weeks later on Friday 4 pm the car was waiting for me with all the paperwork as ordered.

So rare these days...

Unresolved "rolled by Wheels magazine" story... :D

In all fairness, I don't think it is realistic to expect car satnav to have the same flexibility/functionality as portable units. After all, TomTom is a minicomputer running linux with the power that exeeds some desktop PC's 10-15 years ago. So you can have ant functionality you want on top of just GPS traking.

Car satnav, AFAIK is firmware based, integrated with the rest of car electronics, has to be simple.

Totally agree. I have an 'old' Garmin 276C which is basically a marine unit but which can also accomodate Garmin City Navigator Australia software which is far superior to Toyota software in just about every way you care to imagine and which I can interface with my laptop. Why not the Toyota software (USB memory or cable)? This would not be an expensive option

You see the sat nav can have input signal to the sat nav and calculate the distance you travel and hence even you are inside the domain tunnel, it will still show where you are

Lost you here. Are we talking about satnav interacting with the car (e.g. speed, direction) etc - so it estimates the position based on that when the satellite signal is lost? If yes - GO920 has a EPT thing (gyroscope, etc) that does the same thing - as far as I hear - nicely.

The same as receiver; they get better each day even in portable units.

That is true. The GPS receiver in the portable may not be updating the data very well. I think they can be improved on reception strength and update rate. Most are using 1Hz update (so your car position will update every second).

The Toyota sat nav looks like it is way stronger than portable in the undercover car park and update much quicker on the road, although we could be fooled by the software tricks. You see the sat nav can have input signal to the sat nav and calculate the distance you travel and hence even you are inside the domain tunnel, it will still show where you are.

One thing I really don't think the Toyota sat nav. It is that I cannot custom my poi. You see i have a full set of fixed and mobile speed camera for my garmin.

I have all cameras in my TomTom (actually 2 sets - one from natove maps and one that I have uploaded). It even shows the speed limit on the camera (not variable - e.g. 40 school zone). And all sorts of stuff including speed warnings, estimated ToA, etc. Bottomine - its nice to have 2 satnaves just in case but if I'm limited to only one I'd vote for the protable!