Toyota Problems

If your dad was happy with his previous Yaris, then I think the new model would suit him just as well. Don’t be put off by the lack of a sedan, as the hatchback version is actually even better at swallowing things like wheelchairs. You’d be amazed at just how practical a conventional hatchback is. The real shame is that Toyota no longer sells the three-door version of the Yaris (they’re all five-doors now). Because the three-door model had longer doors, they made getting and in and out even easier. The only catch was that they opened pretty wide (which is why disabled car-parking spaces are extra wide as well).

A Volkswagen Golf that is already one year old will already have done a big chunk of its depreciating. The Corolla, on the other hand, will – like all brand-new cars – dump value like crazy. That said, both cars have a fair way to go in depreciation terms. Keeping them for just a year won’t help there, either, as you’ll effectively be maximising the amount you lose.

The trade regards the Corolla (as a Toyota) very highly and, as such, resale values tend to be better than a lot of cars. The VW Golf, meanwhile, still suffers from the stigma of the reliability problems many owners experienced and can be a little more difficult to unload without resorting to selling it to a wholesaler who will make you really understand what depreciation means.

None of the vehicles you’ve listed are exactly low-maintenance units. They all have complex all-wheel-drive drivelines (which will be appreciated when towing a heavy trailer across a wet showground) and they use the latest common-rail diesel technology which is fairly intolerant of poor servicing.

As for a power tailgate on a ute, I’m afraid you’re out of luck. But some of the wagon versions of these vehicles can be optioned with powered tailgates. The catch there is that these vehicles use coil sprung rear axles (as opposed to the leaf-sprung ute versions) so they’re not as adept at towing. The Toyota Fortuner, for instance can’t match the HiLux’s 3.5-tonne limit and makes do with 2800kg; not enough for your requirements. The Ford Everest (based on the Ranger) is a little better at 3000kg, but still trails the Ranger’s 3500kg towing capacity and is right on your self-imposed minimum.

A few factors determine engine longevity, so let’s start with the first of those, the basic materials and design of the engine in question. Both the Toyota and Honda have advanced small-capacity engines that are made from quality materials. So that’s in their favour.

The second factor is servicing. A lack of regular maintenance including fresh oil and filters will kill engines fast, so that’s crucial. And finally, how they are driven will also play a part. An engine that only does long distances in the country will always last longer than one that is subjected to frequent cold starts and stop-start traffic. An engine that is regularly revved to redline between the gears will also potentially die younger than one that is driven sensibly and with a bit of mechanical sympathy.

The bottom line? There’s no short answer. But I have seen small-capacity Honda and Toyota engines clock up 250,000km and more with correct maintenance. Things have certainly changed from the 1950s when the average car engine needed a rebuilt every 100,000km and what was called a de-coke and valve-grind every 30,000km. Ask your grandfather about it.

The Ford Escape plug-in should be an interesting vehicle when it arrives, with 165kW of power and something like a 50km electric-only range. It will be here sometime this year, but the exact timing is still a trade secret.

The Toyota RAV4, meanwhile, isn’t a plug-in hybrid, so it can’t be recharged form your home solar panels (which the plug-in Escape could be). Frankly, if you’re making four times the power your household needs with your solar array, you’re in the pound seats for owning a plug-in hybrid which could put that excess electricity generation to very good use. That’s especially true if most of your driving is around town within a 20km radius or so of home-base.

That said, the new RAV4 Hybrid is gaining rave reviews as well as recording very sharp real-world fuel-economy figures. But a plug-in hybrid in a household with excess solar capacity could almost be run for free.

I haven’t heard of this one before, Brooke, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist in other Klugers, rather that other owners don’t find it as annoying as you clearly do. I have to agree with the dealer, though, in that conditioning the leather regularly would keep it supple. Chances are that the harder the leather becomes (with age and UV radiation) the more likely it is to squeak. Conditioning the seats will ensure they don’t split, too. Perhaps there’s a conditioning product that is designed specifically to stop squeaking leather, although from what I can see on most labelling, the majority of them already claim this as one of the product’s qualities.

I can understand why you might not want to spend all your time in the car with one seat folded down (Klugers are usually bought for their passenger-carrying abilities, after all) but perhaps carefully placing a soft cloth or old towel between the offending bits of leather really would do the trick. But here’s a tip that has been proven to work in the past: sprinkle a little baby powder on the offending sections of leather. It seems to work for leather shoes, so perhaps it will work in a Toyota.

