You may guess what this means. Skippy Schwartzenegger leapt in front of the Santa Fe and, boom, busted front bar, grill, power steering cooler, condenser and transmission cooler. Trans fluid was spraying out through the grille, so onto a tilt tray and us into Hertz for another replacement car. This time its a Prado.
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So how is it?
Well, its a truck, but a very nice truck. Its roomy, and not rattly at all and fairly comfy. It is only 2 years old and only has 60,000ks up, so should till be tight too.
But there is a lot of weight, half a tonne more than the Santa Fe. Its 2.8 common rail motor has less power and torque than the Santa's 2.2, so its slower to get moving. Its got more inertia, so turns in a bit later, and needs the brakes sooner to stop on the same spot. Those big wheels skip and thump more, and the tread on smooth concrete makes it sound like you're in a jet. For $62,000 it has no more safety aids than our 11 year old Santa, so thats a dissapointment, but it does have 3 zone cliamate control and some stuff I dont need like the phone bluetoothy hooky thing. It only has a single disc player, and it has a touch screen. (I'm not a fan, because I cant feel my way to changing the radio station. I have to stop to do that. I must be old.)
Worst of all, its averaging 10l/100ks, 2 more than the Santa. Too thirsty.
So no, I wouldn't buy one. We do 30,000ks a year, so economy matters.
Once again I am grateful to AAMI, there were no power steer oil coolers in the country, so we have had this big wagon for 6 weeks so far for free, and probably another one. Absolute bargain!
Very happy campers.
Cheers, Matt.
Gerry