What's The Alternatives?

[firemac]

Another new face for 2013, the four wheel drive version of this is likely to be a strong Rav competitor. These Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Kia front profiles are starting to look very similar.....

New Qashqai

Looks to me like a hint of Mitsubishi L200 on the front ?

I used to rate Nissans but since the tie-up with Renault, I've really gone off them. Apart from parts sharing, which means that Nissans are full of ropey French bits, they also seem to have inherited French standards of build judging by the failures they have suffered with Navarras & the like in the past couple of years.

As for the Crashqui, it seems to be the modern Volvo given the number of brain-dead old fogies trundling about getting in everybody's way.

[rambler]

Another new face for 2013, the four wheel drive version of this is likely to be a strong Rav competitor. These Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Kia front profiles are starting to look very similar.....

New Qashqai

Looks to me like a hint of Mitsubishi L200 on the front ?

I used to rate Nissans but since the tie-up with Renault, I've really gone off them. Apart from parts sharing, which means that Nissans are full of ropey French bits, they also seem to have inherited French standards of build judging by the failures they have suffered with Navarras & the like in the past couple of years.

As for the Crashqui, it seems to be the modern Volvo given the number of brain-dead old fogies trundling about getting in everybody's way.

A ' Rambler ' friend of mine has a 3-4 year old " crashqai " lol, i took a look at it the other day,the dash seems very similar to a jeep cherokee ( newer shape ).

Its dash also seems very very plasticky.....or.....er......cheap !.

he is in his mid 70's and does tend to drive a bit er...............slooooooow

[silly sausage]

If it's a 1.6 petrol or a 1.5 dci he won't have much option but to go slow......

[Guest]

As for the Crashqui, it seems to be the modern Volvo given the number of brain-dead old fogies trundling about getting in everybody's way.

Kev you're not thinking of one of these next are you...... :)

Gus

[dave.m]

Suzuki unveils revised Grand Vitara

Suzuki updates aging SUV to keep up with its mid-sized 4x4 competition

The Suzuki Grand Vitara range has given a subtle makeover, with a revised diesel engine and updates to both the exterior and interior styling among the changes.

The 127bhp 1.9-litre DDiS diesel engine has been retuned for improved fuel economy and lower emissions, and now produces 174g/km of CO2 and returns 42.8mpg on the combined cycle. The improvements mean that the 1.9 Grand Vitara has dropped a VED class to band H. The switchable four-wheel drive system remains.

New seat trims are offered across the range. The SZ5 models now come with a 6.1-inch touchscreen infotainment system, bluetooth and Garmin-powered sat nav as part of a series of upgrades.

Changes to the exterior are mostly cosmetic with a more angular design for the front bumper and grille and new alloy wheels. Updated Grand Vitara models also get a 16-inch space-saver spare wheel fitted to the rear door.

The refreshed Suzuki Grand Vitara is available to order now, ahead of customer deliveries early next year.

http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/suzuki-unveils-revised-grand-vitara

[dave.m]

New Honda baby SUV - first picture

Sketch reveals first details of Honda's next SUV

Urban SUV Concept will go on sale within three years

Honda will unveil a concept car at the Detroit motor show that will become a new baby SUV. Seen here in the first official image of the vehicle, the production version of the Urban SUV Concept is expected to go on sale within the next three years.

The new car, which is widely tipped to be based on the Honda Jazz, will rival the Nissan Juke and Vauxhall Mokka. It is likely to be spun off the new Honda Jazz platform, which is due in the next two years, and with which the firm is targeting sales of up to 400,000 units a year in America and Europe.

Unlike with previous generations of the car, Honda is giving its global regions freedom to develop the Jazz to suit local tastes. The European version is expected to be built at the firm's base in Swindon.

The baby SUV is a key part of Honda president Takanobu Ito's ambitious plans to double global sales to six million cars a year by 2017.

http://www.autocar.c...v-first-picture

[anchorman]

Suzuki looked better before.

[bitman]

New Honda baby SUV - first picture

Sketch reveals first details of Honda's next SUV

Urban SUV Concept will go on sale within three years

Honda will unveil a concept car at the Detroit motor show that will become a new baby SUV. Seen here in the first official image of the vehicle, the production version of the Urban SUV Concept is expected to go on sale within the next three years.

The new car, which is widely tipped to be based on the Honda Jazz, will rival the Nissan Juke and Vauxhall Mokka. It is likely to be spun off the new Honda Jazz platform, which is due in the next two years, and with which the firm is targeting sales of up to 400,000 units a year in America and Europe.