The RAV4 in its current guise is the best the model has ever been. Of course, that’s exactly how it should be, but some car-makers don’t always crack the newer-is-better code. You’re right about the new RAV4 Hybrid being the headline grabber, but that’s because it’s the big change in the RAV4 formula and the one that is likely to attract the most new customers to the franchise. There’s nothing wrong with the two-litre CVT RAV4 per se, but you might find the performance of the smaller petrol engine a bit on the weedy side, especially with a full load of bodies and luggage on board. And, as with any CVT car, the advice is to drive it before you decide, and make sure you don’t find the CVT’s behaviour too foreign. Some people do, others never notice it.

The Kia Sportage Sport is another good package but suffers the same lacklustre engine performance issue in two-litre petrol form. It does, though, have a conventional six-speed automatic transmission rather than a CVT. And while the Sportage was facelifted in 2018, its basic design goes back to 2015. Which, in fact, makes it an older design than the Mazda CX-5 which was first launched here in 2017. Any of the three vehicles you’ve nominated will do the job but history suggests the Toyota will hold more resale value when trade-in time rolls around. And congratulations on the new addition to the family.

For a start, where did you get that price for the part? Was it advertised online? Many workshops refuse to use cheap, knock-off (copied) parts from overseas warehouses, so the replacement switch they are proposing to use may easily be more expensive.

I know it sounds like a lot of money, Debbie, but even if that is the price of the switch, here’s roughly how it breaks down. The workshop will usually add a percentage of mark-up on the part involved to cover the cost of ordering it, so let’s say that $84 part will be passed on to you for $100. Then, labour is charged out per hour, and rates can be anything from $75 to $150 (generally speaking, although specialists can charge much, much more than that). But even if we take the middle of those figures and call it $120 per hour, and the job takes one hour, by the time you’ve added the $100 switch, you’re already at $220 and the cheapest of your quotes. And that’s if there are no other little rubber seals, wiring terminals or plastic clips that need to be replaced as part of the job.

Also, consider that to do this job, there’s a fair chance the steering wheel will have to be removed and that’s not as simple as it sounds in a car with an air-bag in the steering wheel. Time is money, but never more so than in a busy workshop. The bottom line is that it those quotes don’t sound like a rip-off at all.

As far as finding a workshop in your area, word of mouth is usually a pretty good indicator in these cases. Ask your friends and family (and anybody else you trust) where they take their cars and be guided on that basis to begin with.

I’m inclined to think your tyre store might be right, Anthony, and heavy vehicles like the Prado, especially if they’ve been used of-road can, in fact, damage their own rims to the point where the wheels aren’t perfectly round any longer. It would have been pretty obvious to the people fitting the tyres when the new tyres were balanced; the out-of-round rims would have made balancing them almost impossible. Don’t be fooled by the fact that the wobble happens at speed, because that’s simply a function of the harmonics in the wonky wheels building up to the point where you can feel it.

However, to answer your second question, yes, there are some other things to check before rushing out and buying new rims. Is the vehicle lifted on its suspension? If so, there’s a very good chance the wheel alignment settings (particularly the castor angle) can be thrown out. This needs to be corrected to maintain the vehicle’s stability at speed, and a wheel-wobble can sometimes show up as a symptom.

How are the suspension linkages and bushes generally? Worn bushes can easily cause a vehicle to wobble at speed, as can bent bits and pieces from off-road use. Another thing that can throw a wobble into the equation is an out-of-balance tail-shaft or worn CV joints and universal joints in the driveline (of which there is plenty in an all-wheel-drive Prado).

But if it is your wheel rims at fault, there’s probably not much else you can do but replace them. Sometimes a steel rim can be re-rolled or trued, but alloy wheels (which is probably what you have) are often throwaways once they’re bent out of shape.

It all depends on how much below 2000kg, Jenny. The highest towing limit I could find for any 2019 RAV4 variant – the GXL 4X4 model – was 1500kg, well shy of your target limit. And to be honest, I think that even if you could find a mid-sized SUV with the legal ability to tow anything like 2000kg, you’d be stretching the friendship. It’s not all about engine power, after all; the mass of the towing vehicle itself and its footprint on the road also comes into the reckoning. I’ve seen plenty of medium SUVs towing loads that are, in practical terms, too heavy for them, holding up traffic and making a holiday vastly less fun than it should be.

You’re probably better to go shopping one size bigger and look at, say, the Toyota Kluger which can legally tow 2000kg and will give you a bit of performance headroom, making things safer and more relaxed on the road.