Imagine my Mrs dissapointment.

We checked the X-Trail

very sluggish accelleration ( even though more kw's than Rav felt slower ).
Cheap plastics used on the interior and that front guard is not my idea of a comforting safety device in an accident. Centre console instrument layout is damn ugly . If we ever get the thing into so off road action the suspension travel on the Rav is much greater. Pop the bonnet on the xtrail and see how low the top of the strut is, for that matter the X=trail motor is way lower as well. Toyota also has more advanced motor.

Oh.

The Mrs loves the look of the Cruiser !!

;)

But the Mrs thinks they are ugly and you know that looks is everything.

Psychology 101:

Tell her that she will spend most of her time inside looking out, not outside looking in, so it really doesn't matter what the outside looks like. LOL!!!

I humbly concur with Mr InOz.

Unfortunately the Mrs will be much more concerned with what people outside think as they look at her inside.

Come to think of it so will most of the Misters too. (but not those on this forum... LOL

Ken

Just to quote you John, "new Nissan looks Bloody awful" hey don't you drive a Troopy?

The new Patrol's are the best looking w4d on the market.

Toughest as well but that is another story.

Hi ya John R
Your correct I do drive a Troopy (Very observant of you) LOL.
(Very Little Plastic on it at the moment) My comments are based on the increasing amount of plastic that all manufacturers are sticking on there vehicles.
The prior model Nissan is a good looking and with minor exception a very good vehicle in all aspects in my view.
This current model looks crap with all that plastic, yeah I know it's cosmetic but wait till you rub those flares against a decent tree or rock and then pay the cost of sticking them back on.
Seen the same problem with the Prado's.

As Mrs Al said the future 130 series Toyota seems to be going the same way if all the pictures we have seen are correct.

So Gone 4bying I have to disagree with you about the looks issue I was parked behind one on the Spirit of Tassie on Sunday and it looked $hit.

John,

Was that the day or night sail? I came back on the 16th night sail. Don't remember a Troopy but there were a lot of cars.

Hi Ute
I came back on the 16th day sail.
David and Michele were also booked for this trip but changed to the Sat 15th night sail.
I spoke with them in Bridport, they said they ran into you also if my memory serves me ?

Yes I did bump into them on Bruny Island although they were still sailing on the 16th then. Their Cruiser is a little hard to miss even at night! They were the only people from this site that I met (that I know of).

Hope you had a great trip. We certainly did.

Yeah they were the only ones from EO that I found also.

I had a bloody great trip, will certainly return soon.

Please stay on topic guys.

I don't want a group hug session in my thread if it can be helped.

The Blue one looks great .

They would sell plenty of them !!

The Landrover has flair ?

cough ..

yeh thats a good one.

Honda looks like my Grandmas set of wheels.

Well I reckon that while Land Rover have a grand plan, Toyota have a bland plan. Theyre trying to do something different, but all theyre doing is copying the US Dodge RAM and trying to Toyotaise the thing, using the bland plan.

A Freelander has more character any day I reckon.

People must like the bland plan as it sells bucket loads !

Guess it's a GREAT plan !

WRONG.

The blue is a photochop . check the top link and go half way down.

Yeah no worries mate, I have already seen link and the photoshop references and spent plenty of time surfing for other examples.
There is a good link, can remeber where now, that posted those two picks side by side and (ignoring the different rears) the lines on the front of both are identical. So dont believe everything you read, people love stir!! Just look at the two RAVs and make up your own mind as I did, The body lines are identical.
But I appreciate you informative response!

Matt.

that is wrong sorry.

you can have front left off ground and back right off grround and still it will drive forward. Or alternative wheels etc.

Hi Gone 4by'ing

Momentum is a wonderful thing when wheels are off the ground.

I would challenge you/anyone to PARK an AWD/4WD without a centre diff lock, LSD or traction control in a position with one wheel off the ground, and try to DRIVE off.
100% of available torque goes to the wheel with the least resistance. At least with an AWD/4WD with a centre diff lock 50% of available torque goes to front and 50% goes to rear so it takes more(less grip) to stop forward motion.
Landrover learned this lesson with the Series 2 Discovery(which at least had traction control) and put the centre diff lock back in for the Series 3.
Please dont take this as an argument(I personally avoid confrontation) as it is just meant to be a little advice on a topic I have a little interest in.
I hope we can all learn stuff from this valuable forum(I certainly have)

Adrian

Adrian you are right to the extent if a veh didnt have a centre diff lock or any cross axle traction aids, with 1 wheel lifted they are stuck.

But Ravs have a viscous centre diff which resists the front and rear transfer-case output shafts rotating at very different rates. In this role it limits wheel spin if a front (or a rear) wheel suddenly looses traction. The action is smooth and permits normal differential action when cornering. Obviously the term here is 'limits', it doesnt totally proportionate traction 50:50 but it certainly wont let all traction spit out of the one spinning wheel.
Also all current Ravs have rear LSDs fitted, so that would also assist somewhat, but we all know the limitations of an LSD...

Matt.