Which car?

I'm on my second Hyundai Santa Fe... In both cases I bought the "Elite" with the factory tow-bar package and the upgraded rear coils. I passed the first (2015 model...a diesel and 6sp auto) to my daughter. 100,000km fault free apart from a thermistor replacement for the aircon which was readily replaced under warranty. The current one (Dec 2019) has the diesel engine and the 8sp auto. It's covered 15,000 km. I've done two trips from Bris to Cairns and one to Canberra. In all cases it travels very well and "eats" the kms. In the "twisty" bits, simply move the gear selector to "manual" and change gear with the paddle switches. There's a press button 'mode' selector which when 'sport' is selected sends 50% drive Front and rear. Transforms the handling and tracks through corners quite well. I keep accurate fuel consumption figures, over the combined 115,000km the overall average is 7.4L/100km with long trips averaging between 6.1 and 6.8L/100km.

I don't have an electric brake controller as yet so any trailer work is less than 750kg. It towed a loaded trailer (690kg) to Toowoomba up the range without problems. When I bought the second vehicle, they had the 7yr warranty on offer.

If I was to buy again, I'd seriously consider the Pajero sport for its 10yr warranty, higher GCM, increased ground clearance (33mm) and low range transfer case....

Good luck with your choice!

PS the latest Santa Fe and Pallisade have the new Hyundai designed 8sp DCT which I understand is a "wet clutch" design. There's talk of a Hyundai dual cab with a "straight 6" 3L diesel and 8sp DCT for the Australian market with next year or 2023....

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Originally Posted by Homestar

Part of the 10 year warranty is a dealership warranty that Mitsubishi make them provide as part of the purchase price. I don’t think we’ll know how this is honoured for some time yet, but I wouldn’t expect too many dramas from the vehicle for at least 5 years and a couple of 100,000km.

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I was talking to a Mitsubishi dealer (a couple of years ago) about the Pajero vs the Pajero Sport - he said the Pajero engines are bulletproof but the jury was out on the Sport's engine because it was relatively new.

I'd buy a Pajero in a heartbeat if it weren't for the NVH and dash moving around - if Mitsubishi had just spent a little money on it they could've fixed the nagging issues and kept the space and handling.

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Originally Posted by Arapiles

Stupidest article I've read in a while - the Patrol/Armada is sold in the USA, as even a cursory check by the article's author of Nissan USA's website would've revealed:

2021 Nissan Armada | Full-Size 8-Seat V8 SUV | Nissan USA

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That's now. It wasn't in the past and that was kinda the point. I thought the patrol was more widespread. America has strange standards. Their cars are dog turds as far as I'm concerned for the most part, but a lot of that had to do with support or lack of here . We have always had good support for the major Japanese brands, but I wouldn't have touched most Nissan or Mazda in Australia before the Korean and Chinese made such an impact with cheap cars. Now they are up in the top brands, and some of that has to do with the support they have here now

Prado GX would just fit your budget but ticks all your boxes.

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Originally Posted by shwza

That's now. It wasn't in the past and that was kinda the point.

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The article - dated 27 July 2020 - stated that the Patrol wasn't allowed to be sold in the USA. At the time the article was written the Patrol/Armada was on sale in the USA and had been since 2017.

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Originally Posted by Homestar

It’s also European which counts it out too - as it does for the Renault. .... Renault - sorry, I’m a Pom and just wouldn’t drive one.

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Well ..... technically the Koleos is a Korean-Japanese hybrid - it's built in Busan by Samsung/Renault off a Nissan design.

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Originally Posted by Homestar

I think it’s between the Subaru Outback and the Paj Sport currently. Will go take a closer look at each and test drive them. I like both the interior and exterior of the Outback but have reservations about the trans and engine combo and I’m not a fan of the Paj Sport exterior but I don’t mine the interior - which is what I’ll be looking at most of the time so interior is more important as far as that goes and of course how comfortable it is to drive, noise levels etc. The more refined ride is likely to be the winner.

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I've test-driven the Sport and it rides well but is more cramped than the Outback.

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Originally Posted by Arapiles

The article - dated 27 July 2020 - stated that the Patrol wasn't allowed to be sold in the USA. At the time the article was written the Patrol/Armada was on sale in the USA and had been since 2017.

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And prior to that it wasn't, and was never sold as a patrol. Kinda like saying we never had an opel corsair here. I get what you're trying to say, it's just kind of missing my point

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Originally Posted by Homestar

New Deefer is around $30K more than my max budget for a base spec unit so way out of my league unfortunately. It’s also European which counts it out too - as it does for the Renault.

FYI the reason I’m discounting Euro offerings is 2 fold. Firstly I don’t consider them good value for money - the specs are generally much lower until you pile in the money for all the extras whereas the Jap/Thailand/Korean offerings have much better feature lists as standard. This is plainly evident when you look at what my Son and his Partner bought - a mid spec VW Golf and a Kia Cerato. The Kia has way more features even in the base spec although Sons is the GT. All the tech is standard through the entire range - just the comfy bits get comfier as the spec level goes up. Kia has twice the warranty and leaves the golf in the dust performance wise and was $9,000 cheaper. The VW has been back to then dealers 3 times for warranty work in the last 18 months and the Kia zero (apart from servicing). The Kia has 20,000KM more on the clock now too. Build quality of the Kia is almost a match for the VW so I just don’t see why people would buy them to be honest.

Second reason I’ll probably cop some grief over but I just don’t see them as reliable enough for me overall - yes I’m sure everyone here will have a story of how great theirs is but they don’t come with anywhere near as good warranty, customer service or reviews overall. Sorry but it’s just the way I feel about them. Love older stuff, wouldn’t touch anything new from over there. There are also specific brands I would count out just because - Like VW or any in their stable (Skoda, Audi, Seat) because they are just lying arseholes about pretty much everything , Renault - sorry, I’m a Pom and just wouldn’t drive one.

I think it’s between the Subaru Outback and the Paj Sport currently. Will go take a closer look at each and test drive them. I like both the interior and exterior of the Outback but have reservations about the trans and engine combo and I’m not a fan of the Paj Sport exterior but I don’t mine the interior - which is what I’ll be looking at most of the time so interior is more important as far as that goes and of course how comfortable it is to drive, noise levels etc. The more refined ride is likely to be the winner.

I could hate the way they drive and be back to the drawing board. [emoji16]

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The renault is just a Rav 4 with the suspension setup and seating of a renault...... Remember renault owns Nissan ..... so there will be a lot of badge engineering going on ;) I wouldn't buy one because I like proper manual gearboxes, and there isn't enough dealers around any longer. I wouldn't be worried about anything else (they sell millions of renaults/nissans a year .... I'm not concerned with reliablility. There is several of them in my family at the moment....no problems at all !).

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Originally Posted by DoubleChevron

The renault is just a Rav 4 with the suspension setup and seating of a renault...... Remember renault owns Nissan .....

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Funny. I thought the Rav 4 was a Toyota....

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Originally Posted by DoubleChevron

The renault is just a Rav 4 with the suspension setup and seating of a renault...... Remember renault owns Nissan ..... so there will be a lot of badge engineering going on ;) I wouldn't buy one because I like proper manual gearboxes, and there isn't enough dealers around any longer. I wouldn't be worried about anything else (they sell millions of renaults/nissans a year .... I'm not concerned with reliablility. There is several of them in my family at the moment....no problems at all !).

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Originally Posted by Tins

Funny. I thought the Rav 4 was a Toyota....

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No wonder the Toyota dealer stonewalled me when I wanted some warranty work done on the Rav. [bighmmm]