The Best and Worst First Cars to Buy

rev up your engines, now buying a first car can be a scary situation, there’s allkinds of different cars out there, there’s all kinds of people selling themso I’m going to give you some advice on how to do it the smart way, now I know a lot ofyoung people think, oh I want to get a sports car for my first car, well a lotof times that’s not such a smart thing to do, especially if you got a littleamount of money, buying a used sports car can be a big mistake, as guys tend tobeat them, you get a used one, they often have a lot of problems and it’s going tocost you a fortune to fix, now if you have money and you’re talking aboutbuying a brand-new sports car, I’ve had plenty of customers buy FordMustangs brand-new and take care of them and be happy with them, but buying a usedsports car, that’s often a big gamble, if you’re going to do it, pay a guy like me tocheck it out first, he’ll tell you whether it’s a decent deal or notover the years I’ve had guys say, hey I can get this used BMW for a really goodprice I think I’ll buy it is my first carthose things are endless money pits, they’re cheap because they have all kindsof problems that cost a fortune to fix, you want to stay away from cars likethat, instead you might think of sporty cars, okay this is my old Toyota Celicanot really a sports car, it’s a sporty car, the thing is based on a ToyotaCorolla platform, and yeah that’s a really old car now, but the scions thatToyota made for years, hey there were sporty cars too and there’s plenty ofthem out there that can last you a long time, and here’s a big tip, when you’rebuying a first car, don’t just go out and get one that’s got all the bells andwhistles, because all that stuff generally is going to break down especiallybuying a used vehicle, things like four-wheel drive or all-wheel drivethose cars get older those things break, they can cost a fortune to fix, so myadvice for the first car is, go simpler, just get a front-wheel drive car or arear-wheel drive car, don’t go and buy all this fancy stuff that can break downand end up that you regret your decision, so the first thing you have to thinkabout when you want to buy a first car is, how are you going to drive it, how many milesyou’re going to put on it, what’s it going to be used for, now ifyou’re going to buy a first car, I don’t advise going to the big car dealershipsbecause they generally charge way too much for the cars, but you can use themto your advantage, because if you’re not sure what type of car you want to driveyou can test them all out there, I told customers, hey you might not likethis car they’ll ride that well even though you think you like the way itlooks, go to a used car lot, try them out see if you like the way they ride, youmight say, oh that thing really rides horrible, I’m not going to buy it or you might likeit, and here’s a tip for people who just say theyhave to have an SUV as a first car, realize that SUVs specially in the UnitedStates, are very popular so their prices are sky high even used, you can get amuch better deal say on a Toyota Camry sedan, then you’re going to get on anyToyota or Lexus SUV, do a little bit of research, it’s your first car you neverhad one, check out the resale value and repairhistories online, if you find that a car has a really horrible resale valuethere’s generally a very good reason, sometimes it’s better to buy an olderreliable car, than it is a newer one that’s a known problemI mean if you find a Toyota Corolla that was 15 years old and had 140,000miles, it might way outlast any Chrysler product, even if it’s only ten years oldand has sixty or seventy thousand miles, and here’s my last tip, never ever buy thefirst model of anything for your first car, if you’re buying a new carbuy one model that’s been out for a while, don’t get one that has this brandnew type of engine or brand new type of transmission, because many times theymake mistakes on them, I’ve had customers buy these Mazdas with the SKYACTIVtechnology, only to find that the variable valve systems were breakingdown in them and cost thousands and thousands of dollars to fix, becausethere’s a great deal of difference between buying the latest greatest phonetechnology for maybe seven or eight hundred bucks, and forking out a ton ofmoney for a car that’s got new unproven technology, and if you’re thinking aboutgetting a hybrid as a first car, realize that buying those things used is a realgamble, unless you’re buying a brand new one and you’vegot money to burn, they can last for quite some time before they haveproblems, I got many customers with them that they got well over a hundredthousand miles out of them before anything serious went wrong, just realizethat they cost a lot more and really you never recoup the money difference in gasmileage versus what you paid for the car, versus the depreciation of the carbelieve me, and say you’re just looking for a regular car, I know people are going tothink I’m crazy because they hear me say how I can’t stand Volkswagens, but in Europelots of people drive Volkswagens, I talked to a guy in Romania and he saidScotty we can’t get parts for Toyota’s here, but there’s parts for Volkswagens allover the place and lots of people buy Volkswagens and drive them, so if you’rein Romania, hey your first car might be a good deal to buy a Volkswagen, so nowyou’ve learned a bit about buying your first car, and just remember it’s yourfirst car, it’s not the only car you’re going to have, you just want to make surethat your first car isn’t a very bad decision, so if you never want to missanother one of my new car repair videos, remember to ring that Bell!

