Landcruiser Prado or a Freddy Kluger...?

[units4me]

As far as versatility goes in terms of carrying people and luggage, it's hard to beat people movers.

We did a couple of day trips about 7 or 8 years ago in our cars with some friends to the canneries at Shepparton.

First trip was in our then Kia Carnival 7 seater, heaps of room for the seven of us and still room in the back for all our (heaps) of purchases.

Second trip about six months later was in their Nissan Patrol 7 seater, plenty of room in the front and middle seats, back row was really cramped and access was bad. Also, bugger all room for our purchases either in the back or under seats, we ended up carrying boxes on our laps.

Don't get me wrong, 4wds have their uses, but if you're after space for kids/friends/holiday gear, go have a look at at odyssey, carnival, voyager, grandis, tarago etc.

 

[wylie]

I particularly dislike that my very safe 4WD is rendered unsafe if I am in an accident with a huge, high riding mack truck that comes at me through the windscreen rather than hitting me whre the extra safety is, in the side panels. But at least I'm a lot safer when that P plater in a turbo charged pimp mobile tries to take my family out.

Aint nothing going to save you if you are up against a Mack.

 

[lizzie]

My old man used to pull a 21 ft Caravan with a six cylinder car in the 70's and a 21 ft fiberglass powerboat with a six cylinder car in the 80's.

we did pull the boat for a while with the holden comm station wagon, but it was hard work on the car, the cars are a lot lighter than they were in the olden days

... then we had another kid and couldn't fit them all in the car (the oldest were over the legal age limit for a dicky seat in the boot and illegal to put a baby capsule in a dicky seat) ... we looked at the van's but nothinbg had the towing capacity.

i agree that a lot of people drive 4wd's for no other reason than it gives them a better view of the road - personally i'm looking at trading my toyota corolla for something even smaller.

 

[Nathan]

Landcruiser.

 

[Aaron Sice]

I just trade my Subaru Forester for an 05 Pathfinder, turbo diesel, 7 seat, automatic.

cost $35k with about 71 thou on the clock.

easily the most powerful turbo diesel i've ever driven in a 4WD and is very economical to boot. i did over 150kays yesterday and used just over a needle width of fuel.

is big, comfy and fits easily my 2 rugrats with another on the way and there's still room for another 2 adults - comfortably.

 

[silversands]

Yay! There you go Kegger. Blue card seconds my earlier plug for the pathfinder! Take one for a test drive, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

 

[kegger]

ok ok, might go look at the pathfinder...

would be interested in how many litres a 'needle width' of fuel is ?

Any rough ideas ?

Cheers

 

[Sim]

There's a great forum about Prado's at http://www.pradopoint.com/

 

[sue78]

hiya,

we just went through the whole exercise of finding a car wide enough to fit 3 baby seats.

do you want 5 seater or 7 seater?

we've rented a prado before and the 2 back seats are small and very uuncomrfortable and you lose all the boot space. It's also illegal to put baby seats in the two back seats i believe. Most 4WD 7 seaters don't have child restraints on the 2 backseats.

my friends have 2 kids in car seats in the third row, 1 baby seat in the middle row...makes it easier then if there are extra adults they can sit in the middle but the down side is that she has no boot space and it's a nightmare.

after all that we decided we didn't want a 7 seater car. now it was a matter of find a wide car. I think the wagons, toyota aurion, new honda accord etc are all pretty good.

the best would be the new Ford mondeo, it's fuel efficient, a hatchback so the boot is huge and all the back seats can be folded forward too and the width of the back is 186cm wide so big enough to fit 3 X Safe n Sound Meridians if needed. There's a new regulation coming out soon that states all children under 4 needs to be in 5 point harness. Lots of parents usually put their 2y.r in a booster once 2nd baby comes along. brand new is about $35k before discount, it's the safest car on the market and huge list of features inc front and reverse park sensors. Votes best med sized car in Europe. There's a real lack of med sized cars atm.

we decided on a honda crv. it's only 182cm wide but boot space is bigger and i wanted high driving position.

Diesel is so expensive that financially you really aren't any better off and you can bet the govt will follow UK and introduce carbon tax.

petrol s $1.42 today

 

[sue78]

hiya,

we just went through the whole exercise of finding a car wide enough to fit 2baby seats.

do you want 5 seater or 7 seater?

we've rented a prado before and the 2 back seats are small and very uuncomrfortable and you lose all the boot space. It's also illegal to put baby seats in the two back seats i believe. Most 4WD 7 seaters don't have child restraints on the 2 backseats.

my friends have 2 kids in car seats in the third row, 1 baby seat in the middle row...makes it easier then if there are extra adults they can sit in the middle but the down side is that she has no boot space and it's a nightmare.

after all that we decided we didn't want a 7 seater car. now it was a matter of find a wide car. I think the wagons, toyota aurion, new honda accord etc are all pretty good.

the best would be the new Ford mondeo, it's fuel efficient, a hatchback so the boot is huge and all the back seats can be folded forward too and the width of the back is 186cm wide so big enough to fit 3 X Safe n Sound Meridians if needed. There's a new regulation coming out soon that states all children under 4 needs to be in 5 point harness. Lots of parents usually put their 2y.r in a booster once 2nd baby comes along. brand new is about $35k before discount, it's the safest car on the market and huge list of features inc front and reverse park sensors. Votes best med sized car in Europe. There's a real lack of med sized cars atm.

we decided on a honda crv. it's only 182cm wide but boot space is bigger and i wanted high driving position.

Diesel is so expensive that financially you really aren't any better off and you can bet the govt will follow UK and introduce carbon tax.

petrol s $1.42 today

 

[silversands]

Hi, We get an average of 760kms to a tank. (80Ltr) Does that help?
Slightly more when long distance driving.