4.4 Feedback.

[firemac]

A top of the Range Invincible D-CAT Auto can be had with a £4500 discount. Not bad going that. I notice that Kuga's are available with the same discount. I could be tempted at that sort of money. But I shouldn't really as I love my current Rav. Just narked a bit at having to put 4 new shocks on at 3.5 years old.

Our 5-dr is 11 yrs old now and still on original suspension @ circa 83K. What have you been doing to yours, Dom??!.

[silly sausage]

I might be more tempted to update to a 4.4 if there wasn't the talk of a new engine in the not too near future, I have some free time this coming week so may go and have a run out in a demo to get a feel for the car in general.

[DominicPriestley]

That's just the thing Firemac. Nothing out of the ordinary. It spends the majority of its time on European roads, especially in France (going to France on Thursday for 10days. Should cover around 2500miles). Not got a tow bar on and most of the time it's just me and SWMBO on board. All 4 were leaking and the ride had become choppy.

[daiashthomas]

£25790 we are paying it off in full, no finance, with ours in part-ex.

with regards to the shocks, i'm sure there has been a re-call for something with the shocks (I could be wrong)

Excited now just over a week to go....

[silly sausage]

That sounds a good deal to me, I imagine that's for a manual gearbox , what colour did you choose ?

[Vespa Alex]

I've got a second test drive booked for the weekend. I've got a 2.2 manual for a few hours to play with which I'm looking forward to.
I need to remember a list of things to check and test or I'll just drive round and forget.

[anchorman]

A top of the Range Invincible D-CAT Auto can be had with a £4500 discount. Not bad going that. I notice that Kuga's are available with the same discount. I could be tempted at that sort of money. But I shouldn't really as I love my current Rav. Just narked a bit at having to put 4 new shocks on at 3.5 years old.

Oh heck you want some info off me. I will try to sort it this weekend - sorry.

[daiashthomas]

That sounds a good deal to me, I imagine that's for a manual gearbox , what colour did you choose ?

Decuma Grey, yes Manual box

[Big Kev]

Everybody seems to be opting for Decuma Grey......look out for mega discounts on all other colours which have been sitting for ages, LOL.

[Vespa Alex]

Out of interest, what are waiting times like?

Is everything a factory build taking months, or do they still hold a reasonable amount of stock?

Come to think of it, where are they building these?

[silly sausage]

They're built in Japan for the UK market, that was the case with the 4.3 anyway. I was lead to believe there was up to a three month wait for models with a sunroof, sorry, 'moon roof', that was a few weeks back now. I like decuma, i've seen a red one and that looked very nice, i'm curious to see the green.

[Vespa Alex]

The green looked brilliant on the one I saw in a showroom. It would be my first choice.

[Big Kev]

Saw the Highland Green weeks ago......bootiful.

[Vespa Alex]

I had my second test drive today and I still like it. It's very nice and comfortable with buckets of room inside. It encourages a nice relaxed driving style but you can still make decent progress if you try. It's not a sporty drive, but for the size of it it's quite acceptable.

The stereo is good enough to keep me happy, though a premium option would be nice. I was slightly disappointed with the fuel consumption though that may be me being picky. I got 42mpg indicated from a 2.2 4wd manual against a claimed 49.6 with sensible driving including a reasonable 70mph cruise. I'd want a 2.0 2wd which should be 15% better and it had only done 4000 miles so should loosen up. That's actually not bad for something that size, but I'm used to a more economical hatchback.

Oh, and service costs weren't too bad, but 10k intervals seem a little short for a moden car.

[daiashthomas]

i personally think long service intervals are B.S. my company vehicles 1st service was due at 22500 but it actually needed a service at 18000, due to the condition of the oil the dashboard was like a Christmas tree, but it is french so.....

with the way modern diesels are, with all this euro-hippy-green-eco nonsense they need servicing more often due to all the soot they retain, if we ditched egr's and dpf's we'd be getting better mpg.

[Vespa Alex]

i personally think long service intervals are B.S. my company vehicles 1st service was due at 22500 but it actually needed a service at 18000, due to the condition of the oil the dashboard was like a Christmas tree, but it is french so.....

with the way modern diesels are, with all this euro-hippy-green-eco nonsense they need servicing more often due to all the soot they retain, if we ditched egr's and dpf's we'd be getting better mpg.

My Fiat Bravo with a 1.6 TDI engine has 12 month and up to 21k miles service intervals. My annual mileage has dropped so I always hit the time rather than distance limit.

The Octavia I had before that was on variable servicing with a 2 year/20k mile limit and that always went by distance first - it would warn me it needed doing at around 18k as I recall.

As for the emissions control measures affecting MPG, you are spot on. The DPF is going to make for a less free flowing exhaust, and then uses extra fuel to burn off the soot, both of which will harm your fuel consumption. Whether that's a fair trade off for the cleaner air coming out of your tail pipe is open to debate.....

[daiashthomas]

DPF removal is the way forward

[anchorman]

DPF removal is the way forward

...to having to put it back again when it fails it's test?

[daiashthomas]

i've been told it doesn't affect the test, nor does the egr.

[anchorman]

Not at the moment but it is coming.

[Vespa Alex]

i've been told it doesn't affect the test, nor does the egr.

At the moment I believe that's correct. The trouble is that MOT rules change and you may find that it starts to be checked and then you'll pay to get one put back. It's also something that should in theory be declared to your insurance company.

Removal and a remap then replacement and another remap will outweigh any fuel savings.

Don't get me wrong. If my DPF started to die I'd go for the cheaper option at the time and get rid, but the better option is to pick the right car for your driving style and journeys in advance, avoiding one if necessary.

[daiashthomas]

This county is getting worse, green culture my **** LOL, look at all the extra manufacturing and messing around, surely that's adding more to the supposed global warming effect (I like to call it natural climate change), than a little bit of soot, just because we can't see it, and you can see the black smoke, that's all it boils down to. Surely if we are doing more miles per gallon that out weighs the effects of these silly devices.

[firemac]

This county is getting worse, green culture my **** LOL, look at all the extra manufacturing and messing around, surely that's adding more to the supposed global warming effect (I like to call it natural climate change), than a little bit of soot, just because we can't see it, and you can see the black smoke, that's all it boils down to. Surely if we are doing more miles per gallon that out weighs the effects of these silly devices.

Emminently sensible, Ashley, but pointless, I'm afraid. The lunatics have already taken over the asylum and hocked it to the banks. Every one of these so-called environmental "improvements" is just another scam to rip people off.

The new MoT rules imposed by the EU is a good example: the main lobbyists for the changes were the German manufacturers, garage groups and parts suppliers.

The revolution can't come soon enough!

[daiashthomas]

back on track i think,

had the new Rav4 last Tuesday, done a 350 mile round trip on sun/mon. what a comfy ride!

it was eating up the miles, and the major difference between this and the 4.3 is how quiet the 4.4 is!

and considering it's brand new, the mpg was constantly creeping up, almost 40mpg on the average now over the 500 miles total, which should eventually get better.

unless I was using cruise control i found my self constantly breaking the speed limits as the ride is so quiet and smooth you just don't realise what speed your doing.

The power tailgate novelty doesn't seem to wear off yet.

smart entry and start still take some getting used to, I always find myself going for the usual ignition barrel position, to remove the non existent key ha ha.

all in all

well impressed.

[Vespa Alex]

Sounds good. Is that the 2.2?

Drive the deal were tempting me today.
A 2.2 Icon with metallic paint for £22k instead of £27k!