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Why Luxury Cars are Expensive to Fix

one, two, three, four!Rev up your engines!It’s time for the Scotty Kilmer Channeltoday I’m going to explain why luxury cars often cost so much money to repair,now luxury cars may be fun to drive, and be really nice inside, with fancy woodtrim, and comfy leather seats, but you have to realize one thing about luxurycars, they are expensive to repair, as an example, I’m going to change the front shockon this Lexus, right here, simple enough you might think, here’s theshock that goes inside the spring, but guess what, I tried and tried, but no onemakes this part other than Lexus, they didn’t make and sell that many gx4seventies, so there’s no company that makes a replacement, other than thedealer, so I had to pay almost $300 for one shock, and to me that’s reallyshocking, because this shock absorber cost more than I paid for this entirecar two years ago, and sure I bought the car used, but hey, I’d rather have a wholecar for $300, versus one shock absorber, and if you think that’s bad, the backshock absorbers on these aren’t air suspension, they cost almost six hundredand forty dollars apiece, because whenever there’s not an aftermarket forparts, you’re at the whim of the dealer, they can charge whatever they want forthe part, and they often do, now after I bought the Celica, I did put struts inthe front of it, but hey, they only cost me $65 a piece, because it’s a Toyota, andthere’s a big aftermarket, because when millions of cars are sold, companies willmake lots of spare parts for them, because there’s a market, so if you buy ahigh-dollar luxury vehicle, and they don’t make that many of them, and don’tsell that many of them, you’re not going to find any good aftermarket parts for them,and to take it even further, let’s say you own an Aston Martin like this,it just had a clutch put in it, and it cost over $9,000 to do the job,so don’t even think about rolls-royce, now over the years, I’ve had manycustomers buy used luxury vehicles, only to become really sad when they find outhow much money it cost to fix them, so if you’re thinking of being one of thosepeople, perhaps you might think again about buying a luxury car, and rememberif you’ve got any car questions just visit scotty kilmer. com and i’ll answerthem as soon as I get back from this ride.

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We Take a Deep Dive Into the Tesla Model 3 — Cars.com