Unlike with previous generations of the car, Honda is giving its global regions freedom to develop the Jazz to suit local tastes. The European version is expected to be built at the firm's base in Swindon.

The baby SUV is a key part of Honda president Takanobu Ito's ambitious plans to double global sales to six million cars a year by 2017.

http://www.autocar.c...v-first-picture

Honda should never have stopped building the HRV

[firemac]

New Honda baby SUV - first picture

Sketch reveals first details of Honda's next SUV

Urban SUV Concept will go on sale within three years

Honda will unveil a concept car at the Detroit motor show that will become a new baby SUV. Seen here in the first official image of the vehicle, the production version of the Urban SUV Concept is expected to go on sale within the next three years.

The new car, which is widely tipped to be based on the Honda Jazz, will rival the Nissan Juke and Vauxhall Mokka. It is likely to be spun off the new Honda Jazz platform, which is due in the next two years, and with which the firm is targeting sales of up to 400,000 units a year in America and Europe.

Unlike with previous generations of the car, Honda is giving its global regions freedom to develop the Jazz to suit local tastes. The European version is expected to be built at the firm's base in Swindon.

The baby SUV is a key part of Honda president Takanobu Ito's ambitious plans to double global sales to six million cars a year by 2017.

http://www.autocar.c...v-first-picture

Honda should never have stopped building the HRV

Agree 101%!!!!

[Hoovie]

I really liked my HR-V but is was underpowered :(

The Skoda Yeti is the updated HR-V in many ways!

[Manxrav]

Agree with two previous posts about the HRV.

Just in passing my Dad (Toyota blood runs in his veins) has just bought a Yeti, he takes delivery between Christmas and the New Year. It is a 2Ltr DSG Diesel, Elegance spec,with 800 miles on the clock.All singing and dancing, Sunroof, xenons and Sat nav, so we will see!!!!!!

When he first researched a new car he was looking at a BMW X1 M Sport, but was put off by the low spec and high price,so for £5000 less he,s got a Yeti that is fully loaded. The only problem with it is that we don,t have a Skoda Dealer on island (We do have a VW dealer), so he will have to go across for any Warranty work if needed ( hope not).

By the way it does have a optional space-saver spare wheel!!!!

We will see, I,m not a happy bunny, on this one,

Regards Clare

[silly sausage]

Fords latest Kuga road tested by HJ, it seems the new Kuga has a new intelligent four wheel drive set up which sounds very much like the Rav 4.4's ......

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/road-tests/ford/ford-kuga-20-tdci-2013-road-test/

[Ex Tiff]

Just had a look at the link and noticed this:-

"The 2.0 TDCi is the more usable performer. We'd go for the lower powered 140PS version in Titanium trim - it's a very accomplished all-rounder for £23,545. Longer term, you might want to take the petrol powered 1.6 EcoBoost, but for anyone keeping their Kuga for less than three years, the TDCi diesel makes more sense."

Has the writer got this the wrong way round, it doesn't seem logical that the much more expensive diesel only makes sense as a short term proposition the saving on fuel cost would never be recovered in less than 3 years. Or is he commenting on the life expectancy of the Ford diesel engine? also I wonder why in these tests the comparisons are never made with the RAV, I've always understood from the same motoring press sources that the RAV is one of the highest volume sellers of this type of vehicle.

[silly sausage]

Hi John,

It does seem that several of these motoring 'experts' now deem modern diesels as only worth owning while they are under manufactures warranty, dmf's and dpf's costing the amounts of money they do to replace, the journalists seem to 'preach petrol' more and more nowadays.

I haven't ever seen any sales figures for the current lines of suv's sold in the uk but they would make interesting reading. It's pretty rural where I live yet among the locals there are very few 4.3 Ravs, there are most certainly more Kugas and CRV'S, even more Freelanders and Discoverys , an equal amount of Tiguans, and recently, a sudden influx of Hyundais. There's even a Yeti in the village, a Skoda that is, not the reclusive Farmer who is rarely seen.

Maybe the Rav 4.4 will restore the popularity as more people 'see the light' when it's time to update, I've read more than one recent suv group test where the Rav wasn't included !

[DjRav]

Hi John,

It does seem that several of these motoring 'experts' now deem modern diesels as only worth owning while they are under manufactures warranty, dmf's and dpf's costing the amounts of money they do to replace, the journalists seem to 'preach petrol' more and more nowadays.

