Taka

I doubt I can find it in my Grande. Should we write to Toyota as a group and get our cash back?

Not to spoil your fuel economy. There is a good and easy four wheel drive track at Halls Gap. I read about it in a book called 4WD track around Melbourne. Maybe you should check it out at Borders (I love the one on Ruddle St.)... or I can scan it for you.

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.

Thanks, I may want to directly copy to disk rather than making an image that I have done before. emmmmm... anyone in Melbourne who like to treat with coffee while I am making a copy of the V14 disc???

Monday, the day I pick up my car. That is their selling point. They have told me that before I sign the contact and in the contract they listed the car will be registered on the date of delivery ie the day you drive off drom dealership

Our car is registered on the date of delivery. Deliver time took less than a week anyway. In Thurs, Out next monday.

Thanks mate. Yeah I have done just a few things to the car. Now I finally broke the driver seat, and got permission to install a racing bucket seat. To balance the car, I will need to take the passenger seat off ... now it is really a race car! I am going to get a set of harness to it too. The RX-8 is not the most powerful car in the world, but it is a lot of fun around corners!

When I owned the RX-8, I was contacted by Whiteline personally to see if I can be in the R&D for the sway bar kit, and have a free one fitted as return. If I were in Sydney, I will bring my Kluger and see what they can do with it.

Highlander in New Zealand is Right hand drive??? I am sure you can put the rail in, but at what cost? I am not sure what is underneath the rail. I think there are bolts through them meaning to drill holes???? What do you have in the roof attachment area?

Yeah. No problem.

It is not a sports car but it at least should feel better than a Volvo??!?!? It is quite noticeable and so much so that there is not enough grip from the rear outer tyre when cornering. Hey I just realize it myself recently. A simple clever sway bar change will do it.... (I hope not spoiling the off road ability at the same time).

Some points up there I agree. But one thing I really need to solve is: The lean! If I lived in Sydney I will go to Whiteline and get the anti roll bar modified. Then suspension, too. There are ways to be it as soft and still cutting out the lean of the car while cornering.

me too. Fake wood vs fake carbon fibre hmmm... ;) ^_^

I put them out of sight on the top and in the middle of the black dots. No problem picking signals. So the eTag is in front of the rear mirror. You hardly see them (because it is behind mirror) and you cannot see them outside (because of the dots). The eTag in all my cars are in this position. Never had a problem.

The rear is not critical as we have the large screen rear camera. The front though maybe worthwhile

I have driven the XC90. They are not bad, but it will understeer and the turning circle is HORRIBLE! I cannot even get around the around abouts in Hawthorn without paying good attention. The car is great but no reverse camera it is hard to park. V6 engine is poo material and no power there at all. The diesel engine is great. X5 should be good, but who would pay $100K for it? I doubt most X5 owner pay for it outright anyway, their business prob pay for most of it!!

For towing. The same spec of Mazda CX-9 in the states is 3500lbs which is 1600kg (and the same goes for CX-7 in the state, which is 3500lbs = 1600kg in Australia). So in Australia, barring there are subtle differencees in the tow bar, should rate 1600kg not 2000kg. That is why I did not wait to look at the CX-9 and went to buy the Kluger. 2 tonne is heavy weight and I know it (just tow it recently to the country)...

$7000 can buy you a good DVD with lots of change left. But I don't think the change can get the 9 a smart entry, power tailgate, integrated bluetooth in the sat nav. Not to say they cost more to service and run, and I have reserved to tow my sport Mazda to racetrack. But I also want to own one.

Roxio, but I found that I could not get the full map. No route I can select to country town but the original work. The map works in Melbourne itself strange....

http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=232097 read the comment from summerwind he knows his Highlander inside out.

Where did you purchase the V14 software? And how much? I can run my V13 on a copied disc.... ;)

I use FM transmitter that connects to the headphone plugs. I prefer something that plugs to 12V since you don't want to pay for the battery price. Some hook a set of speakers on the rear DVD

No no no loading has nothing to do with the Kluger, more because my car is quite low. Prob I tow because I don't want Benalla police to see it as well. <_< Did not struggle. It will be slow to start but if you press the pedal it will work. The brake is strong enough to hold but I am gentle to it to avoid sudden stop. S4 is shift mode. Put that in gear and dial to 4. It will use lower gear as well but limit itself to 4th gear (and not using the top gear)

No it all time mechanical. Anyway Grande and CVX indicate they are talking about the old model. I have the link to the pdf somewhere. EDIT: There it is !!!! http://sumbiz03.home.comcast.net/HighlanderAWD.pdf

It was absolute a blast after a long rest of track days (4 moths since last one). I decided this time since I now own a Kluger with a tow bar this time and I would hire a trailer. The first mission was to find a trailer. Well there are many servo using Handy hire car trailer but it is really luck if you can find one clean and new - or maintained at some stage in the last 15 years . The Handy Hire depo is in Dandenong but you think it is a large company, think again. It looks like a junk yard more than anything... but the variety is huge. All sizes to choose from, and the guy is friendly. But it is in Dandenong ... and I am not sure it is close enough for the effort. Another one of the big chain is U-haul. They are great, on retrospect I should have hired it, and they are cheap... in Bayswater. They even have the full racing version for lowered car, but they are 1000kg in weight for I said forget it (think now I should have gone for it). Eventually I went for the Kennards, just because it is close to home (so I can return the trailer early in the morning too). BTW I live in Kew area, so if you know a nice car trailer to hire within 15km of drive - let me know. The trailer I hire is ~650kg. Now back to the trailing bit. I never tow a braked trailer before so it is a new experience. The guy at hire place load the trailer up for me. No drama. The empty trailer drives beautifully. I can look at the side mirror to see where the wheels are at. And the side sticks out about another width of the tyre. Not a huge deal. Loading the car up is a drama. Lock the brake first to make it secure, and I eventually rang the guy up and ask for advice. Lucky I have a slight hill (end of hill to a flat ground at home). So I place the car and the trailer on the flat ground (like in the above picture). The ramp will be on the slope (so the end of ramp is pretty much level to the flat bed of the trailer... get it?)... and this is the ONLY way to load the car up. Also find a hill to lower down. If you go to Sandown or Winton I can show you where it is. If you go to Phillip island then I forgot or don't know (but I am sure there is one). I brought 5 ties (4x550kg rated and 1x900kg rated). But I only used 3xsmall ones and use the big on one of the wheel closer to the car. Also the car is in gear and hand brake on fully. I hook the car up with the metal hook that comes with the trailer too! (too secure?) In terms of driving the trailer loaded, my sports car is about 1300kg.... so the total weight is just under 2 tonne. Power of the car make it easy. But I would advise to put some premium petrol in. I found normal driving if you put 98 Octane petrol the car feel zippier. Yes you need some extra power to get up the freeway hills. I manage to tow at 100kmh although some dude in Territory towing a boat is at the speed limit of 110kmh. I put the car in S4 mode since the owners manual recommends not to use the 5th gear. So the car happy go lucky at 2600rpm. At that rate, the car uses about 17L/100km of V Power. After the racing it is time to go home. The loading and tieing up cost half an hour to do this time. And driving back is easy! Prob because of wind, plus V power racing fuel that I did not use on the race track, or we are going at 100kmh not 105... ... The car average about 14.7L/100km on the way back. I still advise to drive very carefully and avoid ANY sudden turning of steering wheel, so play attention to the road and make the move more than twice earlier than normal driving. The steering really became firm on the car and although the trailer is very reactive to the car steering, you don't want the trailer to jack knife on you! Any thing else I should have said? It was a good experience and even my wife enjoyed it.