Amazulu

You wouldn't want to do serious off-roading in it that's for sure. But as a general runabout that's good in sand for instance & can handle most dirt roads, it's great.

bondipom

Unlike the Ford territory and the Holden equivalent. Some tests were performed on unsealed roads with corrugations. The corrugations shook the instruments apart yet the car is advertised running around off road.

mr mover

Spoken like a true "van de merwe" .......................... mm

Bordy

Is it just me that can't see Superiors replies??? Not that I'm missing much.

NickyC

No, I noticed this the other day. Says last post by Superior - but when you get to the bottom, there's nothing. Not just on this thread either.

Not, that I'm bothered - I just wanted to see what he was ranting about this time!

soapy©

ive lost 3 nights sleep over this

lynnbrooks

thanx a lot, this is really excellent info and much appreciated.
I'm a bit shocked at the cost of cars,might get a tandem instead!....
If you are wanting to pay cash and not finance deals,can you 'barter or haggle' like in the u,k,?

lynnbrooks

Funny you should say that,this is one car i would love but could never quite manage the money for here without going for an old one,how much are they in oz?
What do they cost to run per year roughly,i.e.service,cost of a tyre etc.?

soapy©

you can do this with everything here. it adds to the fun too

lynnbrooks

My kids are 13,9 and 6 so thanx for that,i'll bear that in mind.
I take it it's the 4 door Rav4 your friend has got cos the 2door can't get a cat in the back...

lynnbrooks

I appreciate your comments,what would be your choice and would you consider going towards a people carrier for the room?,i realise these don't look as groovy as a 4x4 but peace in the back from my kids would win over looking cool...
lynn

RogerUK

Lynn
When are you flying? We are flying Newcastle-Melbourne on 4th April and live in Northumberland too!
Car choice for Oz is a Nissan X-Trail - has room, reliability, functionality and is easy and cheap to service and repair.
Roger

JackTheLad

No, not 'like' in the UK, ten times more here

We haggled about everything, all the extras thrown in, well below the market price just for basic. They kept doing the back and forth thing, going into the back office to "discuss it with Nissan OZ Headquarters" to see if they would be allowed to offer such a low price.

After all the shenanigans, we showed them the price they quoted us on the web (www.discountnewcars.com.au), which was lower than what they were offering us now, and funnily enough, they didn't need to discuss THAT with Nissan OZ HQ.

Oh haggle till they squeak here

Cheers,
JTL

Badge

The thing that would go against a people carrier for me in a less fiscally driven world is lack of power, and stability, to say nothing of robustness (I can not comment on this)

I don't see the point of the RAV4 - I'd rather get a Nissan X=Trail, kind of the next class up - with say the Patrol or the LandCruiser being in the top echelons. Hevs has already spoken of her X trail getting cramped but her husband is 2m tall. Class in terms of the all-round characteristics lumped in to approximate groups. I'm not even considering money here as I don't want to look status orientated and consumer driven.

For a small family I would rather get a large 4 or 6 wagon, prefably with 4x4 and standard air bags, for better handling in the wet. I would get a Scooby. Make sure you get a decent set of tyres all-round, if money is an issue put the best tyres on the front, but rear wheel drive (eg Ford and Holden - Pommies don't really do rear wheel drive anymore in normal cars) cars do oversteer. I insisted that my wife had the best tyres money could buy put on her Falcon sedan but it particarly applies to wagons. Make sure you have some weight of sorts over the rear wheels, esp in the wagon. The continental Europeans are a master of this in their Beemers(!)

If I needed a medium sized sedan for myself I would plump immediately for the 2.0(5)? litre Scooby RX with as many options as I could wangle. I love handling in medium sized cars over everything else. I'll never forget driving an old 1987 2.2L 130?bhp Audi Coupe one of the cars that instantly connected with me. I think it was about that, it had more power than other models which were only 118(?)bhp. I would never buy a medium sized car with less than 120bhp ever again. Forget the whiners, there is nothing wrong with ENOUGH power - you get more options, and sometimes overtaking is necessary and you need power here. The rest is down to skill, experience and luck. Medium size for me is the mids 80s BMW 3 series - I had a 1990 318i - handling wise one of the best cars of that power I have ever driven.

Don't be scared of the 6 cylinder Fords and Holdens they are good workhorses.8s are only needed for tradies pullling serious weight or hoons but you hear they are maybe more economical on the run. They are not as fuel thirsty as people would have you believe in real terms - driving at 80-100kph in Australia is significantly less thirsty than the wind -resistance-drag-factor/fuel use speeds effecting European drivers at 118-150kph. Noone ever seems to take this into account(!)

My wife's Falcon was bought because it had a shockingly low mileage, it has barely been run in, had all the options, and will last the 10 years that our kids will take to complain about leg room at a very comfortable cruise for long distances.

It uses up the same amount of fuel (ish) taking in to account on-a-run range as my old Pommy 1.8l Ford Sierra.

There you go, a pragmatic view as always. I do not pretend to be an expert so I am sure someone will come along and blow me out of the water with bhp vs torque curves and the rest of it which I can never quite get my head around!

Fiscal world turned back on:

I can see myself getting a people carrier anyway as I am always skint.

Badge

lynnbrooks

Wow! small world!.
We are in the process at tra stage, but i'm doing a reccie in nov to Perth,where are you going?
Thanx for the info on the x-trail,you would pick that over a people carrier?
Lynn