Ask The Guide

US-market pick-ups are usually much larger, longer vehicles than the popular dual-cab utes sold here. That’s how they can afford to have an adjustable rear seat that slides and tilts; there’s simply more real estate to work with. Our dual-cabs, meanwhile, already have a relatively small tub or tray, so making the cabin longer to allow for a sliding rear seat would make those load areas even smaller.

It’s worth noting that some of the utes sold here have much better rear-seat accommodation than others, but we take your point that the majority of them are pretty uncomfortable in the rear. It’s also worth noting that your 11-year-old will be a 12-year-old next year, and so on. And in our experience, teenagers don’t shrink as they get older.

A specialist seat maker might be able to create a sliding rear seat for you, but since it involves altering the passengers’ position relative to air-bags, side-intrusion bars and seat-belt mounting points, it would need to be fully engineered by the authorities before it could be used legally. Your insurance company may have concerns, also. The bottom line is one we’ve been pushing for a long time, now: Dual-cab utes, although popular, are not necessarily the best solution for every family.

Modern turbo-diesel engines absolutely hate having water enter the fuel system. It can cause lots and lots of damage and isn’t always fixed by simply changing the fuel filter and the contents of the tank. Sometimes injectors and even the high-pressure fuel pump itself will be damaged by the ingress of water. If that’s the case, then more work will be needed before the vehicle is safe to drive again, as you may wind up doing more harm to other components until the full scope of the water-damage has been diagnosed.

For that reason, you really should have the vehicle looked at by a specialist. A specialist workshop will be able to tall you what else needs fixing or replacing. A specialist will also be able to electronically cancel the limp-home mode and any check-engine lights once all is well.

A better idea would be to fix the sensor that’s creating the false alarms. That will probably be simpler and quicker than finding the right wire to cut or fuse to pull out, as well as maintaining the car’s legality. A car that doesn’t have all its safety equipment functioning properly is, technically, unroadworthy and if that fault can be blamed for any injury in a crash, then you could be in real trouble in a legal and insurance sense.

Don’t forget, too, that a car such as yours will usually have a sensor to determine whether the seat-belt is secured and another to determine if the passenger’s seat is occupied. Either of those could conceivably be causing your false alarm.

Toyota Australia is on record as saying that the business case for the plug-in hybrid version of the RAV4 doesn’t stack up in Australia. And while we never say never, it doesn’t look like that model will arrive here any time soon. Instead, Toyota has expressed plans to sell the all-electric bZ4X cross-over which is RAV 4-sized here, following its Japanese launch which is slated for mid next year. That means the bZ4X could be in local showrooms by the end of next year, but it will only be as a purely electric vehicle and not a plug-in hybrid (or a hybrid of any sort).

But it would be worth taking a RAV 4 Hybrid for a test drive as this car is selling up a storm and for good reason. It’s a terrific vehicle and seems right on point as far as its target market goes. The fact that it’s only moderately more expensive than a conventionally powered RAV 4 is just icing on the cake.

It sounds to me as though you’ve only talked – at this stage – to your Hyundai dealership. I’d be taking the time to contact Hyundai Australia’s customer service division and asking for a firm timetable of when the work will be carried out and when you can expect to be driving your own car again. There’s always the ACCC to talk to if you don’t get a satisfactory answer, but give Hyundai Australia the chance to make things right. Hyundai is a brand that is very serious about its reputation and sometimes enquiries at dealership level don’t always get straight through to head office.

You’re in luck, Elizabeth: The current trend towards SUV and cross-over vehicles means that the world’s car dealerships are now full of small hatchbacks that feature a high and mighty driving position. There’s literally no end of choice in this type of high-riding vehicle right now, so figure out your budget and choose a manufacturer you like as they’ll almost certainly have something that fits your criteria.

Even though this is a light commercial vehicle aimed at working folks, these later utilities are quite sophisticated in terms of their drivelines. Which is another way of saying that there are dozens of sensors and electronic control modules, all of which can give trouble. The powertrain light is trying to tell you that something is amiss under the bonnet and the lack of power is the symptom that goes with it.

An electronic scan of the car’s on-board computer is the first step in determining precisely what’s wrong and, as well as throwing up the root cause of the problem, is very likely to save you a lot of time and money in the long run. Replacing random parts in the hope that you’ve identified the correct one is a great way to waste hours and hours and lots of dollars.

Plenty of cars now feature hazard lights that turn on automatically when the driver applies the brakes hard. It’s designed simply to warn drivers behind that something is happening ahead of them and they should use caution (and slow down). The practice of drivers hitting their hazard flashers when slowing quickly on a freeway was one that has been going on for many years in Europe, and the automation of this warning system for following vehicles was a natural extension of the clever use of electronics. Essentially, when the car’s computer detects that the driver has braked to, or beyond, a predetermined threshold, it switches on the flashers.

The function is not a mandatory one on Australian-delivered vehicles, but it’s certainly one that you might consider when choosing you next new car.

The Holden Captiva’s problems started with the fact that it was a Daewoo with a Holden badge. Reliability was poor and build quality just as bad and, as a result, the car soon developed a reputation for being more trouble than it was worth. That view among many owners didn’t change as the car aged, either.

Common problems were timing chain failures in V6 versions, oil leaks and engine troubles in both diesel and petrol form, camshaft problems, diesel particulate Filter (DPF) failures and a range of random electrical and electronic dramas. Transmission failures are also not unknown but this was hardly the Captiva’s worst flaw. Fundamentally, the Captiva was a very ordinary car and not one that most buyers would be prepared to take on now that the true extent of its problems have been dissected by the trade.

The first sign of a blocked drainage system in a car is usually wet carpets. This, however, is not necessarily the result of a blocked plenum drain, as there are other causes including a blocked air-conditioning drain, a poor door or window seal and even a hole in the firewall between the engine bay and the passenger compartment.

In the case of a simple hole in the firewall, the solution is usually a rubber grommet which will cost a few cents and will sort things. For other leaks, however, you need to take the time to learn where the drain tubes live and ensure that they’re clear and free of mud or dust that could be blocking them, causing them to overflow into the cabin.

The other possibility is that the leak into the car is being caused by a faulty heater core which is allowing the engine’s coolant to escape. That’s a bigger fix as it usually involves removing the dashboard to access the heater core which then needs to be replaced. But if you’re lucky and it’s a simple blocked drain pipe, the drain holes for both the plenum and the air-conditioning drain should be visible on the firewall, below the windscreen. Undoing them and clearing them would be the first step to curing the problem.