Faults:
Hmm...where to start...
Head gasket soon after I bought it.
The Radio would only play AM.
Transmission slipped, sometimes would totally skip second gear.
Sometimes the Engine would Crank, but not start.
Something kept killing the battery, never could figure out what.
Leaked oil.
Burned Oil.
Tons of little odds and ends that I won't mention, such as the horn only working 20% of the time and the headlights flicking off at random.
General Comments:
Well, where should I start?
The Engine in this thing was pathetic in the power department, It wasn't even AWD and it wouldn't even slip the tires on pavement. I've got a 1300LB boat I hook behind my 87 Ranger with a 2.9L and almost 410,000 miles, and it pulls it with ease, the typical Japanese lack of anything resembling Torque was very apparent with this Vehicle. When I was pulling it up boat ramps, I would floor it and pray. Most of the time just Bogging down as the tinny little Asian motor pulled with every shread of tiny guts it had.
The cockpit...Cramped, Spartan, and cheap. Typical Asian Car. The plastic controls we're hard to grab, and the seat was the most uncomfortable thing this side of a buckboard. The gas pedal must of been designed for small people, because my size 14 foot had trouble finding the gas pedal.
The driving experience was awful. With the A\C on I had to floor it to go with traffic off of a red-light. It handled like a Sports car... which is NOT a good thing in my book... unless it is a sports car. It was hard to park for being so small, it rode harder than my much tougher and stouter built little BII I have.
Besides that... this thing was awful in the snow... I have a old 77 Lead Sled LTD II that goes better than this thing, can you imagine my embarrassment when in the winter time I was in a "SUV" and had to get pulled out by a Chevy Caprice?
The only reason I bought this thing was because my wife liked it better than the Expedition I used to have, well, she bought a Ranger, and I'm in the process of getting another Expedition... a REAL SUV. With a Full Frame, V8, and true 4wd. Big Deal if it sucks more gas and emits more smog...it's a better Vehicle.
I thought cars built over in Japan we're supposed to be better than domestic cars?...I guess not. NEVER will I buy another foreign vehicle.
27th Jan 2007, 14:43
If it is marketed as an outdoorsy 4x4, that's a total lie, mine doesn't have enough power to climb a hill led alone anything else!