few car companies have created quite as much buzz in recent history as TeslaCalifornia automaker responsible mostly for very expensive and very fast carslike the Model S and the Model X but here we are with the all-new model 3 nowthis is the Tesla that’s more affordable this is the Tesla that competes withsort of bread-and-butter luxury sports sedans like the BMW 3-series and they’resaying these Benz C Class but there’s still a lot that’s different about itand we’re gonna take you through that well start off with size and styling nowthe model 3 unlike the Model S is a lot shorter you can tell there’s tighteroverhangs it’s about a foot and a half shorter bumper-to-bumper than the ModelS now speaking of bumper this front one here you can tell there’s no grille thisbeing an electric car doesn’t need as much ventilation there is someventilation down here but just a very simple face similar to what you see onthe Model S you come around at the side there’s a lot of cameras if you lookclosely there’s one here behind the front fender there’s another camera uphere on the B pillar overall Tesla says there’s eight cameras 12 ultrasonicsensors and forward-facing radar built into every single Model 3 even thoughsome of these aren’t even turned on yet Tesla says they’re supposed to enablethe car to have kind of full autonomy full self driving capabilities underTesla’s auto pilot program at some point in the future now come around to theback some cool stuff here the model 3 unlike the Model S is a traditionalsedan but this trunk here the way it comes up gives you a lot of access tothe trunk because the trunk lid actually look how far it rises it just kind ofcomes all the way out of kind of halfway down the seat pillar right there butjust gives you a lot more access back there now there’s no spare tire insteadthere’s just kind of well down here where Tesla has some charging hardwareall of that hardware is gonna plug in right here to the charge port to get upto the roof every Model 3 has a glass roof standard underneath it the rearpassengers really can pretty much see everything up there it’s similar to whatyou get in the Model X facing forward three that’s the visibility you getlooking back now a clear section over the front seats is optional if you don’tget that there’s actually just headliner material here we’re told even though theglass roof above that remains as you look around here in the model three it’svery simple some might think it’s actually too austere but as far asmaterials quality and consistency I mean everything is really up to snuff to whatyou’d get in some of these other cars in kind of the thirty and forty thousanddollar price range it’s just in terms of graining and soft stuff where your armsand your elbows and your knees kind of land now all the action happens throughthis 15 inch horizontal display your distinct from the 17 inch verticaldisplay in the Model S because that also accompanies sort of a gauge display overhere not the case in the model three everything happens through herealthough the left side of the display has we’re told things like thespeedometer all your driving instruments over you’re kind of within your line ofsight this is sort of your home screen here Google Maps right here veryresponsive it all works through a 4G LTE connection and pretty much everythingelse but the kitchen sink is in here everything from volume to you know phonecontrols to climate whatever you want to do there there’s even some very coolstuff in terms of what you can control the air vents for example I meanpassengers and kind of control the direction of the air vents which by theway are all up here along the dashboard itself kind of embedded and you caneither create two of them or you can put them together and just have onedirection kind of moving around speaking of all these features some of the stuffthat you’d expect physical controls for there aren’t any because they’rerepurposed from these steering wheel controls which can do various thingsincluding obviously a stereo volume and tuning but they can also do things likelet’s see if I can figure this out mirror adjustments yeah there you go sobasically you can use these controls you have to use these controls to changeyour mirror angles a steering wheel column if you want to go up or down withthe steering column you use the controls again to do that just lots of stuffembedded into this screen you know I’m sure that you’ve learned it eventuallybut right here at first glance seems like there’s just a lot of learningyou’d have to do even just getting into the car now a few features thatcuriously are missing for such a high tech car apple carplay Androidand wireless smartphone charging none of those are available in the model 3 Teslasays among the few controls that aren’t embedded in this screen are windowswitches here and a button to get out of the car that activates the door handlebasically there’s an override lever here in case it’s not working for some reasonto get back into the car there’s manual door handles on the outside as opposedto kind of the ones that motor out toward you to present themselves in theModel S and the Model X now the model 3 being an electric car doesn’t have allthe drivetrain architecture so what you don’t get is a floor hump here acrossthe floor lots of room to kind of stretch out for rear passengers I’m 6feet tall that’s about where I’d sit to drive and I’ve got like really goodlegroom left over here we do wish the seat set a little bit higher off theground though I’d kind of just think I’m squatting here overall though if it’s athigher that would mean that over bumps in the road my head might hit this glassceiling which looks pretty cool probably doesn’t feel very goodnow the model 3 has had a very slow roll out painfully slow if you’re waiting inline for one of these cars but Tesla says it’s finally started to get throughthe initial rollout to Tesla employees and now it’s selling them as we speak toTesla owners current Tesla owners are actually getting deliveries of this carand people who don’t own a Tesla we’re new Tesla owners they’re still waitingbut hopefully that wait will kind of start to move along sooner rather thanlater how long is that wait well if you signed up right now and put down adeposit test Assessors a roughly 12 to 18 month to wait for the model 3 andcars that are actually close to its $35,000 starting price before taxincentives that’s going to be kind of toward the tail end so far what we’relooking at so still a lot of waiting to do stay tunedyou

