Toyota Kluger

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We have just upgraded from our old 2004 Kluger CVX to a new Kluger 4X4 Grande, so in comparison there is a huge difference. The Grande handles well around town & eats up the country miles in comfort even on dirt roads. As with all Toyota's the Kluger is well known for its reliability, our last 2004 never missed a beat in 12 years & 220,000 Km, servicing costs are capped for 3 years or 100K. When considering purchasing a new vehicle we test drove the Sorento Platinum & the Kluger 4X4 Grande, but in the end it came down to what was more fun to drive, including all-round viability, handling, & emergency braking. The Sorento under emergency braking almost caused us to experience "Whiplash" as came to a neck jerking halt, whereas the Kluger stopped us strongly with causing any Whiplash what so ever. The engine & transmission are a dream, with plenty of power on demand, & Smooth changes of gears even under hard acceleration while passing, or accelerating up a steep hill. Just love the heated & cooled front seats & the overall quality of both the internal & external fittings, of course our 12 year old twins love the entertainment system with a decent sized DVD Screen located in the middle of the roof behind the front seat. Even better are the 3 cordless headphones that come as standard equipment on the Grande, meaning that both the driver & front seat passenger can have a conversation without having to shout over a movie playing on the DVD Screen. Only had it for a few weeks, but we have already fallen in love with it, & are sure that we made the right choice in purchasing the Kluger Grande over the Kia Sorento Platinum. Cheers & happy motoring, Ron K

Point to note before I start this review, I don't own the Kluger that I’m writing about, however I've spent 9 days living with one due to renting the vehicle. From the outside it looks ok, certainly not standout good looks that’s for sure but it’s not the ugliest thing running around either. Very Toyota neutral in looks if you ask me, however in saying that I’m not personally a fan of the bulbous round look. For its size it’s a very wide vehicle, and feels wider than my personal full size 4wd behind the wheel. One thing I particularly don’t like is the shape of the bonnet, each side has a high ridge and from the driver’s seat it makes judging where the front left is difficult as anything on the other side of the ridge is not visible. From the inside I found things continued to be typical Toyota, not really stand out of the pack material, but functional and does the job that’s asked of it. The dash is very functional, whilst at first I didn’t like the mid-level tray that’s built in, I did in the end appreciate the functionality of it being there. It’s a great spot to store phones, wallets etc… Being the GX version the entertainment unit is basic, but it was perfectly functional and I had no issues syncing my phone to it. My mine criticism of the dash layout is the air-con temp control as its too far to the left of the dash making it a bit of a stretch from the driver’s seat. The centre arm rest contains what can only be described as amongst the largest I’ve ever come across, it is simply huge. Big cup holders on the centre dash and more in the door pockets mean you’ll never go thirsty. I was pleasantly surprised with the drivers seating position and comfort. Visibility was acceptable and several stints of highway cruising for 2 1/2 hrs non-stop I was perfectly comfortable, more so that previous Toyotas that I’ve owned and driven. Due to the external width there’s no lack of the feel of space inside the Kluger and this width made easy work of installing 3 kids seats in the 2nd row. Basic rear air-con temp and fan adjustment is available for rear seat passengers which is a plus (unless they argue over the temp like my kids!) and there’s no shortage of storage space for drink bottles back there either. 2nd row seats can slide forward to give the 3rd row seats a bit of extra leg room. Speaking of the 3rd row, its nice and easy to put up and fold down. Its defiantly a space only for smaller kids as the legroom is limited. My nine year old could sit in there reasonably comfortably; however I feel that the seatbelt upper mount is too high (and not adjustable) which means the belt went over his neck and not his shoulder. There’s no child seat anchor points for the 3rd row so using a booster in this position is not an option either. Cargo space is very good with the 3rd row seats folded down. I would not be much less than some full size 4wds on the market. With the 3rd row up there is very little space available – but that applies to pretty much every SUV I’ve come across with three seating rows. No power outlet in the cargo area is a bit of a disappointment considering that I found three elsewhere in the Kluger (dash, centre console cubby box and at the bottom back of the centre console). I was quiet happy with the driveline combo. The engine has plenty of power for highway cruising and demolishes overtaking triple road trains with very little effort. The engine note is quite pleasant as well and pulls smoothly to 6000rpm. While the 6 speed auto does the job, I found it a little slow to change when in manual mode. I didn’t take any physical fuel consumption figures, however the dash readout has it hovering around 10L/100km when cruising at 110km/h Road noise I didn’t feel was all that flash (my personal car is 11 years old and is much quieter) and in all honesty I think Toyota could have done a better job to minimise it. Handling I was also a bit let down with, whilst it steered ok I found the body to wallow a bit on rough corners and it felt a little weird to be honest. Steering wheel weight is nice but I didn’t really feel like it was connected to anything as there wasn’t any feedback that I noticed (didn’t really push the boundaries of grip with it). All in all, I found the Kluger to be typical Toyota. It doesn’t set the world on fire but does the job that it was intended to do. I did find little things that I wouldn’t typically expect from Toyota build quality. The driver’s side wing mirror vibrated badly at highway speed, warning rumble strips setup a resonate vibration throughout the interior and I just didn’t get that nice solid thud when I shut the doors. Would I personally buy one? Most likely not, I’d want to check out the direct competition first before I decided it was the best.