I haven't ever seen any sales figures for the current lines of suv's sold in the uk but they would make interesting reading. It's pretty rural where I live yet among the locals there are very few 4.3 Ravs, there are most certainly more Kugas and CRV'S, even more Freelanders and Discoverys , an equal amount of Tiguans, and recently, a sudden influx of Hyundais. There's even a Yeti in the village, a Skoda that is, not the reclusive Farmer who is rarely seen.

Maybe the Rav 4.4 will restore the popularity as more people 'see the light' when it's time to update, I've read more than one recent suv group test where the Rav wasn't included !

Not the same round here. In the village where we keep our horses (middle of the New Forest, quite rural) there are Ravs everywhere. There's at least five in quite a small village even one house with two Ravs.

Still see quite a few Discoverys, couple of RRovers an LC or two and a few pick ups. Theres one Outlander.

There's a few others chucked in but Toyota and LR between them have by far got the strong hold still.

In our village (on the edge of the New Forest) there's even more LR, with a Discovery, two Freelanders and a RR just in our close! And I see Ravs all round about, all the time!

Dave

[Big Kev]

Hi John,

It does seem that several of these motoring 'experts' now deem modern diesels as only worth owning while they are under manufactures warranty, dmf's and dpf's costing the amounts of money they do to replace, the journalists seem to 'preach petrol' more and more nowadays.

I haven't ever seen any sales figures for the current lines of suv's sold in the uk but they would make interesting reading. It's pretty rural where I live yet among the locals there are very few 4.3 Ravs, there are most certainly more Kugas and CRV'S, even more Freelanders and Discoverys , an equal amount of Tiguans, and recently, a sudden influx of Hyundais. There's even a Yeti in the village, a Skoda that is, not the reclusive Farmer who is rarely seen.

Maybe the Rav 4.4 will restore the popularity as more people 'see the light' when it's time to update, I've read more than one recent suv group test where the Rav wasn't included !

Not the same round here. In the village where we keep our horses (middle of the New Forest, quite rural) there are Ravs everywhere. There's at least five in quite a small village even one house with two Ravs.

Still see quite a few Discoverys, couple of RRovers an LC or two and a few pick ups. Theres one Outlander.

There's a few others chucked in but Toyota and LR between them have by far got the strong hold still.

In our village (on the edge of the New Forest) there's even more LR, with a Discovery, two Freelanders and a RR just in our close! And I see Ravs all round about, all the time!

Dave

Exactly why, Dave, I have been trying to get ma wee sister in Medstead to buy a Rav......middle of bloody nowhere and nearest main toon is.....oh Friar Tuck.......Basingstoke.......totally negates that claim of "we live near Winchester....." Don't get a lotta snow, but when it does, ..... it does. Not entirely on topic, but it is me.......

Shock Horror...."even one house with 2 Ravs".....yep....us too / two.

Big Kev

[firemac]

Hi John,

It does seem that several of these motoring 'experts' now deem modern diesels as only worth owning while they are under manufactures warranty, dmf's and dpf's costing the amounts of money they do to replace, the journalists seem to 'preach petrol' more and more nowadays.

I haven't ever seen any sales figures for the current lines of suv's sold in the uk but they would make interesting reading. It's pretty rural where I live yet among the locals there are very few 4.3 Ravs, there are most certainly more Kugas and CRV'S, even more Freelanders and Discoverys , an equal amount of Tiguans, and recently, a sudden influx of Hyundais. There's even a Yeti in the village, a Skoda that is, not the reclusive Farmer who is rarely seen.

Maybe the Rav 4.4 will restore the popularity as more people 'see the light' when it's time to update, I've read more than one recent suv group test where the Rav wasn't included !

Hi Paul, re the group test you refer to, as the 4.3 is now on run out and no 4.4's yet available in the UK, it's understandable that there is no Toyota in the mix. The 4.3 is virtually obsolete -vs- the competition and there wouldn't be any available to buy even if it scored high in the test. In these circumstances, the absence of a RAV is understandable.

With respect to the diesel issue, I think you are right in that the motoring press does seem to be going off diesels to a growing extent. It's not surprising though given the fact that the technologies that are being used to try to make the diesel refined become liabilities as the engines age such that repairs/replacement of DMF's, DPF's, etc become horrendously expensive. Let's not forget that the diesel engine was never conceived to be anything other than a workhorse designed to run on the inferior fuels (like vegetable oil extracts) that were available where refined petroleum wasn't. Diesel was always an economic solution for specific applications like agriculture, heavy industry, shipping, etc. where sophistication wasn't a requirement. It has only become mainstream in motoring applications as an answer to the oil crises in the 70's due to its relative cheapness and the inherent good mpg that can be achieved with oil burners. As diesel price becomes equal to (or, as in the UK, surpasses) that of petrol, the diesel option becomes less attractive.