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Why Not to Buy a Porsche – The Worst Sports Car

rev up your engines!Porsche’s they’re beautiful cars, they have great handling and quickacceleration, and today I’m going to tell you why you should never buy one, a customer of minejust purchased this one as a toy, he paid about $7000 for it, it’s only got68 thousand miles on it and it looks beautiful, but somebody paid over fiftythousand dollars for this car when it was brand new, so why oh why did it lose 43thousand dollars of its 50 thousand dollar value, when it still looks so goodand still runs decently, and here comes the answer, it’s got a mid-engine whichis great for handling, but horrible for repair, as you can see in this picturethe engine is way up front here in the middle, it’s very hard to work on, youcan’t even see it without taking a body off, so in an actual car that’s allhidden way down in here, say something like a water pump goes out and when welook under the car, needless to say there’s not too much working room upthere in the engine, this thing is really something to work on when you have anengine problem, well in a normal car with the engine in the front, I can do mostwater pumps in an hour or so, might cost you two or three hundred bucks, but on thisthing, just changing out a water pump is going to cost you well over a thousanddollars, and literally that’s just the tip of the iceberg, I had a customer with a911 Porsche, it needed two catalytic converters, and the bill would have beenover seventy four hundred dollars to replace them, he just got rid of the carinstead, now yes they aren’t really fun cars to drive and my customer was smart, hegot a standard transmission, because they’re pretty reliable but theautomatics, they’re very unreliable as they age and cost a fortune to rebuildand while they do corner and drive quite well, they actually have a very roughride, especially with these low profile tires, every time I get one and I’m doneroad testing it, I asked my wife if she wants to go for a ride, she says nothanks I hate those things they ride like go-karts, now if your looking forstyle, hey this might be for you, a lot of people say they’re beautiful lawnornaments, now Janis Joplin sang about how all her friends drove Porsches, butreally, following Janis Joplin’s lifestyle may not be sucha smart choice, and remember if you’ve got any car questions just visit theScotty Kilmer channel,so if you never want to miss another one of my new car repair videos, remember toring that Bell!

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2018 Aston Martin DB11 AMR review

IF THE “old” V12-powered Aston Martin DB11 is James Bond sitting at the bar in a dinner jacket, then its replacement — the new DB11 AMR — is him in lurid ski wear, skimming down an Alpine slope in a hail of gunfire.

It looks louder, goes quicker and makes more noise, although probably no more than you would expect when AMR stands for Aston Martin Racing.

Traditionalists will doubtless question the decision to put a lime green stripe down a car from a brand as renowned for good taste as Aston Martin, but those people probably haven’t seen for themselves how good the bestriped DB11 AMR looks in the metal.

Then again, if you’re still unconvinced, you’ll be glad to hear only the Signature Editions (of which just 100 will be built) get the stripe.

Standard AMR models, as shown in the main gallery, will be less polarising — they get a smattering of carbon fibre on the bonnet and sills, smoked lights and glossy black details on the grille, roof and rear diffuser. All these features make the already handsome DB11 look meaner and more purposeful.

The sporty theme continues inside, where you get exposed carbon fibre trim pieces, yellow stripes down the AMR-embossed seats and plenty of Alcantara. It’s a smart design, with an eight-inch infotainment system from Mercedes that’s easy to use.

Not so good are the Aston’s cheap interior plastics — in the air vents, for example. They’d feel low-rent in a car with a price of £50,000, let alone one costing more than three times that.

It’s probably our duty to inform you that the rear seats are only suitable for small children and the boot isn’t huge. But frankly, if you’re looking for practicality, you’re in the wrong place — performance is what the DB11 AMR is all about and it 5.2-litre twin-turbocharged V12 ensures it has plenty.

