Glad I didn't choose that Kluger

[grahill]

There are now a few Territories getting around in our small community, and apart from one, all love there's (including myself and my wife). The one Territory owner that has reservations is mainly caused from poor service from the local Ford dealer. He has had the cruise fail on him, hard pulling to the left, sterring vibration and a window edge treatment coming off from the rear window. He took his Territory in for a fix on everything, and the pulling to the left still hasn't been solved, but more interestingly is the cruise. The service agent hadn't fixed a cruise in a Territory before and chose to keep it for a couple of days. The owner couldn't do that and asked for it to be fixed that day. The dealer then proceeded to bring in their personal TX Territory (which has cruise) and swap the parts with the GHIA model. They had lots of trouble and parts didn't exactly go back together, when finally it still didn't work. The frustrated owner said "did you call Ford?" They hadn't, and proceeded to do so, only to find out that it was a brake pedal adjustment on the cruise cut off switch. Hmmmmm. little tweak, and all was working. It only left the re-swapping of parts to finally get it working again.

Apparently he was told that the pulling to the left may have a fix from Ford in a couple of months.

As for a Kluger owner! One has had a complete transmission failure. They got it back to Toyota and was given a crappy loan car for 6 days. The owners weren't too happy with that, but managed. Went back and got their car, only to break down again, only 20km's from home. It has now been fixed (touch metal) and the owners are furious. Such a new car with major problems. They now feel very untrusting of it and have decided to leave it in the shed, use their farm vehicles where ever possible and only use the Kluger when absolutely necessary. After harvest (if it is a good year), they are getting rid of it.

So an interesting comparison between them. Oh no Adventuras in this whole area to compare with. I know both have faults, but Ford seems to be following up on theres a lot better than secret Toyota.


.

[Ouzo]

Shock/horror - all Toyotas are not perfect!! Take note Fordless. (if you still monitor threse threads)
Thanks Grahill for some confirmation that I made the right decision. I anguished over the Terri versus Kluger but in the end was swung by the superior package and interior room offered by the Terri. 14,000 kms later and there are certainly no regrets on my part. Wonderful car - even the fuel consumption (now consistently 13.5l/100k) has delighted me.

[b2tf]

The latest wheels mag also has a writeup on Terry compared to Adventra V6. I dont need to tell you what won.

[Ubdevoid]

There are now a few Territories getting around in our small community, and apart from one, all love there's (including myself and my wife). The one Territory owner that has reservations is mainly caused from poor service from the local Ford dealer. He has had the cruise fail on him, hard pulling to the left, sterring vibration and a window edge treatment coming off from the rear window. He took his Territory in for a fix on everything, and the pulling to the left still hasn't been solved, but more interestingly is the cruise. The service agent hadn't fixed a cruise in a Territory before and chose to keep it for a couple of days. The owner couldn't do that and asked for it to be fixed that day. The dealer then proceeded to bring in their personal TX Territory (which has cruise) and swap the parts with the GHIA model. They had lots of trouble and parts didn't exactly go back together, when finally it still didn't work. The frustrated owner said "did you call Ford?" They hadn't, and proceeded to do so, only to find out that it was a brake pedal adjustment on the cruise cut off switch. Hmmmmm. little tweak, and all was working. It only left the re-swapping of parts to finally get it working again.

Apparently he was told that the pulling to the left may have a fix from Ford in a couple of months.

As for a Kluger owner! One has had a complete transmission failure. They got it back to Toyota and was given a crappy loan car for 6 days. The owners weren't too happy with that, but managed. Went back and got their car, only to break down again, only 20km's from home. It has now been fixed (touch metal) and the owners are furious. Such a new car with major problems. They now feel very untrusting of it and have decided to leave it in the shed, use their farm vehicles where ever possible and only use the Kluger when absolutely necessary. After harvest (if it is a good year), they are getting rid of it.

So an interesting comparison between them. Oh no Adventuras in this whole area to compare with. I know both have faults, but Ford seems to be following up on theres a lot better than secret Toyota.


.


Do a searcrh on JD POwers for Toyota Highlander and see how many awards it has won. Your "story" is obviously a lovely piece of fiction. Thanks for the laugh,

[MR_SIDO]

Ubdevoid........for your first posts, all i have read is BS,(here and in another Thread) everybody here is entitled to an opinion, how can you honestly say that grahill's story is fiction??? Do you know this for sure? Or has Toyota brainwashed you too? Obviously Toyota's in your opinion can never have troubles, so before you flame someone on this thread, have a think about what you type, dont be so quick to discredit someone. I can tell you now, every manufacturer will have issus with their vehicles, it does not matter who they are, its how these issues are handled by the dealer and the manufacturer that ultimatly decides the customers perspective of their vehicle. You will not get far in these forums with the mindless drivell that I have seen so far. :box:

[Ouzo]

Don't you get it Mr Sido - Toyotas never break down and never have quality control problems. Ubdevoid is of course a totally unbiased Prado driver.

