I’m happy with my 2019 1.4 Vitara…
Two 7/8 week trips planned for 2025, Portsmouth > Santander and all points south. I thoroughly enjoy my jaunts across Spain, alternating between touring and never knowing where I’ll spend the night, and one week or 2 weeks in a rental property with friends.
I can afford upgrading to a Gen V RAV, circa 2021/2, and it would be a nicer place in which to cover the miles, which is the weak point of the Vitara.
That and its very low rent, but durable, interior.
I’m looking at a ‘ standard’ car, not plug in or four wheel drive, don’t need the extra room afforded with the larger RAV but just a more pleasant motoring experience overall.
Supposedly good reliability…think I need an extended test drive before my first road trip begins early May.
Any thoughts please ?
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Just a personal observation, I found the interiors on the Rav4 very dark and cramped for such a large car.
Last edited by: zippy on Tue 18 Feb 25 at 10:58
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A sunroof ( opening pano) is a must…same as my Vitara SZ5.
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Howls about the Mazda CX-5.
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>> Howls about the Mazda CX-5.
>>
Also considered…a good friend has just purchased a 2yo Mazda3. Interior trim is lovely, as is the colour..Soul Red, my favourite, but a darned hard colour match according to a paint technician I know.
Size wise, the Vitara is pretty darned perfect, with excellent all round viz, good when driving solo overseas.
Further research has brought up the fact that the RAV4 is high up the list of stolen cars, reflected in insurance premiums. I didn’t know that, so consequently slightly less enthusiastic now.
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Yep, that red is my fave too. Best give a Rav-4 and the Maz a good long road test.
The size, especially the width, is what I like about the Vitara down the narrow lanes of godforsaken Cornwall.
And the fact? that nobody wants to pinch 'em :)
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>> And the fact? that nobody wants to pinch 'em :)
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Being less desirable to thieves is a bonus.
If stolen with my expensive camping gear, 18 litres of good vino & 10 litres of cerveza would seriously spoil my day.
Obviously not such an attractive vehicle to the chop shops and customer base on the Dark Continent,
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I quite like the Sportage too, but I like an automatic and I wouldn't touch THAT gearbox.
The automatic gearbox in the Earlier Vitara is a peach, but even they have gorn automated manual now.
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>>Sportage autos
Can't speak for the current model, but the last generation Hyundai Tucson, effective the same car as the Sprtage running gear wise.
The larger engines had a traditional auto box. The smaller engines were DCT. I have had two of them, one going back with 75k miles on the clock with no gearbox issues. (Touch wood.)
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>>The larger engines had a traditional auto box. The smaller engines were DCT
Ah, I didn't know that. I could live with a DCT or a DSG, but wifey isn't the most confident of drivers, so any possibility of jerkiness on initial acceleration would be a no no for her.
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I have a knockabout RAV4. 2 litre petrol slushbox auto, 4 doors. No turbo, no cambelt. Leather/sunroof,tape/6CD/radio. Removable back seats/ Aircon/Satnav. !50 BHP, pulls the 17ft van like a train. Unburstable mechanics, last problem was a rusted oil filter and later an exhaust blow.
Cost me £2300. It is 22 yrs old though ! Might keep it, only worth a grand now, covered in scratches and dents !
Ted
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>> >>The larger engines had a traditional auto box. The smaller engines were DCT
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>> Ah, I didn't know that. I could live with a DCT or a DSG, but
>> wifey isn't the most confident of drivers, so any possibility of jerkiness on initial acceleration
>> would be a no no for her.
>>
It's not at all jerky and is very smooth.
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An interesting piece here regarding dual clutch transmissions:
cartipsdaily.com/hyundai-dual-clutch-transmission-problems
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That's a very US focused article. Don't they tend to use cheap oil change services rather than full services.
I guess all makes of DCT can have similar problems.
On my previous Tucson. A 6 hour traffic jam, covering about a dozen miles in that time increased the temperature of the clutches. There is a gauge showing the temp. The gear change became juddery but corrector itself once moving again and never reoccurred in 75k miles over 3 years.
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I'm done with DCT.
Our Roomster DSG (DQ200, dry clutch 7 speed) is at 48,000 miles so we've been lucky, maybe. But I've been conscious the whole 10 years we've had it that the design is, to my mind, fundamentally flawed when viewed as an automatic. It's also very awkward for close maneuvering.
The reason I think it's a bodge is implied by the driving instructions in the manual. Do not hold the car on the accelerator.
Anybody familiar with old style autos soon works out that on a gentle slope they don't roll backwards in D. On a steeper slope, a little accelerator might be used.
Many of these people will go on the buy a DSG or similar DCT-equipped car, and instinctivley drive it the same way. The mechanically aware will realise that they are actually holding the car on the clutch.
At best, this will result in the clutch pack wearing out early. At worst, it will overheat the pack. Overheating is what destroys these boxes which is why they have overheat protection. They just shut down at a certain temperature. But inevitably there will be incremental extra wear from using the 'hold' technique.
We have always avoided the 'hold', but I wouldn't count on the previous owner(s) of a used car having done so.
DCT's are a bodge, invented by Porsche for racing, but now widely used to game the emissions/economy figures.
The 7 speed wet clutch DQ500 in my daughters A6 3.0 diesel is very very good in terms of drivability - much better than the dry clutch version at mimicking a torque converter. Sadly it is now slipping at 78,000 miles and if she is lucky it will just need a clutch pack (a £2,700 job at a specialist).
I certainly wouldn't buy a used one.
I've been trying to persuade herself to swap the Roomie for a Mazda 2 auto, which can be had currently pre-registered at good prices (they are being dropped in favour of the Hybrid which I have been told is a rebadged Yaris). She won't have it, because she loves the load capacity of the Roomie.
Last edited by: Manatee on Wed 19 Feb 25 at 17:00
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I once got snarled up on some country lanes that were being used as a diversion route, following the closure of a more major route. Absolute chaos, compounded by some very steep hills with frequent stop/start as traffic crawled along.
At that time, I was driving a Kuga PHEV with the e-CVT transmission. No issues with overheating and it coped fine.
Unfortunately, the car in front was a Ford Fusion with the dreaded automated manual gearbox. I was aware of an overheating clutch smell for sone time and then the crawling stop/start progress stopped entirely. The driver of the Fusion got out of the car in tears, as she was completely blocking the road. Car was flagging up an ‘overheated transmission’ warning and wouldn’t move for a good 10 minutes. She was a young mother with a baby and very upset by the whole event and in the inconvenience she’d caused others on a single track road.
Car eventually cooled down and was able to move off again. I guess she was effectively slipping to clutch for a prolonged period on a hill and not engaging neutral and using the handbrake.
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Been reading a lot about the Kuga PHEV and it all seems very positive!
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>>Been reading a lot about the Kuga PHEV and it all seems very positive!
Supposed to be an excellent engine, but is it a wet belt?
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The 2.5 petrol engine in the PHEV definitely isn’t a wet belt. Pretty sure it’s actually chain, but mine was a company supplied vehicle, so I didn’t get involved in any maintenance. I just dropped it off at the local Ford dealer every 18k miles.
Read somewhere that the 2.5 is based on a Mazda design, which bodes well… for petrol engines, at least!
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Toyota RAV-4 - RAV4 ? Stick or twist. - zippy