This hefty lump of prime British beef produces 630bhp — 30bhp up on the regular V12 — which is enough to get the Aston from 0-62mph in 3.7 seconds and keep going until it hits 208mph.

On the road, those numbers translate to relentless performance and a sound that could wake the dead.

What’s less expected is the way the AMR corners. Its quick, evenly weighted steering gives you the confidence to push the Aston into bends, there’s very little body lean and its near-perfect weight distribution helps it feel balanced. Only the spongy brakes and jerky gearchanges spoil the experience when you’re pressing on.

Overall, though, the Aston makes more sense when you don’t drive like a lunatic. Stick it in GT mode and the suspension is compliant but also taught — not as floaty as the outgoing Bentley Continental GT — and the exhaust is muffled, so you can make swift progress without producing a whole lot of noise.

The same features mean that early-morning starts don’t have to wake the neighbours, but the less-than-smooth transmission can be wearing at low speeds, and the DB11’s long bonnet a little daunting to thread down roads packed with traffic.

That’s not the point of the AMR, though. It’s a car that can gobble up huge distances comfortably, yet be entertaining when you come across the right road. The lime green stripe might not be standard, but an engaging drive is, and that’s a good enough reason to choose the Aston over most rivals.

Click to see how much you can save on a new car at carwow.

Aston Martin DB11 AMR rivals

Bentley Continental GT
Price £151,615 – £214,625 but save £28,037 on average at carwow

Lexus LC500
Price £76,595 – £91,995 view on carwow

Or, for a more affordable alternative, check out the Mercedes C-class Coupé
Price £32,330 – £50,675 but save £6,056 on average at carwow

 

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Extended Test: 2018 Lexus NX 300h review

Specifications

• Model 2018 Lexus NX300h F-Sport P Navi
• Motor 2,494cc four-cylinder petrol
• Power (engine) 153bhp @ 5,700rpm
• Power (electric motor) 141bhp
• Power (max. combined) 195bhp
• Torque (max. combined) 152 lb ft
• Kerb weight 1,785kg
• Towing capacity 1,500kg (braked) / 750 (unbraked)
• Top speed 112mph
• 0-62mph 9.2sec
• Fuel consumption (NEDC lab test) 54.3mpg (combined)
• CO2 emissions 121g/km
• Road tax £155 for first year; £440 for years 2-6 (attracts £310 charge for cars over £40,000); £130 thereafter
• BIK tax (24mths, 20,000 miles) 25%; £1,989 (20%) or £3,979 (40%)
• Insurance group 32E
• Price F-Sport from £39,995 OTR
• Price with options £41,360 OTR
• Options fitted Azure Blue paint (£645); Protection Pack (£400); Trunk guard (£320)

Test details

• Test period April – October, 2018
• Starting mileage ~750 miles (TBC)

Updates

• June 1, 2018 Introduction to the Lexus NX & driving impressions

 

June 1, 2018: Introduction to the Lexus NX

Well played, Lexus. It — and parent brand Toyota, of course — saw the benefits of petrol-electric hybrid cars and ploughed on with the technology when many car enthusiasts and writers were unrelenting in expressing the view that they are dull and unrewarding to drive.

And now look: diesel sales are plummeting, due to negative press over the nasty nitrogen oxide gases they can pump out, and conventional petrol cars are doomed, too. By 2040, no new cars sold in the UK will be allowed to be powered solely by petrol or diesel; they must all be at least hybrid. Lexus has permission to enter “Smug Mode”, as Red Dwarf’s mechanoid Kryten might say.

If you’re reading this because you’re under the impression that you need to switch to hybrid as soon as possible, though, think again. That 2040 date is a long way off — seven new cars away for some drivers, according to the boss of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.

“Having one sat on your driveway indicates that you’re not at all interested in following the pack”

And punitive measures such as toxicity charges for diesel cars are likely to be localised, so they can still make most sense for anyway doing a lot of motorway driving. And don’t forget, petrol engines are often better than diesel for people who do a mix of town and country motoring.