Traded in a 2014 sr5 hilux due to a expanding family! I was really worried about loosing the grunt of the hilux! Bought 2015 GX 4x2. I absolutley love this car. Its incredibly spacious and has plenty of power and all round just a qaulity car. Highly reccomended! Durable, capped price servicing is cheap, the engine is responsive and breaking power top shelf. Very safe and reliable vehicle! Highway driving gets me 9.3ltrs per 100k. The car looks impressive, its a bit of a beast and sounds really good when you put the foot down. Vision is excellent and is easy for the wife to drive. Rear camera has good vision and sensors are placed well. Sound system does the job well and the space inside is excellent. The rear rail sliding seat is awesome for that extra room when the 7 seats are in play. The reclining rear seat is perfect for the kids on long trips. The rear cabin gets good aircon, which keeps the passengers comfortable. I fitted the factory tailored seat covers and they are excellent. The shelf beneath the stereo system is great, holds the phone and wallet well and the cord pass through eliminates the need for messy cords cluttering up the gear shift area. The entertainment system is easy to use and the handsfree options for music and phones is top shelf. For the money spent compring to other vehicles in its class, all round its an excellent buy and great value for money!

After weeks of research, the runners up were the Mazda CX9 GT and Toyota Kluger Grande. Having driven both, I found the Mazda CX9 not as sharp on the corners with a bit of under-steer, the engine sounding more like a 4 cylinder and overall I just couldn't see it as capable "off-road" as the Kluger. With a solid deal from Toyota on a ex Demo 2015 Kluger Grande AWD with 1100km's, I was sold. The price difference you ask? The Mazda CX9 GT ex demo also would have been 5K less. First days were quiet intense, so much technology to get your head around, 2 weeks later I am still reading the 2 300 page books to work out all the ins and outs. Good points: All Wheel Drive system (including electronically lockable center diff lock) Engine/exhaust note (considering the type of car) Handling (especially on corners) Height clearance for "off-road" (ideal considering its not a 4WD) Graphics/Options on instrument panel Steering feel/assistance is accurate Service cap for 3 years $180.00 per service including lubricants. Bad Points: No rain sensing wipers (should be standard at this level but this is not even an option) Factory front parking sensors are available only as a $400 option and are 2 head. 4 head are aftermarket option but neither of the 2 options incorporate into the graphics like the rear sensors do Slow opening/closing rear boot Unable to play video from USB or SDHC. So far tried mp4/mkv video formats on front/rear screens. Will update if I get any consistent results. Only composite video inputs (HDMI not an option) GPS/Entertainment unit is rather slow to respond to touches (fast compared to Jeep SRT) Spotlights have traditional globes Road noise on rough Australian roads is higher than what I would expect from a luxury car No proper moon roof offered as seen on U.S. model Sound system should be better at this level (listen to the Jeep SRT as a benchmark) I wasn't able to find many of the important points like the lack of rain sensing wipers in any of the reviews - perhaps it didn't rain at the time of testing, so I hope this helps.