Comments on: 2007 Toyota Kluger Road Test

By: tony m

tony m — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 09:39:21 +0000

I have a KX-R AWD now for 8 months now, have done 50,000k. Fuel consumption on freeway is about 8 per 100, with air 9, local traffic about 10 – 11.
I have towed horses and car floats with it, great, in slippery sliding muddy conditions just moving forward slowly car slides, engage the “snow” and whalla, straight, smooth and clean. Heaps of grunt when you want it. Keep the foot light, easy on the hills and you can get about 650k’s even though when your first fill up it will say max 630k. Keep an eye on the km reading off the speedo and watch what it says on the trip gage, the gage will be extended.
I also have had a rattle in the dash, just slightly and now very hesitant to take it to Toyota, I have had a very, very bad experience with them.
I must warn you though about “some” Toyota dealers, I had to take mine back four times just to compete the 40,000 services, all they did was an oil change and left oil all over the place, next a brought it back and complained, it took them forever to look at the vehicle and again they only did another two things, when I checked I had to take it back again for them to compete the service and even this time they did not rotate the tyres as described by Toyota, leaving the spare as the spare. Not happy Jan. So now I take it elsewhere.
Apart from this I am very happy with this vehicle, all works well and very comfortable (wish I had the Grande with all the mod cons).

By: chris b

chris b — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:10:14 +0000

Hi Mick, funny you say that because i bought a new one this year and it happened to me in the first week on the drivers side. I am only a light goy and leaned on it with my elbow and felt it crack! I amazed as toyota arnt normally that cheap. Havnt checked others though. Also the boot carpet is a bit thin and seems to get scrap marks all over it. Otherwise i love the feel and ride, quiteness of the car and hear no rattles.

By: Tony

Tony — Tue, 12 May 2009 21:33:37 +0000

We have had our KXR 2wd for about 6months now seems like a great car had no problem except a sticky left seat belt apart from that nothing. Lately gone for a drive to Hepburn springs via western hwy with 6 people in the car and tell ya what it really goes great smooth power good gear shifts We are very happy with the Kluger even my son loves it the kids love it even the grand parents love it.
Even took it off road were we were hanging front left hand wheel in the air and we rocked it back to the ground on a dry off road road hehe. The ground clearance just that does a lot. Tony

By: Poky

Poky — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:07:07 +0000

Ever considered the Subaru Tribeca. We looked at Territory, CX9 and Kluger and it won hands down!! I don’t know what all the fuss is about with the Tribeca being labelled as ugly – it’s far more appealling than the box rear on the Ford and Toyota.

By: Bavarian Missile

Bavarian Missile — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 08:23:02 +0000

Werid to say the least Ian, I found this on a site.Is it similar to your problem ? Not sure if yours is Auto……

“Sadly, I have a dreadful lemon, which Toyota is seemingly incapable of fixing. The main problem is a shocker of a transmission and ECU (control computer) which have an appalling hesitation. At certain speeds, but especially at about 30kph, when I give the accelerator about 50% or more power, the transmission just sits there for 2 seconds, then revs to 5000rpm, sometimes without engaging, and then finally it bangs into gear with a huge jolt. The problem occurs to varying degrees every day, but can be somewhat unpredictable. At slower speeds, say at about 5 to 10km/hr, the hesitation when changing gears makes it impossible to drive smoothly. It also has problems with engine surging. As this car is supposed to have class-leading smoothness, I am naturally not a happy camper. I consider the transmission hesitation to be a serious safety issue, and have had to change my driving style to allow for the dreadful and unpredictable responsiveness. I have driven several other Klugers, one of which had a bad hesitation, and two others which seemed ok. It is not an issue with the adaptive transmission learning my driving style – everyone who drives it has the same problem. My wife now refuses to drive it. It has been to the dealer 5 times and they are unable to do anything. The dealer was so concerned he called in the Toyota area rep who refused to acknowledge it as a problem, calling it a “normal operating characteristic”. I have since learned that this is a well known problem in the US and Toyota (and Lexus) have been trying to find a fix since 2002. They nonetheless continually refuse to acknowledge it as a problem, but have had to replace several cars in the US under lemon laws and arbitration. The US NHTSA is currently considering a major investigation into the problem, as they have received so many complaints.

Here is the web site you can take to Toyota if you need.

http://www.productreview.com.au/showitem.php?item_id=1501&section=REVIEWS&order_by=item_rate_score&is_asc=1

Good Luck mate………

By: Ian

Ian — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 07:30:33 +0000

I have a six months old 7 seater Kluger (KR-T) and the only problem is when moderate acceleration from a standing position on a slightly wet bitument surface, the rear wheels go absolutely wild!

Slip, skid and bounce all over the place. The acceleration aplied is only marginally above the normnal but is definitely a bit quicker than normal.

By: PC

PC — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 03:10:24 +0000

Hi Runnaln
13.8L/100km driving around town and about 11L on the freeway on my KX-S 4WD. Drive well and happy with it apart from the rattle. Agree with Tony we should be light on the peddle as it will never response like a sport car.
Can you tell me the web address of the Forum you refer to so I can have a look as well?

By: Tony

Tony — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 22:16:24 +0000

I have now driven it on the freeway got as low as 7.3L/100km and around town gentle acceleration 11L/100km so respect the fuel peddle drive gently and it will be good otherwise it uses a wide range of fuel from 7.3 right up to 17l/100km remember this is not a race car either has fragile handling but reasonably quiet cabin for its size mmm maybe we put it on LPG vapour injection? Tony

By: Tony

Tony — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 21:40:43 +0000

Yes we got ours the other day unfortunetly my wife has been complaining about the fuel economy (well still new needs a bit of running in so its tight) I have only driven it twice in the last couple of weeks we have had it. My wife previously had a rav 4, mind you my wife drives hard accelerates hard of the lights and brakes hard ps the rav4 front tyres were worn out in 29,000km due to hard cornering and braking. The Kluger 2wd kxr if driven moderatly not thrashing it will give you 11L/100km when thrashing it will give you like 15 to 17L/100km while the Rav4 noisy engine will give you 12l/100km thrashing it. Maybe she pushes the Kluger harder thinking I can make a bit of noise out of the engine while the kluger pulls well and does not make much engine sound hence lets push it harder! The Kluger is heavier more powerful MUCH safer that the base model rav4 hence shouldnt be thrashed the graph will show you the history of fill ups I will be taking the car next week were I will drive it smoother than she and see how I go, will let you know. Also idling waiting for people to come in and out of the car wont help at all! Tony

By: runnaln

runnaln — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:08:12 +0000

Hi we got 1 of first KX-R get around 11.5-12.5l/100km and we have done 40k, we have a rattle I checked on the Toyota forum they say this is common, toyota say its not, we have it booked in with a toyota expert to fix it, (Forum said it is a known problem with fix on Toyota KB) on the whole very impressed and vehicle, it is a delight to drive, only negative is to much power through from wheels, I guess 4wd would be better not sure how good the 4wd system is. Have not checked Armrests, will check, we tested Captiva not in same class, don’t think territory is either. Bare in mind people tend to comment when they have problems and keep quite when all is well.