[new2ford]

Ho hum - not another one. Where does Toyota find them and why do they have to be attracted to this forum? Here we go again: quote from www.productreview.com.au about one Kluger owner's high level of satisfaction:

"Sadly, I have a dreadful lemon, which Toyota is seemingly incapable of fixing. The main problem is a shocker of a transmission and ECU (control computer) which have an appalling hesitation. At certain speeds, but especially at about 30kph, when I give the accelerator about 50% or more power, the transmission just sits there for 2 seconds, then revs to 5000rpm, sometimes without engaging, and then finally it bangs into gear with a huge jolt. The problem occurs to varying degrees every day, but can be somewhat unpredictable. At slower speeds, say at about 5 to 10km/hr, the hesitation when changing gears makes it impossible to drive smoothly. It also has problems with engine surging. As this car is supposed to have class-leading smoothness, I am naturally not a happy camper. I consider the transmission hesitation to be a serious safety issue, and have had to change my driving style to allow for the dreadful and unpredictable responsiveness. I have driven several other Klugers, one of which had a bad hesitation, and two others which seemed ok. It is not an issue with the adaptive transmission learning my driving style - everyone who drives it has the same problem. My wife now refuses to drive it. It has been to the dealer 5 times and they are unable to do anything. The dealer was so concerned he called in the Toyota area rep who refused to acknowledge it as a problem, calling it a "normal operating characteristic". I have since learned that this is a well known problem in the US and Toyota (and Lexus) have been trying to find a fix since 2002. They nonetheless continually refuse to acknowledge it as a problem, but have had to replace several cars in the US under lemon laws and arbitration. The US NHTSA is currently considering a major investigation into the problem, as they have received so many complaints.

Overall: I realise that the vast majority of Klugers (and Highlanders in the US) do not have this problem, or perhaps only very mild transmission hesitation. Please be warned however that if you are unlucky enough to get a car with this problem (and many have), Toyota just doesn't want to know you. This is a problem posing serious driveability challenges, and in my opinion, is a very real safety issue. Sometimes, you just have to accelerate quickly. In my car, you can just sit there for two seconds before it does anything. If the transmission on my car was fixed, I would happily recommend it. But until Toyota can work out what the problem is, and fix it, there is no way I would buy one again. It is that big a deal."

[paulvdb]

Do a searcrh on JD POwers for Toyota Highlander and see how many awards it has won. Your "story" is obviously a lovely piece of fiction. Thanks for the laugh,
Do a search in http://autos.msn.com/research/userreviews/reviewlist.aspx?modelid=11044&trimid=-1&src=VIP&tab=4&sub=2.

Out of 106 personal reviews around 20% talked about the acceleration fault, heaps talked about the wind-noise problem, there were a number of concerns about oil-sludge, a number of reports about ordinary car audio, and a lot of concerns about ordinary fuel economy (20mpg - 14l/100). Yes - there also a lot of happy owners but it's obviously not a perfect car. Awards are one thing - actual user responses are another.

Re JDPower checked out http://www.jdpower.com/cc/auto/jdpa_ratings/FindJdAwardsResults.jsp as per your recommendation for the 2004 Highlander. 3 stars out of 5 for overall quality, performance and comfort. 2 stars for style and appeal :nana: These results are significantly lower than the 2003 model - maybe Toyota is losing the plot a bit.

[Laminge]

I have my Kluger for a year

Never taken it for a service, driven 28000ks, drove it QLD and around fraser for 2 days, abuse the absolute hell out of it, and havent missed a beat in a day!

Obviously there are lemons in any car range!

[udbevoid]

I have my Kluger for a year

Never taken it for a service, driven 28000ks, drove it QLD and around fraser for 2 days, abuse the absolute hell out of it, and havent missed a beat in a day!

Obviously there are lemons in any car range!


EXACTLY !!!

BULLET PROOF !!!

and with the same mechanicals being used primarily in the new Lexus R400H and 05 Highlander Hybrid the car is a rock !

[rag top]

EXACTLY !!!