What is another nail in the coffin for diesel is the fact that petrol engines are finally being developed to achieve something like their real potential so it is not surprising that in some cases they can now rival diesels for fuel economy, added to the fact that they are cheaper to build & to maintain. With the benefit of hindsight it can be easily seen that if lean-burn technology had been pursued back in the 80's rather than relying on catalytic converter exhaust clean-up (which was driven almost entirely by an alliance of commodities interests and oil companies), petrol engine developments would have come much sooner than they have.

[Ex Tiff]

Hi Paul,

I agree with your comment on the journalists giving a bias toward petrol. Often skewed such as when stating that petrol can now equal diesel for mpg, they usually compare something like a Mondeo diesel with a Ka petrol. A cursory look at the Mondeo brochure shows a direct petrol/diesel equivalent is available and Fords figures show diesel significantly better.

As for the DMF/DPF problems if they were as bad as some would have us believe, second hand diesel prices would plummet making it even less viable to get a diesel as a short term proposition, few private owners do sufficient mileage.

I believe both technologies were rather rushed into service leaving the buying public to do the final product testing, More recent vehicles do not appear to suffer the same failure rates.

I think the 4.4 has moved more toward the 4WD estate sector in line with the Volvo estates and the Skoda Octavia Scout than the traditional 4X4 sector, maybe a good marketing move as the RAV will find it increasingly hard to compete pricewise with european built vehicles, given a strong yen and the European protectionist import tariffs imposed on goods assembled outside the EU.

[dave.m]

Fiat 500 SUV and baby Jeep get green light

£800m investment at Fiat's Melfi plant will see new models arrive in early 2014

he new Fiat 500X SUV and a new baby Jeep SUV will start production in early 2014 as part of a £810m investment at the Melfi factory, the company announced today.

The move marks the first big boost in Fiat’s plan to move away from building mass-market cars in Western Europe and towards upmarket models with higher profit margins.

The first model off the line will be the new Jeep. Only available with all-wheel drive, it will be sold worldwide, with Melfi the only production source. After the 500X, a third model will be added in 2015 to replace the ageing Punto, though it will not be a conventional supermini and is intended to command a more premium price. All three models are based on Fiat’s new ‘Small Wide’ platform, which currently underpins the 500L MPV.

The complete re-building of the Melfi facility (which will see 500 new welding robots, a new paint shop, new panel stamping facilities and new assembly area) will eventually allow up to 1600 vehicles to be built on a three-shift pattern. Fiat says that the new production lines will be flexible enough to build four models, so another 500L-based model looks to be on schedule for 2016.

Fiat says that it will introduce 19 ‘made-in-Italy’ models by 2106. Aside from the four compact models at Melfi, there will also be nine new Alfa Romeos and six Maseratis. Fiat’s budget models - the Panda and smaller 500 models - will eventually be made outside Western Europe where build costs are lower. The 500L is already made in Serbia, at what was the Zastava plant.

http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry/fiat-500-suv-and-baby-jeep-get-green-light

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[silly sausage]

I was chatting to a chap this afternoon who was walking by as I was outside car cleaning, he was telling me he has a new Passatt Alltrack on order for the New Year to replace his Subaru Outback, with a glass roof and a leather upgrade, wait for it...........almost 33k ! I think that makes the Rav4.4 prices look very reasonable, and the Skoda Scout positively cheap !

33K ! Would You ?

[Big Kev]

I was chatting to a chap this afternoon who was walking by as I was outside car cleaning, he was telling me he has a new Passatt Alltrack on order for the New Year to replace his Subaru Outback, with a glass roof and a leather upgrade, wait for it...........almost 33k ! I think that makes the Rav4.4 prices look very reasonable, and the Skoda Scout positively cheap !

33K ! Would You ?

Took an Alltrak for test drive 2/3 monthsago, Paul......utterly superb car, but as you

say above, when you add up automatic with 170hp engine, and then add leather at 2.2kgbp, the Rav is a total steal !!!

[Plutus]

The new Outlander.

All these SUV's look v. similar.

http://www.whatcar.com/car-news/2013-mitsubishi-outlander-review/264755

[firemac]

The new Outlander.

All these SUV's look v. similar.

http://www.whatcar.c...r-review/264755

I preferred the previous Outlander. New one looks like a dog !Removed!.

[Manxrav]

Couldnt have put it better myself Jim, terrible design features!!!!

Regards Clare

[bigend]

I notice the boot has'nt got a flat floor.

Keith and now it's party time Yo!