SUVs with space for the whole family are somewhat of a staple here in Australia
a quick look back at the history of the segment brings me to things like.
The Ford territory the Holden Captiva although, we don’t really talk about that
one and of course, how can you forget the big old Toyota Kluger Chasing Cars
honest reviews of your next car brought to you by.
1: Now on its fourth generation this Toyota Kluger has more than established itself.
In Australia and especially with a hybrid powertrain, that seemingly laughs
in the face of rising fuel costs and speaking of over the last 12 months 67
of all Kluger sales have been for hybrid variants, which has nothing to sneeze at
so we’re seating for the whole family a fuel economy figure, that bears that of
some small SUVs and a very impressive price, tag is this Toyota Kluger gxl
hybrid the best large SUV, that you can buy in Australia before, we dive into
this review of the Kluger gxl hybrid, it’s worth noting that this is a model
year 22 car and there are a few slight differences for the model year 23 mainly
being an updated 12.3 inch dash display with wireless phone projection Toyota
also isn’t providing pricing for these new SUVs citing Supply delays and they
state, that contacting a dealer is the best way to get this information though
the exterior of the Kluger isn’t the most eye-catching it’s fair to say that
the interior feels very premium and is really quite upmarket up, here you’ve got
an 8-inch infotainment screen with satellite navigation and although it,
doesn’t get wild or simple carplay and engine Auto it does get those two
systems included but, you’re going to need to plug your phone in and then
behind the steering wheel here you get a semi-digital cluster, and what I mean by
that is you’ve got a pair of analog gauges either side of a seven inch
screen and I mean it’s nice to use it kind of shows that you don’t need one of
these fancy All Digital clusters because, the information is there and I like it
on that premium topic there are a plethora of soft touch materials that
surround, you when you’re sitting right here obviously on the door cards on the
dash it’s all leather covered you also get a really nice leather wrapped
steering wheel that just feels nice to grab there’s also this kind of strange
plasticky gray trimming that contrasts the lever but, it’s rather inoffensive
and looks nice then you’ve got the seats that are big they kind of feel like a
lazy boy which means that they’re very comfortable, for long trips they’ve got
eight-way power adjustment and they’re also heated which is a nice bonus but,
unfortunately they miss out on ventilation and as I’ve found over
2: The last three months that’s something, that’s quite important in the Australian.
summer other amenities that you’ll find in the cabin include a basic six-speaker
sound system, that is actually reasonably impressive to listen to there’s also a
pair of USBS down here a 12 volt socket and another USB which I can only assume
is for charging a pair of cup holders but if I’m honest space is the one thing
that this Kluger has plenty of there’s massive door bins, I mean I feel like, I’m
not constricted at all here there’s so much space, and then in the middle here
it’s kind of reminiscent of one of those big American SUVs, with a very wide
signal console that also means that you get a massive bin here with a little
shelf up here to put your little items and then just a massive bin down there
for anything big water bottles food pizzas whatever you want back here in
the second row the Kluger the theme of a massive amount of space continues
because, I feel like I’m in an airplane right now, if I’m honest you’ve got a
massive amount of Headroom there’s a heap of leg room and I’d say one of the
highlights that’s very underrated of this Kluger is a very flat floor it does
get a bit of a raised transmission tunnel here but, it’s quite interesting
because for an all-wheel drive vehicle, it’s so unintrusive into the cabin and
it’s fantastic unfortunately the premium feeling, isn’t the same and doesn’t
really continue back here I mean you get the same synthetic leather seat but the
door cards scratchy plastic there is leather armrests but, I don’t know it’s
3: Just a little bit of a disappointment when they’re made to look like.
The leather up front but they’re just cheap plastic on the amenities front
the Kluger gxl comes standard with tri-zone climate control, which means back here
you get temperature and fan control as well as roof mounted vents which work
out great when the roof is so high there’s a couple of USB ports back here
and although there’s no panoramic sunroof on this model, you’re going to
have to upgrade to that Grande hybrid if you want to be able to see out the roof
and lastly these seats actually have a very handy function and the fact that
they both tilt and slide meaning a getting into that, third row is easier
and B once you’ve got a somewhat tall person in the back there you can
actually slide, these seats forward to give them a bit of extra layer group so
let’s go check out, that row as you’d expect backer in the third row space
doesn’t come easily and that’s mainly because, there’s quite a raised floor so
your knees are quite high and if I had the seat back in its original position,
where it slid right back I probably wouldn’t be able to fit here thankfully
as I mentioned you can slide these seats forward so now I have got a decent
amount of leg room and up there, I could probably sit as well so it’s actually
quite good in terms of Headroom, you wouldn’t want to be much taller than me
because I’m about a centimeter off the roof so if I grew any more in the next
few minutes it’d be quite uncomfortable on the amenities front.
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