Faults:

I bought it brand new in 2013/02. Steering wheel making funny sounds and an oil leak in the front. I took it in for its 45000km service and reported the matter. Bear in mind I have owned the car for 2 years 1 month, and I'm told the part is not under warranty, and I need to pay R 8000 for the part; that's excluding repairs.

It's been sitting at the dealers now for more than a week because I don't have that kind of cash. I was told the problem is the power steering rack.

I'm so angry because the warranty for this part ended last month, which was February. I phoned the head office and they said there's nothing they can do - I must just pay.

General Comments:

It's been OK since this problem struck, and I feel it still has low mileage to have a problem like this.

Faults:

Cat converter at 50 000.

General Comments:

What a lovely car.

Apart from normal servicing, I did not spend R500 in 100 000 km. That was for removing the cat converter at 50 000 km. The door rubber kept on coming loose, but that was solved with a bit of Bostick.

Tires were replaced at 100 000 km with slightly smaller ones (225/60/16), which made the car a lot nicer to drive, and you can drive around in 5th gear, where you previously had to change down to 4th or 3rd. I can strongly advise owners to consider this change in tire size. It is much quicker and has better fuel consumption as well. It is also much easier to pull away with the air con on.

Service from the dealer was pathetic to say the least, and I decided to do the servicing myself.

It is basically a Toyota RAV of 3 models back. It uses a lot of RAV4 spares.

Ride quality is a bit hard, but bringing the tire pressures down to 1.8 bar sorted that.

I would buy another one without thinking twice.

Any enquiries about the tire changes can be sent to carel@trailerboys.co.za