Ask The Guide

So, going by your description, the engine has only just started before the vehicle rolls downhill to the first intersection. So the engine has only been running for a few seconds, and then only at idle. It’s possible that the transmission pump hasn’t had time to build up enough pressure to fill the accumulators to eliminate any slack in the shifting clutches and bands. Which could, on the odd occasion, produce a clunk when you hit the throttle for the first time on a cold transmission.

Honestly, though, this is a problem you see more in older cars with worn transmissions, and I wouldn’t expect it from a 2019 Ranger.

But let me ask you a question: Is the vehicle lifted on its suspension? Many Ranger owners opt to raise their cars for greater off-road performance, but this changes the angle of the driveshaft and can cause precisely the shudder you’ve described. The fix is to fit a spacer between the car’s body and the centre-bearing of the driveshaft. That corrects the angle of the driveshaft and stops the shudders.

This was a definitely a big deal in the US where I think the figure was more like 600,000-plus Accords being recalled to fix the problem. The symptom is a sudden loss of power-assistance to the steering wheel and, while the car can still be steered (the mechanical link remains intact) it can be quite a surprise when it happens. Steering the car also requires much more effort from the driver and some older or smaller drivers simply may not be able to summon up the required brute strength. That said, adrenalin can do wonderful things!

Honda Australia did actually recall a batch of Accords in Australia in March 2011 for power-steering problems, but that was to check and replace a hydraulic power-steering fluid hose that could crack and leak into the engine bay. If the leak was bad enough for long enough, the car could conceivably run out of fluid at which point power assistance would be lost (if the car hadn’t caught fire in the meantime).

But since your problem seems to re-set itself when you turn the car off and then back on, I’d say it’s electronic; either the computer, the wiring of the electric assistance motor itself. Taking it to a Honda dealer pronto is definitely the smart thing to do.

As part of the Volkswagen family, Skoda cars suffer from the same reliability cloud hanging over them in terms of transmission and electrical problems. The era of Skoda you’re shopping for was also one of the most problematic for such maladies, too, so just because your friend’s car has been perfect, doesn’t mean the next one will behave the same.

The Subaru XV is generally regarded as a more reliable long-term prospect but you’re right in suspecting that it will use a little more fuel. Depending on what engine the Fabia is fitted with, the official combined fuel consumption can be as low as 5.3 litres per 100km, while the XV’s will be anything from 7.0 litres and up. That’s mainly to do with the Subaru’s all-wheel-drive which makes the car heavier and requires more fuel to overcome the drag and friction of driving twice as many wheels and axles.

The pay-off is in the superb grip offered by the Subaru’s all-wheel-drive which gives it an active safety edge over two-wheel-drive cars on less than perfect surfaces. However, if fuel efficiency is your holy grail, then a Subaru might be a disappointment.

It would be very rare for a facelifted version of a car to be less expensive than the one it replaces, Imran and, on balance, the upgrade model usually costs a little more based on more features. At the moment, though, there’s no word on exactly when the facelifted Tiguan will arrive here, nor exactly what the changes and improvements will be, so it’s very difficult to know whether it’s worth waiting for.

But it is worth mentioning that you’ll be very unlikely to manage a discount on the new version, whereas VW dealers might be a little more motivated to clear the decks of the existing model and will possibly be a bit more keen to negotiate.

Of course, even if you wait for the upgrade model, there’s a very real chance that we’ll be seeing an all-new Tiguan by 2022 anyway.

Since both variants of Colorado here use essentially the same engine, I’m not sure what sensors would be different and require changing. That said, the MY17 Colorado got recalibrated hill-descent and hill-start functions, so maybe there are some differences there.

The major mechanical difference that I can see between a 2014 and a 2017 Colorado is probably the power-steering. In late 2016, the vehicle switched to an electrically-assisted system in place of the previous hydraulic set-up. So the later engine would probably lack the pulleys and mounting hardware for the hydraulic power-steering pump that your vehicle requires. Perhaps they can be removed from the old engine and fitted to the later one.