BULLET PROOF !!!

and with the same mechanicals being used primarily in the new Lexus R400H and 05 Highlander Hybrid the car is a rock !

i wouldn't call them a "rock"... :monkes:
Rocks get towed as they don't have their own power. :mrsparkle
They are heavy, and not always attractive. :whip:

[XA-Coupe]

Shock/horror - all Toyotas are not perfect!! Take note Fordless. (if you still monitor threse threads)


he has posted in this thread. I would have thought that he would have got the idea that he is not wanted.. I guess he isn't that sharp.

[grahill]

I love writing fiction and giving people laughs. Glad to see I live in Australia and am entitled to my opinion. I won't even get offended! (In fact I also laughed at the stabbing reply).

The information is fact, and I also agree that not every car is perfect. If you also read the original post, there was a Territory with a few problems as well. The fact is that some of the transmissions of the Klugers do have a problem, and need some sorting out.

It is also fact that another local 4x4 dual cab Hilux has had three manual transmissions in just over 160,000km's. Seems a little too many gear boxes to me! My recent Fairmont cars (2 of them) have not had a transmission in that same time, and one of my older ones (not far from here) is well over 300,000km's and still hasn't had a changeover yet. Why do you think that 98 percent of Taxi's are Falcon/Ford? It is because they go and go, and parts are cheap. (Not to mention Ford incentives and taxi packs being offered as well). Get into a taxi next time and ask how many transmissions, engines and kilometres some of them have done. You'll be possibly surprised that most will be 300,000 between engines and transimissions (city driving and thrashing). Brakes , exhausts etc are consumables and don't count.

I'll report major problems with the Territory as well, and maybe with a few more km's there may be some arise, but hopefully not.

Like with any new model, it oftens takes a couple of update releases (Mark I and II) before a lot of the problems are ironed out.

. :jester:

[Brent-EA Ghia]

Hey grahill, I think you'll find some of the AU's making it over the million on the original engine, as working on them have noticed a few close already. I still havent done a headgasket on an AU (I know some have been done) but nearly loosing count on the E-series, Its a part or the regular maintanence i reckon, but yeah the AU's are going good!

Brent.

[grahill]

Hey grahill, I think you'll find some of the AU's making it over the million on the original engine, as working on them have noticed a few close already. I still havent done a headgasket on an AU (I know some have been done) but nearly loosing count on the E-series, Its a part or the regular maintanence i reckon, but yeah the AU's are going good!

Brent.

Thanks for that piece of info. Have recently owned an EBII (Falcon) and still going strong not too far from here, an EFII (Fairmont) and hated it (head gasket, airconditioning compressor, exhaust manifold, brake rotors, window winders, door locks, headlights (plastic went yellow), digital display, rust near the door hinges, transmission. Finally to our more recent car (apart from the Territory) we decided to keep that AU Fairmont and is the best yet by far. I'd agree with the reliability factor of the AU's. I'd also add to your comments, cheap running costs and parts and servicing also cheap. Pity about the looks though, but key it didn't worry us, we scored a good bargain.

PS for the readers who are confused, "That cutting remark has been deleted"

[TX Terrie]

One million k's seems amazing. Hope the TX goes that far.

[new2ford]

It is also fact that another local 4x4 dual cab Hilux has had three manual transmissions in just over 160,000km's. Seems a little too many gear boxes to me! My recent Fairmont cars (2 of them) have not had a transmission in that same time, and one of my older ones (not far from here) is well over 300,000km's and still hasn't had a changeover yet. Why do you think that 98 percent of Taxi's are Falcon/Ford? It is because they go and go, and parts are cheap. (Not to mention Ford incentives and taxi packs being offered as well). Get into a taxi next time and ask how many transmissions, engines and kilometres some of them have done. You'll be possibly surprised that most will be 300,000 between engines and transimissions (city driving and thrashing). Brakes , exhausts etc are consumables and don't count.

That's what I like to hear. Just like with 4WDs you ask which one the Army relies on, with a car it's which one is being used as a taxi. I had some reservations about the Falcon engine in the Terri (not least being its occasional breathlessness with 2 tonnes to pull) but one reservation I didn't have is how solid and long-lasting it would be. I wonder how long some of those wonder V6s in the Japanese ones will last? (Though I have to say the V6 in my '92 VP Commodore was still rock solid at 220,000 when I left it for the Terri.) We're hoping to keep our Territory for quite a few years (much to the consternation of the dealer) so I'll let you know how she's going at the million. Have to say though that an engine is in its happiest environment in a taxi (always running warm) - that helps too.

[paulvdb]

Have to say though that an engine is in its happiest environment in a taxi (always running warm) - that helps too.

Yes but look at how the average cabbie drives the thing. On/off accelerator action, dawdling through streets looking for a ride, missed services. If an engine can survive that environment, it can survive anything.