Mazda's CX-5 is better to drive though, Tiguan's better overall too if you can find one for a good price.
Had a drive of the new
Honda CRV this morning, the 4wd versions are automatic only and only in 2.4 petrol engine here.
Not enough power for the car I thought, a bit noisy at higher speed, and the two screens in the dash was pointless.
I would have the satnav high up so you can see it, not in the dashboard where it isn't visible while driving. I would rather be able to see the satnav than know what radio station I am on. A moderately pushy sales technique with an accompanied test drive where the dealer drove the car for half the (short) distance didn't really sell it to me.
It does have some nice features like the seats which you can drop flat with one pull of a lever. Not bad, but not amazing, I don't think ill be buying one.
Went for a second look at a few others.
Still a big fan of the
VW Tiguan, but not sure it is off-road enough to differentiate it from our Hyundai.
The boot isn't that big, but this is offset by excellent rear seats, you can actually fit a 6 foot or above adult in them comfortably.
Not driven it yet, but imagine it to be very good, both auto and manuals available and a decent amount of power, xenon headlights optional.
Only downside, im pretty sure you have to run them on SUL due to them being the TSI engines, which is pretty expensive and not available everywhere in the country.
Had another look at the
Ford Kuga, excellent engine with plenty of power, but small rear seats.
Nissan Dualis 4x4 was another that we looked at, overall good but only a 2.0L engine, pretty gutless when you consider the size of the car. Plus it has been out for a long time now.
Had a drive of a curve ball at Toyota, the fairly recently released
FJ Cruiser (has been available in America for several years), proper off roader, based on the Prado, but chunkier, slightly smaller and not as refined. The rear seats aren't massive, but the boot was pretty big. Good standard specification. Automatic only, but a good 4.0L V6 so plenty of power, less messing around with gears that the smaller engines struggle with. Comes with low/high range 4wd and a lockable rear differential.
Dealer was good, we went in last weekend, gave me a couple of follow up calls which imo was a bit much but wasn't massively pushy. They have an ex demo car which they want to sell so are obviously keen to do so. Once I told them that I would rather pay the extra $2000 or so and just have a new one they didn't mention it again. Arranged to drive the car this morning, when we went in the guy was busy and a junior saw us, got an unaccompanied test drive for as long as we wanted which was much better than Honda.
No HID headlights, but with a car such as this there are a lot of aftermarket parts available, so fitting spotties wouldn't be a problem.
Little hard to see the front left corner of the car, as the dashboard has 3 "pods" that display information, these block your vision slightly of that side. Handling was average on road, but excellent on dirt roads, the corrugations which usually cause the car to shake to bits were barely noticeable.
Just comes down to price.... more than I wanted to spend really, limited time on the market so not many used available and the saving offered by buying used doesn't outweigh the reduced warranty and the older models don't have NAV.
I'll procrastinate for a few more months yet, at the moment I would buy a used Tiguan in the spec I want, full leather with xenons for mid to low 30k, but my girlfriend prefers the FJ....