It has to be said, though, hybrid may well be the way to go for anyone doing a lot of city and suburban driving, especially if a pure-electric car isn’t appropriate (say, if you don’t have off-street parking and a place to install a domestic charging point).

Having driven the Lexus NX 300h for more than a month now, I can tell you I’m averaging over 37mpg, which isn’t bad for a heavy, mid-size SUV — that’s about the same as an equivalent diesel could manage, as we showed in our triple test a couple of weeks back.

So what is the Lexus NX? In a nutshell, it’s the baby sister of the RX crossover SUV, being 26cm shorter and 5cm narrower. It was launched in 2014 along with a rather silly marketing campaign involving will.i.am that saw the musician champion the brand’s “provocative design and technology”.

It was certainly a striking design at the time — all creases and sharp edges — and it’s testament to Lexus’s vision that it has aged well, and that rival car makers have followed its design example in the intervening years.

The NX still looks contemporary but it isn’t nearly as jarring to look at as it once was. In fact, the design has really grown on me, and in the metal the NX looks super — especially in F-Sport with this optional Azure Blue paint, which sparkles gloriously in the sun.

Having a Lexus NX sat on your driveway indicates that you’re not at all interested in following the pack; that you want something different from, and more exclusive than, the Nissan Kumquats and Ford Frugals clogging up the roads outside schools. I’ll go into more details on the exterior and interior design in a later update.

Lexus’s crossover was originally only sold as a hybrid but, since 2015 it’s been available with a 2-litre turbocharged petrol engine, too. The majority of the cars are still the “300h” hybrids as tested here, though, which combine a 2.5-litre petrol engine with one or two electric motors and a high voltage battery to produce a maximum of 195bhp.

Between now and October, I’ll be using it for my daily commute (23 miles each way, from the edge of London into the city centre) and weekend excursions with the family, and reporting back on my findings.

As I’ve already driven the car extensively, I have a lot to say, but will start off with the driving impressions before covering topics such as its appropriateness for families, accessories and options, running costs, bugbears and highlights, at a later date. Bookmark this page and come back for the updates.

Driving impressions

Quite a lot of reviews of the NX are less than flattering about what it feels like to drive. As always, we’re not particularly interested in what the other reviewers have to say; here’s an honest, independent appraisal rather than one pitched at petrolheads.

To understand the feel of the car, it helps if you have a basic knowledge of its mechanics; I’ll try to keep it short and sweet so as not to bore you to death…

Here’s a basic introduction from Lexus to how a hybrid system works:

The NX is slightly more complex in that the electric motor and the petrol engine connected to the front wheels are joined (in all but the entry-level “S” trim) by a second electric motor connected to the rear wheels, making it a four-wheel drive car.

Lexus calls the system “E-Four” because it’s unlike a traditional 4WD, which connects the rear axle to the engine via a prop shaft (a mechanical connection). Instead, the electric motor at the rear only needs an electrical signal via a wire to start turning.

It’s a completely automatic system, so there’s no 4WD button in the cockpit; if you’re on a  slippery surface, the car’s computer brain will decide to reduced power to the front wheels and instead divert it to the motor at the rear.

Lexus says E-Four’s advantage is that it is light and compact, and reduces fuel consumption and emissions over mechanical 4WD systems. Makes sense.

It would have been better to test the car over the winter, when there’s more chance to drive on snow and ice, but I have driven the car in the rain and the NX has remained reassuringly sure-footed at all times, even pushing through corners, and the introduction of power to the rear wheels is imperceptible.

The hybrid system does encourage you to drive as if there’s an egg under the accelerator pedals, though — feathering the throttle makes a big difference to your fuel economy, and avoids the nasty washing machine like whirr from the petrol engine when you do decide to floor it.