Perhaps an easier solution would be to return the engine originally supplied and ask for the correct version for your car. If the engine supplied originally was not fit for purpose, then you’ve every right to ask for a replacement unit that is.

Boy, there’s a big difference between a Toyota CH-R and an Isuzu MU-X, Kathy. Rarely would both those models make it to the same short-list. In any case, the problem you’ll face is that buying any brand-new car involves waving goodbye to a large chunk of its residual value the same day you drive it home for the first time.

Who is advising you to get rid of the Toyota? I’ve seen plenty of V6 Toyotas with more than 300,000km showing and still going strong. And if the mileage does worry you, what about finding a low-kilometre second-hand Aurion and pocketing the many thousands of dollars you’ve saved by not buying a brand-new car? You already know you love the way the Aurion drives (and its reliability is beyond question) it’s big enough for grand-kids and it’ll handle its share of dirt-road action.

If you can’t find an Aurion, a V6 Camry is a good alternative, offering a similar level of interior space, performance and lots of value for money. A later-model example will also have side-curtain air-bags to protect rear-seat passengers. And when the word honesty is used in the context of cars, a Toyota Camry is one of the first mental images to appear.

That’s a pretty broad brief, Jane. How cheap do you want to go? For instance, some Holden Commodores from the 1990s had lumbar support and cruise-control. They’re around now for as little as $1000. On paper, they fit your bill, but I’m sure you have other criteria that need to be met.

I don’t think this is an isolated problem, Andrea, as I’ve heard of exactly the same thing happening to other 200-Series Toyotas. From the look of things, this type of recurring limp-home-mode problem with the LandCruiser is usually down to one of three things.

The first is a damaged or faulty stepper motor which controls both the throttle and the variable vanes on the turbocharger. Sometimes the vanes can become stuck, refuse to budge and burn out the stepper motor’s electronics in the process. If there’s a problem with any of those components, the stepper motor – at the very least -t will need to be replaced. The advice there is to use the genuine Toyota part, not a cheaper copy.

The second possibility is a fault with the EGR valve, and the third is a faulty accelerator pedal which, unlike older cars, does not connect via a cable to the throttle, but ends an electronic signal to the car’s computer. Any glitch here can send the car into limp-home. The fact that you’ve had problems while in cruise control makes me suspect either the accelerator or stepper motor, so they’d be the components I’d be checking first. For what it’s worth, I reckon the police-scanner explanation is a load of rubbish.

You really need to go out and test drive both vehicles, because they both have their plusses and minuses and those will be graded according to your personal preferences. Overall, the RAV4 is a bigger vehicle (almost as big as the original Kluger, in fact) so that might come into the reckoning based purely on the size of your parking space at home.

The RAV4 rides a bit more softly but your choice of the range-topping VTi-LX in the Honda is a good one because that’s the only model in the line-up that includes autonomous emergency braking, lane-keeping and adaptive cruise-control. That said, the RAV4 has all those features, too, but extends them to the bulk of the models offered, not just the top-spec version.

On warranty and fuel economy, both compare pretty closely, so it will come down to the little things that you personally find important; things like the Honda’s doors that open almost to 90-degrees and the Toyota’s vast rear seat legroom and cavernous luggage space. Over to you.

Air-bags deploy according to what force the crash places on the car. There’s no hard and fast rule to this, because no two crashes are the same. So, the sensors that tell the air-bags to deploy take into account the amount of deceleration involved and compare that with a threshold reading to decide whether to deploy the bags or not.

A car travelling at very low speed that noses into a wire-rope barrier, for instance, may not decelerated sufficiently for the bags to go off. But the same car, travelling at the same low speed that is hit by a moving car coming the other way, is much more likely to deploy its air-bags.

And just because the side air-bags have deployed in a crash, doesn’t necessarily mean the front air-bags will also be deployed. Sometimes the front bags will go off in sympathy with the side air-bags, but if there was not sufficient forward deceleration, the front ones should remain intact.

However, the tule of thumb is this: In Australia, air-bags are designed to deploy at speeds above about 25km/h and, in the case of front air-bags, in any impact within roughly 30 degrees of the car’s direction of travel at the time.