Toyota Problems

You've missed my pick, and our current Car of the Year, the Kia Sorento. It's better than any of your contenders and a top car that gets The Tick from me.

It’s hard to know how the used car market will react to the end of production of the Aurion. I suspect that because we have known about the end of the Aurion for some time that it won’t have a huge effect, it has possibly already been factored into the market. I don’t expect the parts supply to be affected at all, after all Toyota is a massive company and has a good reputation for taking care of its cars and customers.

Yes, definitely a secondhand Kluger is a good choice.

There are still baby cars with five-star safety and, given few trips and tight parking, I would recommend a Mazda2.

Ford spokesman, Neil McDonald, replies: “We checked with the engineers and both the rear and side widows use tempered glass which can show up the heat-treatment pattern with polarised sunglasses.  You need to get the right angle and the right light but you can see this on every piece of rear and side glass in every manufacturer’s product”.

We test all cars in the real world, on the toughest corners and worst surfaces we can find, and I've been doing the job for nearly 40 years. Hyundai has focussed its suspension work on European-style handling, not a cushy American-style ride, but that's no different from many other brands. For your needs I would probably have steered you to a Nissan Pulsar, but also advised not to buy anything without a proper test drive on road you know.

Toyota Australia spokesman, Steve Coughlan replies: “From our records, Brighton Toyota has reported a very light vibration at speed consistent with when the torque convertor lock-up clutch engages. To fully understand the issue we will arrange for one of our Technical Field Managers to contact Mr Jeffrey and assess the vehicle. A member of the team will contact him to set up a meeting”.

Wow, that is a major change of direction. Before you make such a change I would suggest you actually test drive each of the cars you're thinking of to see if they really suit you. The Mazda MX-5 is a two-seater and not very practical for instance. It's hard to advise you because we don't anything about what you want from the car you buy. If it was me I would probably buy the MX-5, I would have no problem with a two-seater.