There are no gears in the NX — it uses a continuously variable transmission (CVT), which adjusts the speed transfer from the engine to the wheels via a pulley system, like this:

It means you don’t get that steady rise and sudden drop in revs as you accelerate and slip through the cogs, rather a smooth and, yes, continuous rise and fall.

In fact, as the engine is not only powering the wheels but also helping charge the battery, and you can drive on electric power alone at low speeds, the engine can seem to have a mind of its own, as it fires up and whirrs away without reflecting accurately what your right foot is doing.

And herein lies the problem for most car enthusiasts — they want a car to respond in a predictable manner, according to their inputs — they don’t want it to have a mind of its own.

But the Lexus/Toyota hybrid system works the way it does for a reason: fuel efficiency. If that is your chief concern, rather than a crisp, predictable engine note, you’ll get on fine with the Lexus NX.

What you’ll be more concerned about is that, when you do need to put your foot down, the car has a decent turn of pace. The 300h isn’t a sports car but it isn’t a slouch, either, with a 9.2sec time from 0-62mph.

You’ll still get the whining engine note, though. It’s lucky, then, that one of the benefits of buying a Lexus is noise insulation — sound deadening really is superb on the NX.

So that’s performance; what about ride and handling?

Well, this will vary greatly depending on whether you get a standard NX or one with the Lexus Adaptive Variable Suspension, which is included as an option on our NX 300h F-Sport test car and adjusts the damping at each wheel independently as you drive. For the uninitiated, dampers work to stop the springs — and thus the car — from boinging all over the place like a pogo after you hit a bump.

The Lexus AVS system is an active version that monitors the car’s roll, pitch and yaw rate, as well as vehicle speed and steering input, and tries to keep the car stable and comfortable at all speeds and in all conditions.

On the whole, it works very well to keep the car stable but with the drive mode set to Normal, it offers a slightly unpredictable ride, at times being too stiff, such as over potholes, and at other times being a little soft. Under heavy braking, the nose can dip quite dramatically and the rebound can make the car feel like a bit of a wobbly blancmange.

Although a little unpleasant at times, it’s by no means terrible and as you spend most of the time wafting around rather than driving hard, it’s perfectly acceptable. Importantly for commuters and school run trips, over road humps at low speed, the car feels comfortable and composed. You just feel that other car makers have managed to do a better job at getting their active suspension systems to feel right in all conditions, at all times.

Cornering is more consistent, with a decent weight to the steering and body roll kept in check.

Stick it in Sport mode (which changes the digital power dial into a rev counter — very slick), and the powertrain becomes much more responsive and the whole thing stiffens up nicely. last week I pushed it a little bit along some country roads and was wowed at the difference in handling that it makes. I enjoyed it, even.

Of course, it drained the battery in no time and massively impacted fuel efficiency, but it was a lesson that driving a hybrid Lexus SUV doesn’t have to be the joyless, lacklustre experience that some other road testers have suggested.

Next time: why I have already had to make a visit to a Lexus dealer.

• Mileage today ~2,015 miles (TBC)
• Distance since start >1,000 miles (TBC)
• Average consumption 37.2mpg (indicated)

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2018 Toyota Land Cruiser review

THE TRADITIONAL 4×4 has been rather rudely elbowed aside by the modern SUV. Look around and the roads are a sea of high-riding, smooth-looking SUVs with odd-sounding names and drivers that worry about mounting a raised kerb outside the school gates, let alone a wet Welsh hillside in the depths of winter.

One in five new cars sold last year was an SUV. British drivers can’t get enough of them. And since the Land Rover Defender ended production, in early 2016, the choice of hardy, hard-working 4x4s has been limited to pick-up trucks. And the Land Cruiser.

Like the Defender, the Land Cruiser’s roots lie in the wartime. The original model was called BJ, begging the question, were troops ever ordered to perform a full-frontal assault by BJ?

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To impress prospective customers, Toyota had a BJ tackle Mount Fuji. It climbed higher than any vehicle before it and the legend was born.

