Newbie Experiences Buying a 4wd

My feeling from your experience was that curtain airbags was the governing factor. To me it seems the weighing of these airbags was too high, and anything without one didnt even get a mention. i'm still not convinced that curtain airbags alone equates to a better safety rating, only if side impacted i guess.

Not saying your choice and opinion isn't a good one, just the focus seems to be skewed towards a obscure feature.

Andrew

Now you have a nice vehicle you should consider joining a 4wd club ....

It seems you were just looking for a set of curtain air-bags, ideally with some sort of car attached as though that's the only thing your safety depends on - I really hope you're not expecting to ever use them (perhaps you didn't see
ThreadID: 69062?!)

Seriously though, the Prado is a great vehicle and I'm sure it won't disappoint - I hope it serves you well.

BTW: I HATE the term "bush bashing" - it conjures up the view of 4WDers that the anti-4WD lobby is eager to promote.

Sitting waitingin the car yesterday firthe missus at a Dr's appointment, and i hear a really loud bang, sounds like metal crunching.

A ute drove past & I figured it musta been his metal tool boxes bouncing as he went over a speed bump.

Then I looked the other way up the street - and a Prado rear ended a Commode at the lights - was the source of the noise.

Couple guys pushed the Prado off the road and up onto the footpath right in front of where I was parked.

It looked like a brand spanker too, not even any accessories fitted yet, straight off the showroom floor by the look.

Sadly there was a little baby injured - not sure how, whether it wasn't in a capsule or what but the mother was freaking and the kid howling (usually a good sign not too much is wrong), and even more fortunately it was right out front of the Drs surgery and two docs in whote coast were out there licketty spit to tend to the child & mum.

They called for an ambulance and took the bub away with the still howling mum.

Thing is the injured child came from the prado, which seemed to have all air bags deployed, and a child capsule in the rear seat - all i can figure is that the side air bag when it went off somehow injured the child...whether it burst and thematerial whipped the kid in the face or what I'm not sure!

It wasn't pretty lets put it that way!

The commode seemed to come off pretty well - young guy with no injuries and I couldn't see any damage to his vehicle.

The Prado on the other hand was still self destructng ten minutes later - bits were falling off by their own effort - windscreen was busted, all the front skirt gone, front doors creased etc etc.

Maybe a write off - roofline seemed to have buckled, to allow the doors to get messed up.

The Prado did what it was meant to do and crumpled like a pretzel under the leg of a bar stool, but the only injuries semeed to be to the baby in the Prado.

It was at traffic lights - one car stationary (commode) and Prado at maybe 40 or 50 k's tops (under heavy brakes more like 10 or 15 kph) that ran up the back of the stationary one.

There was a disproportionately loud bang and a LOT of damage for such a minor bingle IMHO.

What that says bout Prados i don;t know - that they crumple well and that all the air bags will let go when they need too?

Just seemed like a small rear ender basically wrote off a new prado was all.

One wonders how they will hold up in supermeket car parks and the like -a good shopping trolley hit might write the car off and deploy all the airbags.

Maybe it was just me - but the commodre and driver seemed to walk away basically unscathed.

All the damage and all the injuries - were from the Prado.

Was a shame to see a nice shiney new car like that all bingled as badly as it was.

I guess if circumstances were different it might have been the commmode that came off second best!

I felt sorry for the kid driving the commode- he was morified that the baby was injured and felt it was his fault even tho he was stationary at the lights waiting his turn and the other guy hit him - you could see he felt like it was his fault the baby was injured and he wasn't taking it well at all.

Glad it wasn't me!

Cheers

ChristaJezz

Each person has different needs to the next and comparisons of vehicles are pretty subjective.

That said I think it is useful to ask are you after a car or a truck? If you are after a car, things like side curtain airbags and a good safety rating are important. If you are after a truck they are less important or perhaps even a hindrance. Same for stability control - good in a car, probably dubious in an off road truck.

If you are after truck features things like load carrying, range, structural strength and towing capacity dominate over modern safety features. Is there a vehicle that covers both well? IMHO no!

So it comes to choices and what compromises one is prepared to accept. Me, well I have a perfectly adequate car so the 4wd choice was skewed very much to truck features. No abs, no traction control beyond optional diff locks, no air bags etc but a pretty good truck nonetheless.

Most importantly it can do what I got it for. So if the vehicle can do what you got it for than it is a good choice. None of us are after exactly the same thing in a vehicle. Maybe that is why there are so many vehicles on the market with happy owners.

That said I would agree with others that airbag features were more important in your choice than they would be to most people looking for a similar vehicle. But who knows, they may just save your life one day.

hi everyone,

need some reassurances as i think i may have dropped a huge clanger! ive just purchased a toyota kluger 2.4l to pull my jayco dove camper (tare 900kgs). the dealer said its good for up to 1500kgs but after looking at some american sites im starting to panic!! anyone have any knowledge/experience wiith these wagons pulling that sort of load? i wont be off-roading. just going to campsites. its a 4wd model if that helps.
thanks.

thanks graham,

unfortunately the handbook is in japanese! had a search on the internet but cannot find any figures specific to this part of the world. Its really stressing me out. Probably only tow 6-7 times a year so i just wanted something that wouldnt be too thirsty for everyday driving. I feel a right idiot for not researching this better!

no joy.
phone toyota and because its an import they couldnt give me a tow rating for it. all i want to know is will it pull my jayco dove. anyone got any ideas? this will teach me to save on fuel when not towing. should have bought a 3.4 prado!

Thanks guys,

after more and more research and phone calls it seems to be the general consensus that the tow rating will be around 1500kg so although the kluger will struggle it should be ok with a load of 1100kgs. better avoid road works on steep hills though...