New Diesel Auto Anyone?

[anchorman]

I was under the impression alot of the new auto cars were coming with a CVT type gearbox. We've been told they are fantastic but have yet to drive one.

Petrol engine gets a CVT but the diesel is a "proper" automatic but so far I've not really noticed the gear changes as I am driving gently while getting used to my new car (just down-sized from Lexus RX350)

Hi aCactus and welcome to the club.

Yes we mentioned earlier the diesel has a conventional auto and I'm very interested to follow your thoughts on everything regarding this vehicle so please keep in regular touch with us.

Incidentally has anyone see a RAV in this new 9AF "Tidal Blue" yet?

If anyone sees one can they photograph it?

Cheers.

As it happens my car is Tidal Blue.............

You are my new best mate!!!

I will pm you with my email address so if you wouldn't mind, would you send me a couple of decent photos of it please?

[local hero]

Watched a minskirted babe repeatedly stroking the wing of a vintage racing Aston at the Goodwood revival a couple of weeks ago - now that's an image I prefer to have etched on my memory

Which is fine for you, but for the rest of us do you have any photos? :D

P.S. Anchs also has a bit of a thing about vibrating petrol pumps as well..

Thank you Davrav much appreciated some fine looking fellas on there

Anchs did you try this HERE this is Toyotas own site obviously click on Tidal blue to see it in your color, also on here somewhere you can build yourown car with accesories + view it from all angles, well at least you can in the dealers Stew

[aCactus]

Watched a minskirted babe repeatedly stroking the wing of a vintage racing Aston at the Goodwood revival a couple of weeks ago - now that's an image I prefer to have etched on my memory

Which is fine for you, but for the rest of us do you have any photos? :D

P.S. Anchs also has a bit of a thing about vibrating petrol pumps as well..

Thank you Davrav much appreciated some fine looking fellas on there

Anchs did you try this HERE this is Toyotas own site obviously click on Tidal blue to see it in your color, also on here somewhere you can build yourown car with accesories + view it from all angles, well at least you can in the dealers Stew

The Toyota site doesn't really show how this colour really appears, and it looks different depending on the ambient light.

Perhaps I should admit the only reason I got this colour was to get the earliest delivery for my car based on what the list showed when I was placing my order. As it turned out the list was not all the relevant as my car arrived much earlier, almost as if it was built to order.

[aCactus]

If I have got the code correct for including pictures you should now be able to see how Tidal Blue changes depending on the light

[anchorman]

Thank you for your time and trouble.

What do you think of the car in general? I particular what do you think of the gearbox but have you got any other comments?

Cheers

(Looking at the pics on my laptop but I will go to the desktop and have a proper look).

[aCactus]

Some thoughts after 1 week and 300 miles, please note that my previous car was a Lexus RX350SE with multi media pack (upgraded sound and sat nav) And as an old fashioned engineer I am still in running-in mode so trying to be gentle with all controls at present......

Everything seems to work and nothing has fallen off - this, of course, was what I was expecting. Just about got used to the smart entry/start system when getting in to the car but don't always get the sequence right when stopping as stopping the engine kills all power so I have to remember to fold the mirrors before pressing the start/stop button - sequence also different because of handbrake instead of foot operated parking brake.

Biggest difference to previous car is the engine, less power and more rattles but test drive in Rav4 (and Freelander & CRV with similar engines) had already convinced me that I could live with the occasional lack of refinement and power to get the benefit of diesel economy though I must admit I did also test drive the RX450h and that had ecomony and refinement but a much higher cost to change.

For anchorman - the autobox is very good, extremely smooth changes (as good as the Lexus) in normal mode - not tried sports mode yet. On one long journey I did try the manual mode for a few miles but soon went back to full auto mode, I suspect that the only times I will use it is on long downhill road to give some engine braking (same applied to Lexus).

Other features working as expects - used bluetooth to connect phone and transfer phonebook, satnav work as expected as system is very similar to Lexus.

Still to be tried is copying CDs onto harddrive but I was not really expecting to use this feature as I did not make very much use of the 6 CD/DVD sytem in the Lexus.

[anchorman]

Once again, thanks and I appreciate your feedback.