Today, most drivers choose it because they need a car with serious off-road capability and good towing abilities. The fact it’s a practical, seven-seat family car (with all seats now forward-facing) is a bonus.

Those drivers will probably keep it forever. Toyota offers a five year warranty – two more than Land Rover – and owners often celebrate Land Cruiser ownership in decades rather than years.

For 2018, the car has had a minor facelift. But the changes are largely to move things like the headlight bulbs out of harms way, so they don’t get clobbered by trees and branches, and to raise the lower parts of the bumpers so that the Land Cruiser driver can tackle scarily-steel inclines without having to stop and pick up a bumper that’s been ripped from its mounts.

Inside, some improvements have been made to the dashboard and controls, but climb from the Scandi-chic surroundings of a Volvo XC90 into the plastic-fantastic vibe of the Toyota and you’ll be shocked. It’s all a bit Aiwa tower stereo system, circa 1990.

That said, it has a hose-it-clean feel that probably suits the sort of people who buy one just fine. And there’s full smartphone integration via the Toyota Touch 2 system, which at least gives good functionality even if it looks old-tech on screen.

The five door Land Cruiser will seat seven people in reasonable comfort, if you slide the middle row of seats forward, but with seven seats raised the boot is pathetically small, holding just 120 litres of luggage.

The real shock comes when you drive it. It may well be an improvement over the previous model, but the fact remains that everything about the way this car drives on roads is antiquated. If a modern SUV feels like it’s been to finishing school, the Land Cruiser is a school drop-out.

There’s also a new Kinetic Dynamic Suspension System (KDSS), fitted to Invincible models, which we tried. It is said to manage the front and rear anti-roll bars for better on and off-road performance, suppressing body roll, improving steering response and smoothing out the ride comfort over rough roads. This works in tandem with adaptive dampers, which can be cycled between Normal, Comfort and Sport.

Even so, it still rolls, pitches and dives continually on anything other than a clear main road. Because of this, you tend to drive slowly everywhere.

That’s a good thing. Because the 2.8-litre four-cylinder, turbo diesel engine is hardly the last word in refinement. Toyota says it has improved the car’s levels of cabin noise but truth be told you’ll be reaching for a pair of ear plugs each time you accelerate.

Off-road, it seems to shrug and ask, ‘Is that all you’ve got?’

It’s also leisurely. Rival cars costing more than £50,000 tend to serve up brisk acceleration from smooth six or eight-cylinder diesel motors, but the Toyota takes 12.7 seconds to pass 60mph, and the six-speed automatic gearbox is pretty workmanlike in the way it goes about its business.

Take it off-road, though, and the tough Toyota comes into its own. The Land Cruiser is impressively capable, tackling off-road courses that resemble a bombed-out battlefield with ease.

Climbs, descents, banks and water up to 70cm are all taken comfortably in its stride. It seems to shrug and ask, ‘Is that all you’ve got?’.

There are settings for Snow, Rocks, Mud and Sand and even Moguls – and you can watch the obstacles from the screen in the dashboard, thanks to cameras that offer a 360 view.

Invincible models also have differential locks in both the centre and rear, and with high and low ratio settings for the transmission – operated at the twist of a dial – it’s easy to make progress.

For those who tow, features such as active cruise control, blind-spot monitoring, lane departure warning and a system designed to prevent a trailer swaying from side to side all help keep the car on the straight and narrow.

Sure, there’s a lot that’s dated about the Land Cruiser, especially from the perspective of driving it normally, on the road. But it’s hard not to fall for the car’s charms.

This is the car that farmers buy when they secretly hope that fellow farmers will get stuck in their Land Rover Discovery, and phone them for help. The last action hero, if you like. And long may it continue, warts and all.

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Group Test: Land Rover Defender vs Toyota Land Cruiser and Mitsubishi Shogun

The post 2018 Toyota Land Cruiser review appeared first on Sunday Times Driving.

source https://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/2018-toyota-land-cruiser-review/